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Numerical Investigations on Aerodynamic Design Criteria for Low Speed Mixed

Flow Compressor

Conference Paper · December 2021

DOI: 10.1115/GTINDIA2021-76013

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Chetan Sureshbhai Mistry Hemant Kumar

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 Proceedings of ASME 2021
Gas Turbine India
GTIndia2021
December 2-3, 2021, Virtual, Online

GTINDIA2021-76013
Numerical investigations on aerodynamic design criteria for low speed mixed flow
compressor.

Hemant Kumar1, Chetan S. Mistry2

1,2Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India

performance of each parametric variable, the optimum range of

ABSTRACT design values is exhibited. The numerical observation and
A surge in the small jet engine market due to aero-propulsion analysis done on parametric variations in this paper can be
purposes generates a requirement to develop compact and used for the design of such a future low-speed mixed flow
robust high-performance compressors. Mixed flow compressors compressor for different performance expectations and
can provide a comparatively higher pressure ratio compared to installation requirements.
axial compressors and have less frontal area than centrifugal
compressors. Rapid progress in manufacturing and Keywords: Mixed flow compressor, TurboGrid, Ansys CFX,
computational capabilities has resulted in the successful design Meanline design, cone angle, wrap angle, splitter-blade, tip
of mixed flow compressors in recent decades. clearance, and axial length.
In the present study, the mixed flow compressor was designed
to operate at 3,000 rpm with a small total-to-total pressure NOMENCLATURE
ratio of 1.03 and a mass flow rate = 1.98 kg/s to carry at low- A area
speed testing for university-level research. Meanline design for C absolute velocity
the compressor with air as working fluid was done. The blade H enthalpy
geometry was developed using commercial Ansys® Bladegen m0 mass flow rate
module. The flow domain mesh was generated by the p pressure
TurboGrid module. Ansys CFX was used as a solver and post- r radius
processing tool for the present numerical study. T temperature
The present work describes the detailed design procedure, U rotating speed
overall performance, and flow field features of a low-speed W relative velocity
mixed-flow compressor with the special requirement of axial α absolute angle
flow exit. The parametric analysis was carried out on splitter β relative angle
blade placement, wrap angle (10o, 20o, 30o, and 50o), and exit c ratio of specific heats
cone angle (30o, 40o, 50o, 60o, and 65o), at constant tip v velocity
clearance and keeping the other parameters constant to ρ density
observe their effect on performance and flow structure. The use z blade horizontal length
of splitter blades smoothen the flow structure along both b2 blade height
stream-wise and span-wise direction, which minimizes flow the ω angular velocity
separation issue and thereby helping in extending the overall L.E leading edge
operating range. Comparing the flow field characteristic and T.E trailing edge

