THREE DIMENSIONAL MULTI-OBJECTIVE DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR IMPELLER

A method for centrifugal compressor impeller’s multi-objective design optimization was developed. The method was applied to a tested twelve radial bladed centrifugal compressor impeller, available in the open literature, as a test case characterized by three-dimensional viscous turbulent flow structure. The optimization target was to maximize the total-to-total adiabatic efficiency, and pressure ratio of the impeller at the design point, considering constant mass flow rate, rotational speed, and nearly constant torque. The aerodynamic analysis was performed using (CFX BladeGen) commercial software. This software solves the three-dimensional turbulent Navier-Stokes flow equations, with zero-equation turbulence model using finite volume method. The capabilities of the software were first validated by comparing the computed results with, an experimental data made by Mizuki [10, 11]. In this experimental work, yaw probes distributed along the impeller channel, were used to determine total and static pressures for hub and shroud. GAlib software was used to apply Genetic algorithm for handling of the optimization problem. The optimal impeller configuration, which corresponds to maximum efficiency, and maximum pressure ratio, keeping the same mass flow rate and rpm, was obtained with only 0.7% violation of the original torque value. A comparison between original and optimized impellers was made, which revealed the causes for efficiency and pressure ratio improvements.