Theoretical, Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the Effect of Inlet Blade Angle on the Performance of Regenerative Blowers

Abstract

Regenerative machines allow high heads at small flow rates and present performance curves with very stable features. This research includes a study of the effect of four inlet flow angles (90°, 115°, 125° and 135°) of the blade at outlet flow angle of 90° on the performance of regenerative blower at rotation speed of 3000 rpm and at different flow rates. Investigation and comparison of the experimental results with both one-dimensional theoretical model and numerical CFD technique using CFX-ANSYS 16.1 are done. The numerical CFD analysis show that the flow enters the impeller from the blade side (about 65% of the blade side area) and leaves from the blade tip and blade side (the remaining 35% from the blade side area). According to this observation, a mathematical model that is based on momentum exchange theory to handle one inlet angle and two exit angles for the regenerative blower impeller blades is proposed. Consequently, the experimental work is carried out by two steps. The first step is done by studying the effect of inlet blade angle of 90° and analyzing the results by using the CFD analysis. The CFD results show shock losses and vortices behind each blade at the inlet flow regions. To reduce these losses, an increase of the inlet blade angle in a range between 25° to 45° is proposed. The second step is the splitting of this angle range to three inlet blade angles of 115°, 125° and 135° in order to study and analyze the CFD results for these angels. The CFD analysis shows the disappearance of the shock losses and vortices that are formed behind the blade of angle 90°. The experimental results show that the pressure head and the efficiency depend strongly on the blade inlet and outlet flow angles as well as on the blade geometry. The results also show that the best blower performance can be obtained at an inlet flow angle of 125°, and this is confirmed by CFD simulation analysis. Finally, it is shown that the proposed one-dimensional model yield results that are in a good agreement with the experimental results.