NUMERICAL STUDY OF NON-UNIFORM TIP CLEARANCE EFFECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE AND FLOW FIELD IN A CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the influences of various non-uniform tip clearances on the performance and flow field in a centrifugal compressor. Numerical simulations were conducted for three centrifugal compressor impellers in which the tip clearance height varied linearly from the leading edge to the trailing edge. The numerical result was compared with the experimental data for validation. Although the performance improved for low tip clearances, a smaller tip clearance at the trailing edge reduced the overall tip leakage flow more effectively than a smaller tip clearance at the leading edge. Therefore, a smaller tip clearance at the trailing edge lowered the mixing loss caused by interactions between the tip leakage flow and the main passage flow.