NUMERICAL STUD Y ON THE PERFORMANCE OF

CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR IN THE COMBINED

DIESEL-BRAYTON C YCLE ENGINE

Yuzhi Jin1, Yangjun zhani*, Kaisheng Huani, Weilin Zhug/

1 State Key Laboratory of Automo!ive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
' yjzhang@tsinghua.edu.en

Keywords: Internal Combustion Engine, Gas Turbine, bines have high power density and excellent startability in
Compound Engine, Compressor, Air Suction. low temperature conditions. As a result, gas turbines have
wide application on electricity generation, aviation fields
Abstract and marine fields. However, gas turbines need to improve
the fuel efficiency and widen high efficiency working
The combined Diesel-Brayton cycle engine which com­ range, because operating range of vehicles is quite differ­
bines gas turbine and diesel engine has high power density ent from the range of marine application and aircrafts.
and good startability under the low temperature conditions. The combined Diesel-Brayton cycle engine, as shown
And the fuel consumption is reduced under subpower in Figure 1, combines a diesel engine and a gas turbine.

conditions by switching operating mode. High pressure air The combined engine consists of following parts: com­
after compressor needs to be taken out for diesel engine. pressors, turbines, a power turbine, gas turbine combus­
The influence of large-mass-flow bleed to the perfor­ tion chamber, diesel engine chamber and valves which
mance of the centrifugal compressor was studied. The control the mode switching. The combined engine has
present paper is the fundamental for designing the com­ three operating modes: Diesel Mode, Gas Turbine Mode
bined Diesel-Brayton cycle engine. The performance and and Compound Mode.
three-dimension flow field of the centrifugal compressor With Diesel Mode, Compressor II, the diesel engine
were investigated by simulation in the present paper. The chamber and Turbine II operate as a conventional turbo­
simulation was carried out by NUMECA Fine Turbo. charging diesel engine. With Diesel Mode, the combined
Each passage had one suction hole between two vaned engine can work in subpower conditions to reduce fuel
diffusers. Two ways of releasing compressed air were consumption. With Gas Turbine Mode, Compressor I, the
designed, and suction holes in both schemes were squares. gas turbine combustion chamber, Turbine II and the power
Holes in scheme A were at upstream of diffuser blades turbine operate as a conventional gas turbine. With Gas
and holes in scheme B were at upstream of passage. The Turbine Mode, the engine can start in cold environment
numerical results show that pressure ratio decreases very quickly. With Compound Mode, every part in Figure
1.66% in scheme A and 1.49% in scheme B when bleed­ 1 except for Compressor II or Turbine II operates. As a
ing 10% air. And the efficiency of the compressor de­ result, the gas turbine operates in the air bleeding condi­
creases about 1% in both schemes. The range of mass tion and the diesel engine operates in the high power den­
flow is almost the same. sity condition. Because the pressure of the intake air pro­
vided by Compressor I is higher than conventional turbo­
charging system. With Compound Mode, the engine can
1 Introduction
produce the highest power. By switching the operating
Vehicle diesel engines with high power density have been
vigorously investigated in the past several decades. The
power density and fuel efficiency have been improved by
optimizing ignition strategies, utilizing turbochargers and
new combustion concepts. However, the results are still
quite limited and not satisfactory enough. MT890 diesel
engines developed by MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH have
the highest power comparing with other vehicle diesel
engines, as the power can be 92 kW per liter [I], however
it is still not sufficient for trucks and marine applications.
In addition, the startability in low temperature conditions
of the conventional diesel engine needs improving sub­
stantially, as it takes more than 40 minutes for a conven­
tional diesel engine to start in the environment under -40
degrees Celsius. Comparing with diesel engines, gas tur-
Figure 1. Schematic of the combined Diesel-Brayton cycle en­
'
Corresponding author. gine.
mode, the combined engine has advantages of high power
density, low fuel consumption and excellent startability in
low temperature conditions. And two valves and control
system are able to switch the operating mode of the com­
bined engine according to varied needs. In addition, the
power turbine is able to produce electricity for other ac­
cessones.
Under Compound Mode, some high pressure air from
the outlet of the Compressor I needs to be taken out to the
intake manifold of diesel engine. The present paper inves­
tigated how large-mass-flow air bleed affected the per­