1 © 2021 by ASME
 S.S suction surface same exit impeller diameter between radial and mixed flow
P.S pressure surface compressors is shown in figure 1.
M.B main blade
S.B splitter blade
σ slip factor
𝑚° (Tref)1/2/Pref non-dimensional mass flow rate
Tref atmospheric temperature (288K)
Pref atmospheric pressure (101.325KPa)
Φ Flow coefficient
Ψ head coefficient
M Mach number
P.R Pressure ratio Figure 1: Comparison between radial and mixed flow compressor
ηs Efficiency with respect to frontal area [27]
N Number of blades
The design of radial and mixed flow compressors was not
Subscripts
unfolded due to limitations in computational tools, structure
o stagnation limitations and limited experimental data in the past. But in
t total recent years, the development of commercial computation tools
w tangential helps in a better understanding of flow behaviour and detailed
1 impeller inlet flow physics. In near future, the mixed flow compressors will
2 impeller outlet have a wide scope to be used in small gas turbine engines due
4 diffuser inlet to their size and capability to deliver high pressure ratio which
are the essential need.
5 diffuser outlet
In order to develop the mature design of a mixed flow
h hub contour parameter compressor, the need is to develop and test more mixed flow
s shroud contour parameter compressors experimentally. The majority of the work in the
tt total temperature design and analysis of mixed flow compressor was done by
Austin King et al [1]. Casey et al [2] developed a new equation
1. INTRODUCTION for Cordier line in the mixed flow region, which provides a
Compressors used for small range missiles require small guideline for the preliminary design of mixed flow
turbojet or turbofan engines with moderate mass flow rate, compressors.
pressure ratio, and frontal area. The special demand of small Barina [3] performed experiments on two vaneless diffusers for
size aircraft engines should meet the requirements such as mixed flow compressor with different passage curvature rates.
minimum drag, and maximum thrust with wider operating mass Laskin and Kofskey [4], done investigated on the mixed flow
flow rate. So, the size of each component of the aircraft engine compressor with a vaneless diffuser stage. Goldstein [5] first
should be optimized with the frontal area and axial length, documents the design of a mixed flow compressor. Stanitz [6]
especially for the compressor. The axial compressor can handle first give the method and design analysis of 1-D compressible
high mass flow with high efficiency, but to achieve the desired flow analysis in the vaneless diffuser of mixed flow and
high-pressure ratio weight and axial length of the compressor centrifugal compressor considering the friction, area change
are the major challenges. On the other hand, the centrifugal and heat transfer in the passage. Dallenbach [7] presented a
compressor can help in achieving the high-pressure ratio with method to achieve the prescribed impeller blade loading
lower axial length than axial flow compressor but it cannot distribution for the impeller with radial blade elements for
handle large mass flow rate, have low efficiency and have large mixed flow compressor and centrifugal compressor. A
frontal area, which are restriction for aero-engine applications. computer coded design of radial and mixed flow compressor
The mixed flow compressors are one of the options to meet was presented by Wallace [8] et al. Experimental study on the
the requirement of high mass flow rate and pressure ratio with vaneless diffuser for mixed flow machinery was done by Sakai
the less frontal area with higher efficiencies. The use of the [9]. Work done by Wallace and Sakai is very beneficial for
mixed flow compressor in small turbojet or turbofan engines mixed flow compressor design. Zangeneh [10] presented a 3-D
used in small range missile help in solving the problem of inverse blade design for mixed flow and radial turbo-
special requirement as high mass flow rate, moderate pressure machinery. Monig et al [11] experimentally investigated the
ratio. The use of mixed flow compressor instead of the radial rotor design of supersonic mixed flow compressor stage of
compressor can also solve the requirement of a small frontal pressure ratio 5:1. The design steps of mixed flow compressor
area. The approximate comparison of the frontal area with the were presented by Eisenlohr and Benfer[12]. It can be seen that
from 1980 to till now much successful mixed flow compressor

