A study of impeller-diffuser-volute interaction in a centrifugal fan

Abstract

This paper reports velocity mesurement data in the interaction region between the impeller and diffuser and the results of numerical flow simulation of the whole impeller machine (impeller, vaned diffuser and volute) of a single stage centrifugal fan. Two-dimensional instantaneous velocity measurement is done using particle image velocimetry (PIV). Numerical simulation of impeller-diffuser-volute interaction is performed using CFX-Tascflow commercial code. A frozen rotor simulation model is used for the steady calculation and a rotor-stator simulation model is used for the unsteady calculation using the steady results as all initial guess. The simulation results show that the separated flow regime near the diffuser hub extends to the volute. Comparison between the unsteady computation and those of measurement indicates that the rotor/stator model employed in the simulation predicts essential characteristics of unsteady flow in the centrifugal fan. However, quantitative agreement remains rather poor.