formance of the centrifugal compressor.
In aviation fields, air bleeding from compressor is wide­
ly used to control temperature inside cabins and cooling of
high pressure turbines. Improper design of air bleeding
results in larger losses and lower efficiency [2]. Regular
air bleeding mass flow in aircraft engines is 3% - 5%, but
it has significant influence on the performance of the en­
gine, because reduced air results in reducing fuel injection
and engine power [3].
Qinfang Wang, etc. investigated the bleed characteris­
tics of TA-6 gas turbine engine [4]. The researchers did
experiments with TA-6 gas turbine engine and kept rela­
tive speed 97%. By controlling the bleeding valve, bleed
air mass flow changed. The results show that the variation
of pressure ratio of the compressor is less than 5% in a
relative bleed air range of 9% - 22%.
Steven and Michal investigated the influence of the lo­
cation of air bleeding hole and mass flow [5]. The results
show that different locations of the bleeding hole have
different influence to the velocity distribution. In the case
of stator row, the air bleeding in the middle of the blades
has positive influence to the performance.
Leishman, etc. [6] investigated the influence of air
bleeding hole shape. By experiments and three dimen­
sional simulation, the researchers compared the pressure
and losses with different shapes. The results show that
there is a trade-off relationship between maximum of
bleeding pressure and minimum of losses.
Previous researches mostly focus on the impact of air
bleeding to axial compressor, because most aircraft gas
turbine engines are composed of axial compressors. How­
ever, in the present work, a centrifugal compressor with
two rows of diffusor is utilized in the combined Diesel­
Brayton cycle engine. It is essential to investigate how
large-mass-flow air bleeding affects the performance of
the centrifugal compressor. The air bleeding influences
the matching of the compressor and the turbine, and has
impact on the control system of the combined engine.
2 Simulation Methodology
2.1 Original Compressor
To investigate the effects of air bleeding numerically, the
finite-volume based Navier-Stokes solver FINE Turbo by
NUMECA International was applied. There are 13 rotor
main blades and 13 rotor splitter blades. First row of dif­
fusers has 18 blades and second row has 48, as shown in
Figure 2 and Table 1. The complete compressor, including
Figure 2. Original centrifugal compressor (meridional).
Table 1. Properties of the compressor.
Parameter Quantity
Rotation speed 55900 rpm
Pressure ratio 4.6
Mass flow 1.8 kg/s
Main blade number 13
Splitter blade number 13
First row stator number 18
Second row stator number 48
the inlet duct, first row of diffuser and second row of dif­
fuser, was meshed and computed. The rotor/stator interac­
tion face was computed by averaging the flow properties
at the interface.
A portion of the mesh is shown in Figure 3. Because of
the symmetry, only one passage of every blade row needs
to be meshed and computed. The mesh of the passage
consists of 979724 cells. The present work used RANS
equation and the turbulence model is the Spalart-Allmaras
model.
2.2 Air Bleeding Scheme
The present paper investigated the influence of two pa­
rameters: the location of the bleeding hole and the bleed­
ing mass flow. In the case of centrifugal compressor with
axial vaned diffusers, the most appropriate location of the
air bleeding hole is between the first row of diffusers and
the second row of diffusers. However, the exact location
of the air bleeding hole still needs simulation to determine.
The authors selected two locations to bleed high pressure
air and utilized full non-matching boundary to connect the
bleeding duct and original passages.
2.2.1 Scheme A
According to the air bleeding scheme A, bleeding holes
are at the upstream of every second row stator blade, as
shown in Figure 4. The shapes of all holes are square. The
first row of diffusers is centrifugal and the second row is
axial. The air bleeding ducts are at the axial part. In the
present work, the number of bleeding ducts is equal to the
number of blades of second row diffusers. Because of the
 will change. To estimate the performance, especially the
pressure ratio of the original compressor, five characteris­
tic curves of the compressor was computed. The rotation
speeds of the curves are 40000 rpm, 45000 rpm, 50000
rpm, 55000 rpm and 60000 rpm. The characteristic curves
are shown in Figure 6.
Figure 7 shows the efficiency of the compressor. To es­
timate the efficiency, four rotation speeds are simulated,
which are 45000 rpm, 50000 rpm, 55000 rpm, 60000 rpm.

Figure 3. Schematic of domain mesh.

�
Figure 5. Bleeding hole location in scheme B.

�
4.5
--<}- 60000rpm
4 --+- 55000rpm
--0- 50000rpm

3.5 ""':'-45000rpm
.Q

:
--- 40000rpm
� 3

Figure 4. Bleeding hole location in scheme A.

