Study of unsteady shear flow near stall in a shrouded supercritical carbon dioxide centrifugal compressor

Abstract

This study investigates the unsteady shear flow patterns and their relation with the aerodynamic instability of a shrouded supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) centrifugal compressor impeller using the dynamic mode decomposition method combined with detached eddy simulation. The results demonstrate that discrete shedding vortex array in the blade tip region is the dominant mode of the SCO2 shrouded centrifugal compressor impeller, with a frequency of 0.5 times the blade passing frequency. In contrast, the main flow structures in the identical impeller using ideal air consist of small-scale shedding vortices near the suction surface and the separated secondary flow. Further analysis of flow field details indicates that the shedding vortex structure inside the shrouded centrifugal impeller originates from the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability generated on the shear interface between the mainstream and the recirculation flow. The greater shear intensity within the SCO2 centrifugal impeller is the reason for the evident occurrence of vortex shedding phenomena in its flow field. Additionally, during the transition from near-stall to stall, vortex pairing phenomena happens at the throat of the centrifugal impeller due to evolutional behaviors of the vortexes. The occurrence of vortex pairing leads to faster blockage of the blade tip region and then the secondary flow spillage over to adjacent passage, ultimately resulting in reverse flow in the blade tip region and extensive blockage at the impeller inlet. The unsteady shear flow evolution clearly demonstrates the processes of stall in SCO2 shrouded impellers.