INVESTIGATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF THE COMPRESSOR’S PROPELLER IN GAS MICROTURBINES USING CFX SOFTWARE

Abstract

Nowadays, rotating equipment accounts for a considerable part of the industry worldwide. It can be asserted that the industry cannot keep on striving without rotating equipment. Considering the importance of rotating equipment’s use, the present study tries to investigate a centrifugal compressor. Optimization of the industrial equipment for higher output and lower energy consumption has drawn the attention of a lot of researchers in today’s world. The compressor used in the present study has a rotor made of two blade types, namely small and large blades. These blades have been alternatively installed on the rotor. The length of the blades’ airfoil leading edge was changed in three sections in order to investigate the resulting effect. At first, the length of the small blades and then the large blades’ leading edges were changed; eventually, the length of all the blades’ leading edges was changed. The modeling results indicated that the lengthening of the leading edge of all the blades exerts an adverse effect on the compressor’s performance for it intensively increases the vibratory and shear forces imposed on the rotor and stator. The important result of the study is the positive effect of lengthening the leading edge of the rotor’s small blades.