1 2

periodicity, only one passage of the compressor needs 1.5

simulation.
6 .5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2
2.2.2 Scheme B mass flow(kg/s)

According to the air bleeding scheme B, bleeding holes

Figure 6. Original characteristic curves (pressure ratio).
are at the upstream of every passage of second row of
diffusors, as shown in Figure 5. The shapes of all holes
are square. The location of the holes in scheme B is the 100

same with the location in scheme A in axial direction.

However, the circumferential location is different. 80

I:: -4-G�l
3 Simulation Results

3.1 Original Compressor Simulation

--+- 55000rpm
In this subsection, the original compressor without bleed­ 20 --0- 50000rpm
ing was computed to compare with the performance with ""':'-45000rpm
bleeding. The pressure ratio of the design operation condi­
tion of this centrifugal compressor is 3.4. With large­ 85 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 175 2
mass flow(kg/s)
mass-flow air bleeding at the second row of diffusors, we
want to determine how the performance of the compressor Figure 7. Original characteristic curves (efficiency).
3.2 Simulation of Compressor with Bleeding
The normal operating speed of the centrifugal compressor
is between 55000 rpm and 60000 rpm. And the mass flow
is between 1.25 kg/s to 1.5 kg/so However, this is the op­
erating condition without bleeding. When there is air
bleeding at the diffuser, there will be less oxygen in the
gas turbine combustion chamber. As a result, there will be
less fuel injected into the chamber and less power output.
With less power and lower rotation speed of the turbine,
the operating condition of the compressor will trend to
lower pressure ratio and less mass flow.
By considering the compressor and turbine as a whole
package, when air bleeding exists, the rotation speed of
axle will decrease. So the operating condition which was
simulated in this paper was determined to be 50000 rpm
and air mass flow was 1.25 kg/so In the situation of air
bleeding, there are two kinds of outlets, one is regular
outlet of diffusers and the other is the outlet of air bleed­
ing ducts. As the mass flow of the two kinds of outlets can
change separately, we maintain the inlet mass flow at 1.25
kg/s and the sum of two kinds of outlets at 1.25 kg/�. �n
this way, one singular point of the original charactenstlc
curve will expand to a line which consists of the perfor­
mance and the bleeding mass flow.
To estimate the performance of a conventional com­
pressor, pressure ratio is simply defmed by ratio of t�e
.
outlet pressure and the inlet pressure. However, In thIs
paper, the centrifugal compressor has two kinds of outlets.
The pressure ratio has two definitions, original pressure
.. 1 and corrected pressure ratio 1['corrected'
ratio 1[*ongma
1[
*original
=
With the increase of the bleeding mass flow, inlet mass
flow maintained 1.25 kg/so The yellow markers in Figure
8 are corresponding to the corrected pressure ratio and red
ones responding to the original pressure ratio. As the
original pressure ratio is larger than corrected pressure
ratio, the pressure of outlet of air bleeding duct is lower
than the pressure of outlet of diffusers. However, the
bleeding air enters the chamber of the diesel engine, the
pressure ratio higher than 2.6 is sufficient for diesel en­
gines. In the result of one dimensional simulation of the
combined Diesel-Brayton cycle engine, it is sufficient for
the diesel engine with 10% - 15% air bleeding.
The simulation result of pressure ratio of scheme B is
shown as Figure 9. The red markers are corresponding to
the original pressure ratio. Comparing with scheme A, the
decrease of the pressure ratio of scheme B is much less,
especially the original pressure ratio. As a result, the per­
formances of the gas turbine combustion chamber and
turbine will be better in the case of scheme B. However,
the corrected pressure ratios for both schemes are closer
which represents that the performances of the centrifugal
compressor for both schemes are at the same level.
Figure 10 shows the original pressure ratios of two
schemes. When the air bleeding mass flow is less than 5%,
two pressure ratios of different schemes are approximate
the other. With the increase of bleeding air, the difference
increases. When the air bleeding mass flow is 20%, the
difference of pressure ratios is 0.05.
Figure 11 shows the efficiencies of two schemes. The
definition of efficiency is the same with the conventional
one. Within all range of air bleeding, the efficiency of
, scheme B is higher than scheme A. With the air bleeding
Poutlet
-*- ( 1)
Pinlet

....... original pressure ratio

-o-corrected pressure ratio
* * 2.7
Pbleed X mbleed + Pmain X
m
main
1[
*corrected * ( ) (2) o

Pinlet X
m
bleed + mmain � 2.7
�
'"
::J

These two pressure ratios estimate different types of the ::l 2.65
performance of the compressor. 1[,original estimate show the 5.

operating conditions of gas turbine combustion chamber 2.6

and turbine will change. And 1[*corrected estimates the per­

2 55
formance of the compressor. 0 5 10 15 20
air bleed(%)
The simulation result of pressure ratio of scheme A is
shown as Figure 8. Figure 9. Pressure ratio of scheme B.