2 © 2021 by ASME
has been made but very few have been found in the open Table 1: Mixed flow compressor design parameters
literature.
Recently S. Ramamurthy et al. [13] presented an impeller tip Parameters Symbol Values
clearance study about the early surging of the compressor with
high tip clearance due to mixing of the main flow and leaking Total temperature inlet T01 298 K
flow from the pressure side to the suction side of the impeller Total pressure inlet P01 102525 Pa
blade. The study states that constant tip clearance is better than
variable tip clearance. It also states that the presence of Mass flow rate mo 1.98 kg/s
recirculation at the inlet, and the jet wake flow at impeller exit
present in radial machines absent in mixed flow compressor. Total Pressure ratio P.R 1.03
The mixed flow compressor yields a total pressure ratio of 4.55 Total Pressure rise ∆P 3000 Pa
with an efficiency of 80% for a mass flow rate of 3.3-3.36 kg/s.
Cevik et al. [14] determine that the mixed flow compressor is Rotational Speed 3000 rpm
better than the centrifugal compressor in a small gas turbine
engine. Xuanyu et al. [15] presented work on blade loading
distribution of mixed flow compressor blade. Concluding the
results, study shows that making the hub blade loading more
makes the compressor performance better due to control over
the flow separation near the hub region and makes it’s more
adaptable to changing the flow passage. Similarly increasing
the frontal tip section loading help in achieving the higher total
pressure ratio. The compressor stage achieves a total pressure
ratio of 2.72, with a mass flow rate of 18 kg/s. Giri et al. [25]
design the mixed flow compressor followed by the diffuse and
an axial stator. The stage achieves a total pressure ratio of 5.2
with an efficiency of 79.1% for a mass flow rate = 1.74 kg/sec.
Based on a detailed literature survey, it was found that there
seems a gap in detailed study pertains to the selection of
various geometrical parameters, for the design of low speed
experimental mixed flow compressor. The present work
addresses the numerical analysis on effect of various design Figure 2: Head coefficient (ψ) vs Flow coefficient (ϕ) for various
parameters for the design of low speed mixed flow compressor. mixed flow compressors designs
This design approach is not in consideration with the
optimization for selection of these parameters. The different “ns-ds” are two important dimensionless parameters used for
impellers were designed for various cone angles, wrap angles, selecting the type of compressor to be useful for a specific
and tip clearance using the inverse iteration design method. The application, which is also very useful for the designer to decide
influences of these design variables on the mixed flow various non-dimensional parameters. ‘ns’ denote the
compressor are numerically investigated. Table 1 shows the dimensionless peripheral speed which is independent of any
design parameters chosen for the study. These parameters will geometric parameters, and ‘ds’ denotes the geometric
be used to develop future university level low speed dimension and independent of peripheral speed. Based on
experimental facility for the mixed flow compressor at selected parameters, the ‘ns-ds’ were calculated and it clearly
Aerospace Department, IIT Kharagpur. indicates the design point is falling in mixed flow compressor
In order to understand the detailed flow field and to utilize the region with the best efficiency as shown in figure 3.
data for high speed facilities [19, 20, 21]. The global Dimensionless Specific Speed ns was calculated using formula,
parameters were selected inline to the existing mixed flow 𝜔√𝑄
𝑛𝑠 = 3 1
compressor bases on a detailed literature survey as shown in (∆ℎ𝑖𝑑 ) ⁄4
figure 2. The non-dimensional parameters selected for plots are
defines as follows: 2𝜋.𝑁 𝑚°
Cm Where, Angular speed 𝜔 =
60
, Volume flow rate 𝑄 =
𝜌01
,
Flow coefficient, ϕ = ⁄U
2t and ∆ℎ = 𝐶𝑝 (𝑇02 − 𝑇01 )
Where Cm = meridional velocity (m/s), U2t = impeller tip speed And the dimensionless specific diameter ds was calculated
(m/s). using formula,
W
Head or pressure coefficient, ψ = p⁄ 2 ⁄
𝐷 (∆ℎ𝑖𝑑 ) 4
3
𝑈2𝑡
𝑑𝑠 = 2
Where Wp = polytropic work, U2t = impeller tip speed (m/s). √𝑄

3 © 2021 by ASME
 Figure 3: ns-ds diagram [27]

2. LOW SPEED MIXED FLOW COMPRESSOR

DESIGN
The design procedure of the mixed flow compressor is as
shown in flow chart figure 4. The design procedure is an
iterative process and demands number of iterations to meet the
expected performance in terms of pressure rise and efficiency.
Hence, observing the influence of various geometrical
parameters on the compressor performance the geometry
parameter will get decided. There is no systematic design
procedure available in the open literature for the design steps
and discussion about the selection of different geometric
parameters for low speed mixed flow compressors. The initial
design calculation of mixed flow compressor was done Figure 4: Flow chat how the design procedure of the mixed flow
following the design methodology discussed for the centrifugal compressor and the flow chart of designing the compressor
impeller
compressor. Then as per the requirement, the geometrical
parameters were altered to meet the expected performance.
The design procedure begins with the known input parameters
and constraints, other parameters were calculated based on
relations available for the centrifugal machine at inlet and axial
machine at exit. The impeller exit can have an inclined cutoff or
inclined parallel shape. For a low speed mixed flow compressor
the base design geometry inclined cutoff impeller shape was
selected at a certain cone angle. The design of a vaneless exit
diffuser is another most challenging part, the target is to achieve
pure axial flow exit with minimum total pressure losses.
2.1 Impeller Meanline Design
A mixed flow compressor was designed for air as a working
fluid [mo = 1.98 kg/s]. The design of the compressor is based on
1D mean streamline analysis. The meridional view of mixed
flow compressor is shown below in figure 5.
The design calculations were done using enthalpy and the Figure 5: Mixed flow compressor design 3-ds model and meanline
design
required total pressure ratio. Stepwise design procedure for
meanline design calculations are given in the flow chart figure 1. Impeller inlet design 2. Impeller exit design
4. The design of mixed flow compressor impeller design has
The detailed design procedure is described in these subsections
been described in two subparts are given below:
given below:

4 © 2021 by ASME
2.1.1 Impeller inlet design Euler equation W = H = UCa (tanα2 − tanα1 ) (7)
The main parameter considered during design at the inlet For (axial velocity) Ca= Constant from hub to tip, α = absolute
of the compressor is relative inlet velocity and hub to shroud
velocity angle.
(tip) radius ratio at the impeller inlet. The present study of low
speed mixed flow compressor design does not need inlet guide
vanes or pre vanes because inlet relative flow velocity is quite Table 2: Calculated parameters at the inlet
low.
It is important to note that the inlet hub to shroud radius ratio Parameters hub mid tip
and relative Mach number is calculated in such a way that the Inlet blade angle (β1) (deg) -16 -36 -54
mass flow rate can be accommodated at the impeller inlet. The
mass flow rate pass through impeller blades also depends upon Incidence angle (i deg) -2 0 2
the impeller inlet hub to shroud blade angle variation. The
variation of blade angle depends upon whether the impeller Inlet absolute velocity (m/s) 36.2 36.2 36.2
blade is designed with or without prewhirl. Impeller inlet can Inlet tangential velocity (m/s) 14.1 27.1 40.3
mainly be designed by using three prewhirl distributions:
1. Free vortex prewhirl distribution Inlet relative velocity (m/s) 38.9 45.22 54.28
2. Force vortex prewhirl distribution
For the present compressor design, the absolute velocity is
3. Constant absolute angle prewhirl distribution
assumed to be axial so the swirl component is assumed to be
zero at the entry. But later based on the number of iteration in
design steps, it was become necessary to take a small swirl
component at the inlet of the compressor which is discussed in
later parts of the paper. The variation of blade angles at the hub,
mid and tip section based on velocity triangle is shown in table
2.

Figure 6: Velocity triangle at inlet and exit of impeller blade

Impeller performance is investigated by Wallace et al [8] using

these prewhirl distributions. From this investigation, it was
observed that force vortex and constant absolute angle prewhirl
distribution results are satisfactory, and free vortex design
results are more undesirable as the free vortex prewhirl
distribution results in highly twisted blades and is not advisable
for blades of small height for such applications of mixed flow
compressor.
Based on the continuity equation the mass flow rate at the inlet,
inlet area and inlet velocity was calculated. The hub diameter
was selected based on the shaft diameter of the rotor which Figure 7: Two different mixed flow compressor configuration
gives the hub to shroud radius ratio in the range of (0.3-0.5)
[27]. The 1-D mean streamline compressor design procedure 2.1.2 Impeller exit design
starts with velocity triangles shown in figure 6. To illustrate the The main requirement of the impeller exit is to accommodate
actual impeller outlet flow, the velocity angle is plotted at some the design mass flow rate and to the achieve desire pressure
exit cone angle. Using the Euler turbomachinery and continuity rise. There are different requirements for geometrical
equation, impeller inlet and outlet velocity triangles were dimensions, for this design the exit diameter was constrained
designed for required total pressure ratio rise and given mass and should not be rise by d2s = 332mm. The mixed flow exit
flow rate. consists of two different configurations shown in figure 7
P
(γ−1) available in the open literature.
(P02 ) γ −1
T02 = T01 (1 + o1
) (3) 1. Parallel cut off impeller exit
ηs
2. Inclined cut off impeller exit
For known impeller exit velocity and rotational speed of
T2 = T02 ⁄(1 + 0.2M 2 2 ) (4) impeller, the exit diameter (r2) was calculated assuming radius
P ratio. Various velocity triangles at the exit of impeller can be
P2 = 02⁄ T (5)
( 02⁄T )(γ⁄(γ−1)) designed for achieving the target outlet pressure conditions. As
2
suggested for centrifugal compressor, inlet shroud radius ratio
ρ02 = P02 ⁄(R. T02 ) (6)
to exit impeller tip (r1s /r2) is in the range of approximately 0.5

5 © 2021 by ASME
to 0.7, (r1h/r1s) hub to shroud ratio in range of 0.3 to 0.5 and 3. Computational study.
blade height to tip radius at impeller exit (b 2/r2) is generally has The data from 1D meanline analysis was used in Bladegen
ranged from 0.2 to 0.04 iterating these values the dimensions of inbuilt module in Ansys ®. Bladegen was used to generate the
the impeller has been decided achieve the expected pressure 3-dimensional geometry of the impeller of the mixed flow
rise. compressor. Inlet is 1 chord-length upstream of impeller
Table 3: Calculated parameters at outlet of mixed flow compressor leading edge to negate the pressure wave effect and outlet is 1-
chord length downstream of impeller trailing edge. Figure 8
Parameters hub mid tip shows the 1-D impeller geometry generated by Bladegen.
Exit Blade backswept angle (deg) 15 16 17 Table 4: Final calculated Designed Impeller blade parameters

