A Review of Rotating Stall in Vaneless Diffuser of Centrifugal Compressor

Abstract

At present, off-design centrifugal compressor suffers from great instabilities, such as rotating stall and surge, which lead to work failure, strong pressure fluctuations, and violent vibrations of the entire system. One cause of these instabilities is the rotating stall occurring in vaneless diffuser. In this review, recent researches on rotating stall of vaneless diffuser in centrifugal compressor are reviewed, and its inductive mechanism and characteristic description are emphatically introduced. In vaneless diffuser, the rotating stall starts up and fully develops under non-design conditions with the characteristic of increasing pressure fluctuation amplitude. The negative effects of rotating stall include reverse flow and vortex, both of which have significant effects on the instability of centrifugal compressors. Some improvement methods of rotating stall are also introduced, and a lot of examples are given. Finally, some suggestions and discussions are put forward for the future work.