École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

ME-401 : Mechanical engineering project 1

Blade thickness

Author : J. Gasser

Supervisors : G. Iovanna, I. Soukhmane

Professor : J. Schiffman

Abstract: ...

February 29, 2024

LIST OF FIGURES

Contents

List of Figures 1

1 Introduction 2

2 Methodology 4

3 Flow Simulation and results 4

4 Analysis 4

5 Conclusion 4

6 Appendix 5

List of Figures

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1 INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction
Turbomachinery plays an essential role in multiple industrial sectors, from power generation to
transport and aviation. While the subject has been discovered and used for decades and can be consid-
ered well developed, it is still subject to constant researches for amelioration. In particular, centrifugal
compressors are one of the principal elements of turbomachinery that is ongoing intensive study. They
are used in a broad range of applications, with domestic heat pumps, turbochargers, refrigeration or gas
turbines as a few examples. Compressors can be very large machines, used for example in jet engines,
but a particular focus has been put towards smaller scales, designed in particular for decentralized
energy conversion, and at the center of this study. The downscaling implies technical difficulties and
a loss of efficiency, explaining the intensive research on the subject. Indeed, an important parameter
to account for when designing a centrifugal compressor impeller is the tip clearance. The latter must
be reduced as much as possible in order to obtain the highest performances [1], which is increasingly
difficult to accomplish with smaller scale compressors.

The feasibility of small scale centrifugal compressors has been studied and proven multiple times.
In 2004 already, Kang et al. [2] designed in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and manufac-
tured a 12mm diameter impeller. Although the experimentation was only done at a reduced speed
of about 400’000 rpm, the results matched with the CFD simulations. The paper also shed light on
the importance of bearings for small scale impellers, reaching very high rotating speeds. Two years
later, Isomura et al. [3] also verified the feasibility of a small scale compressor following a similar
methodology. They found that a 10mm diameter impeller, rotating at more than 800’000 rpm could
suffice to generate 100W with a gas turbine, using high performance hydroinertia gas bearings. The
thickness of the blades of experimental setup was of only 1mm, and the tip clearance of 75µm. In 2009,
Schiffman and Favrat [4] designed a 20mm radial compressor reaching a power of 1800W at 210’000
rpm, and the impeller isentropic efficiency attained 79%.

While the feasibility of small scale turbomachinery has been proven, the performances can still
be increased, notably through an optimised design. The conception of radial compressors or turbines
starts with the 0D design, based on dimension analysis and giving information on a first few parameters
such as tip diameter. This is followed by the 1D design, using mean-line flow model to indentify the 1D
geometry, with parameters such as hub and shroud radius at the inlet, tip clearance and others. The
3D design, which is the most computationally expensive process, then follows, using CFD simulations
to optimise and model the last parameters of the impeller such as blade angle distribution or hub and
shroud profile. All the parameters found in these stages have an impact on the impeller performance.

Multiple studies focusing on the optimisation of one or multiple parameters of centrifugal impellers
have been published in the past years. In 2012, Xu and Amano [5] proposed an improved design of
the meridional profile, with a vertical inlet and a curved outlet, allowing for a higher efficiency and
a broader operating range. While this paper concerns 1D geometry (reduced to the inlet and outlet
of the impeller), others have looked into 3D parameters. Mojaddam [6] compared the performance
of an impeller with conventional circular profiles at both the hub and shroud to 3 different elliptic
profiles. He showed that, under certain flow rate conditions, an elliptic profile can be advantageous,
and, in particular, that a too sharp slope near the diffusion inlet is a major source of losses. Atac
et al. [7] performed an optimisation of the β-angle distribution at the hub and at the shroud of a
micro-scale centrifugal compressor. The process results in an almost unchanged angle distribution on
the hub side, but significant changes on the shroud side. This leads to a lower Mach number and a
reduced static entropy in the shroud region, increasing the overall efficiency by 1.8%. In 2022, Châtel
and Verstraete [8] also made an optimisation of the SRV2 radial compressor, using 44 design parame-
ters such as meridional coordinates, β-angle distribution, location of splitter blades and others. They

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1 INTRODUCTION

found that the optimised impeller, while having almost unchanged meridional profile, has different
blade curvatures and shorter splitter blades - a result confirmed by Omidi et al. [9] - resulting in
a increased performance. However, they state that the improved machine results in higher stresses,
which may not be sustainable. Hosseinimaab [10] performed a similar analysis to show that the hub
and shroud profile and the β-angle distribution can be controlled together, not only to increase the
impeller efficiency, but also in order to increase the pressure ratio by almost 30%, and so to increase
the overall efficiency of the gas turbine by more than 13%.

Other scientists have turned their focus on blade shapes. Fu et al. [11] studied 4 different blade
profiles and showed that a blade camber line that turns to the negative rotating direction, results in
higher performances. Mosdzien et al. [12] compared the performances of optimised and baseline blade
designs. They found that both a positive lean in the tip region of the blade and a positive curvature
at the impeller outlet lead to the decrease of secondary flows and thus a more homogeneous exit flow,
resulting in an increase of efficiency of 1.76%. Zeng et al. [13] showed that a positive lean of the blade
at the impeller outlet increases the efficiency by 1.4% and contributes to lower pressure fluctuation
levels. Drozdov and Galerkin [14] focused on the lean angle at the trailing edge of the blade and
found that the optimal value changes between high flow rate, where a negative lean of 20° is best,
and medium flow rate where zero lean is better. Overall, multiple studies have found various results
showing that the different angles of the blades can impact the impeller performance.

Another parameter that has been considered and redesigned is the shape of the blade at the trailing
edge. In 2015, Wu et al. [15] showed that a rounded edge on the suction side leads to a more uniform
flow near the trailing edge section, allowing for better mixed flow pump performances. Later, Gao et
al. [16] concluded to a similar result, stating that an elliptic profile of the trailing edge on both the
suction and the pressure sides increases the efficiency. Sarah et al. [17] evaluated the performances
of a squealed blade tip, showing that the blade shape can be controlled to improve turbomachinery
performances. However, knowing that the blade thickness of small scale impellers ranges from 0.2mm
to 0.7mm, it is evident that performing such precise manufacturing at the trailing edge of blades be-
comes complicated.

The blade thickness, which will be the focus point in this study, has also been a studied parameter.
It is generally considered that increasing the thickness of the blade will result in higher pressure
fluctuations and thus in lower impeller performances [18]. However, Verstraete et al.[19] performed a
multidisciplinary optimization on blade thickness and other parameters, and found that, keeping the
shroud thickness constant and increasing the hub thickness does not affect efficiency significantly and
allows for better stress resistance. Xu et al. [20], and Ji et al. [21], showed that increasing the thickness
up to a certain value has almost no impact on the impeller’s efficiency, but, crossing a critical thickness
value leads to important drops. Xu et al. also found that a varying thickness along the blade - in this
case, thicker at the trailing edge - can improve the performances compared to constant thickness. This
last result was also obtained by Chang et al. [22]. These results tend to show that the blade thickness
could have an optimal value, where both efficiency and stress resistance are high. However, they were
found for larger scale impellers, and the same results are not necessary expected for very thin, 0.2mm
to 0.7mm thick blades. In this study, the efficiency and the stress behaviour of a small scale impeller,
designed with different blade thicknesses will assessed.

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5 CONCLUSION

2 Methodology
3 Flow Simulation and results
4 Analysis
5 Conclusion

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6 APPENDIX

6 Appendix

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REFERENCES

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REFERENCES

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