Exit Absolute velocity angle (deg) 25 26 27 Parameters Value

Exit Absolute velocity (m/s) 36.24 36.25 36.25 Impeller inlet tip radius r1s 0.1286 m
Exit Tangential velocity (m/s) 46.1 50.1 54.12 Impeller inlet hub radius r1h 0.045 m
Exit Relative velocity (m/s) 58.64 61.84 65.14 Impeller outlet radius r2h 0.150310 m
Impeller outlet radius r2s 0.165547 m
The most challenging part was to decide the number of blades
vanes for mixed flow compressor. The concept of slip factor z (horizontal length of impeller blade) 0.11720 m
used for centrifugal compressor was initially used for selection Numbers of blades 15
of the number of blades for low speed mixed flow compressor.
For present design slip factor (σ) is assumed to be 0.85 and Numbers of splitter blades 15
which was giving number of blades of 13 but the fundamental Slip Factor (σ) 0.85
requirement of 3000Pa pressure rise was not achieved. Based
on number of iterations it was found that the number of blade
of 15 was giving expected pressure rise of 3000 Pa. In later part
of paper the benefits of incorporating the splitter blades are
explored in detail. It was found that selecting 15 main blades
and 15 splitter blades is giving best performance in term of
aerodynamics. More discussion of selection of splitter blade is
mention in section 4.1. Based on initial assumptions, the
calculated geometrical dimensions are mentioned in table 4. In
initial velocity triangle calculation, the absolute velocity across
the rotor impeller is assumed to be same and accordingly, the
initial blade angle and absolute angle was calculated table 3.
Slip Factor calculation from the Stanitz correlation is

0.63.π
σ𝑠 = 1 − N
(8)

Figure 8: 1-d meanline geometry of mixed flow compressor

Cw2
σ𝑠 = (9)
U2 TurboGrid is Ansys® inbuilt module that generates high quality
Based on the initial simulations, flow separation was observed hexahedral meshes for 3-dimensional fluid flow analysis. The
to be significantly high in the rotor flow passage. In order to 3-dimensional geometry of the impeller generated in Bladegen
reduce the separation, the arrangement of shorter length blades is imported to TurboGrid for meshing. The constant tip gap
also known as “Splitter Blades” or “half blades” were height generates a uniform clearance between casing and blade
introduced in the passage between the main impeller blades. An tip, although moving along meridional passage the blade height
increment in blade numbers will increase in guidance of flow at decreases. Tip gap was provided in millimeters and for the
impeller exit but also increase the boundary layer and present study, it was taken as 3mm.
geometric blockage at impeller inlet. There is no work found in Boundary layer mesh distribution was employed by the
the open domain which discusses the placement of splitter software tool by defining the Reynold number of mixed flow
blade in between the main blades in mixed flow compressors. compressor operating at the design point. Cut-off edge to
The present work discusses this aspect with different design boundary layer factor was used to refine the boundary layer. Y+
approaches for the placement of splitter blades. value to 1 was maintained near end wall boundaries to arrest
the boundary layer profile. To capture results more accurately

6 © 2021 by ASME
near casing, special attention was given while selecting total • Interface: Stator and rotor domain are connected by an
elements near the blade shroud region. Completing all interface place. In order to capture the flow physics
necessary tasks, finally, 3D meshes are generated shown in more accurately ‘frozen rotor’ is selected to connect
figure 9. the domains.
Simulations and post-processing on mixed flow compressor
was done in the CFX module. The k-ω model by Wilcox in
1988 (Wilcox, 1988) further modified by Menter into the k-ω
Shear stress model (Menter, 1994). K-ω Shear Stress model
(SST) was chosen for steady state flow simulation in the
compressor, for internal like flow in turbomachinery k-ω is
recommended for more accurate computational analysis
(Pecnik et al., 2012) hence was selected for all simulations.