....o
... riginal pressure ratio
--O--corrected pressure ratio
2.7
2.7
o
o
� 2.7
�
�
2.7
:::> �
'"
(fJ ::J
� 2.65
::l 2.65
5. 5.
2.6 2.6

5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20
air bleed(%) air bleed(%)

Figure 8. Pressure ratio of scheme A. Figure 10. Comparison of the original pressure ratio.
 Table 2. Operating conditions of scheme B.
64
--+-scheme A Air Rotation Inlet Bleeding Outlet
-o-scheme B bleeding speed mass flow mass tlow mass tlow
63 (%) (rpm) (kg/s) (kg/s) (kg/s)

10 50000 l.00 0.90 0. 10

10 50000 l.l0 0.99 0. 1 1

10 50000 1.20 1.08 0. 12

61
10 50000 1.30 1. 17 0. 13

10 50000 1.40 1.26 0. 14

5 10 15 20
air bleed(%)
Figure 11. Comparison of the efficiency.
mass flow increases, the efficiency difference increases,
up to 1.5%. For both schemes, the characteristic lines
show that the efficiency is linearly proportional to the air
bleeding mass flow. The bleeding mass flow of 20% re­
duces the efficiency by 2.3% in the case of scheme A and
reduces the efficiency by 0.7% in the case of scheme B.
The efficiency losses of this magnitude is acceptable for
the combined engine. However, the diesel engine needs
around 10% - 15% air mass flow of centrifugal compres­
sor under design operating condition. The maximum power
output of gas turbine combustion chamber and turbine is
limited by 85% of the original power output.
The above discussion about the performance of the gas
turbine chamber and turbine is based on steady operating
condition of the combined engine. In the case of certain
transient operating conditions, such as start condition and
accelerating condition. Besides the performance of the
compressor, the distribution of the air between gas turbine
chamber and diesel engine chamber is the most important
object in the combined engine. The lack of air with either
chamber will lead to deteriorate combustion and unsteady
operating condition.
The analysis of the three dimensional velocity lines of
the flow field showed that there is no effect of air bleeding
duct at 80% blade height. The analysis also shows that
there is much separation at the inlet of air bleeding duct.
In additional, the separation and the increase of entropy of
scheme B is less than scheme A. The simulation perform­
ance of the compressor also revealed the same result.
The analysis of the entropy increases, pressure ratios
and efficiencies of both schemes, it is evident that the per­
formance of scheme B is better than scheme A.
Besides the pressure ratio and efficiency, another im­
portant performance parameter of compressor is operating
range. To estimate the operating range of the compressor
with air bleeding, the air bleeding mass flow was main­
tained at 10%. Detailed data is shown in Table 2.
The minimum mass flow of the operating range of
original compressor without bleeding is 1.004 kg/so With
air bleeding, the minimum mass flow is between 1.000
kg/s and 1.005 kg/so It can be concluded that the operating
range is independent of the air bleeding. This part of work
only simulated operating conditions with the air bleeding
ratio of 10%.
4 Conclusions
• According to the simulation results of the compressor,
the losses of pressure ratio and efficiency are accept­
able for combined engine. By means of matching the
turbines and the compressor and optimizing the con­
trol system, the combined Diesel-Brayton engine is
able to achieve the designing purposes.
• The performance of the centrifugal compressor de­
creases when the air bleeding mass flow increases,
and the pressure ratio and the efficiency are linearly
proportional to the bleeding mass flow. The present
work simulated up to 20% of the bleeding mass flow
and the results agree with the experiments proceeded
by other researchers [4].
• The authors selected two locations of the air bleeding
ducts and compared the simulation results of two
schemes. The results reveal that the scheme B is bet­
ter than scheme A, both pressure ratio and efficiency
of the compressor.
• In the case of 10% air bleeding, it is not apparent that
the air bleeding will reduce the operating range of the
compressor.
Acknowledgements
Jin Yuzhi gratefully acknowledges associate professor
Zheng Xinqian of Tsinghua University for his suggestions
and help on the work of the present paper.
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http://dx.doi.orgIl0. 1 1 151l.2752192