Figure 10: Boundary conditions

Figure 11: Mesh sensitivity analysis

3.2 Mesh sensitivity

Figure 9: Meshing To assure the results to be independent of mesh size and
number of elements, a mesh independent study was conducted.
Parameter selected for meshing Value The mesh cell size was increased progressively moving from
Reynolds Number. 5*107 coarse (0.23 mil) to fined (1.5 mil) mesh. To examine the
Shroud Tip mesh Method. Match Expansion at Blade capability of mesh to capture accurate results, blade loading at
Tip. 50% spanwise location is exhibited and compared among all
Boundary Layer Refinement Proportional to Mesh Size. the mesh size as shown in figure 11. Near the impeller outlet,
Control Factor. the influence of mesh cell size can be clearly seen (figure 11).
Near Wall Treatment. Y+ Method. Mixed flow compressor impeller outlet region develop highly
Table 5: Meshing parameters complex 3-dimensional flow, which is needed to be capture
accurately. The coarse mesh observed to over predicts the static
3.1 Boundary conditions pressure values at the impeller outlet area. The cell size of the
The boundary conditions for analysing the mixed flow coarse mesh is large compared to fine mesh cell size, due to
compressor are mention below: which it over predict the pressure influence over a wider range.
• Inlet: The total pressure and total temperature at the On the leading edge, P.S small acceleration can be seen. Due to
inlet. The incoming flow is normal to the inlet surface. low pressure rise requirement, the blade loading did not
• Outlet: Mass flow rate at outlet of the impeller. significantly increase from L.E to T.E. The frontal section of
• Wall: Zero velocities at the wall surfaces. the impeller blade is designed to be highly loaded. In low speed
• Rotating wall: Wall is rotating except that it has the mixed flow compressor, high frontal loading section achieves
same wall boundary conditions. higher pressure rise and stabilized at the exit. From mesh

7 © 2021 by ASME
independence study, clearly shows the influence of mesh cell operation range by increasing the inlet impeller area. Increment
size on result accuracy. The author infers to use 1.1 million in number of blades will increase the guidance of flow in
elements mesh for all further numerical analysis in order to be impeller passage but at the same time, it increases the boundary
efficient and mitigate the computational effort and time. layer and hence geometric blockage and skin friction losses.
The proper position and placement of splitter blades L.E should
be selected in a proper systematic way which increases the
expected operation from mixed flow compressor. To achieve, a
numerical tool such as CFD helps in systematic design by
reducing the number of iterations and is time-efficient solution.
For the present study, the low mixed flow compressor without
splitter blade was numerically analysed, significant passage
flow separation and secondary flow mixing losses at impeller
outlet were observed which reduce the overall performance of
rotor as well as diffuser section. To manage the flow in the
impeller and in order to improve the overall performance of
compressor, splitter blades are added. For the design of low
speed mixed flow compressor discussed here, the number of
Figure 12: Streamwise total pressure rise along the stage
splitter blades is taken equal to the number of main blades
number.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION There is no open literature available which helps in identifying
The main objective of designing this low mixed flow the placement of splitter blades in the flow passage of mixed
compressor is to develop the relationship between design flow compressor. In this section, the influence of splitter blade
parameters and pressure rise under design conditions. The placement on overall performance and flow physics are
numerical study was done to examine the effect of change of discussed in detail and this will help in identifying the optimum
geometrical parameters. The total pressure rise in the stagnation location of the splitter blade within the main blade passage
frame is shown in figure 12 which is meeting the design operating at design conditions as shown in figure 13A. The
pressure rise of 3000 Pa. In order to understand the effect of streamwise total pressure rise as a global parameter achieved by
variation of different parameters (wrap angle, cone angle & without, with splitter blades and also the placement of S.B L.E
axial length) on the performance of the compressor and flow at the various meridional location is shown in figure 13B.
field were explored numerically. It can be clearly seen that pressure rise with splitter blades and
Initially, the performance investigation was carried out using shows the improvement in flow uniformity compare to without
550 cone angle, 250 wrap angle and 3mm tip clearance. splitter blade. It is interesting to observe that at all the
Considering mechanical constrains, the tip clearance of 3mm placement of splitter blades give almost the same pressure rise
was provided as representative of typical values for future low- at impeller outlet (figure 13B-1). Another key observation was
speed experimental facility. The streamwise total pressure rise with reducing S.B chord-length the total pressure drop rapidly
along the streamwise direction is shown in figure 12. It clearly just after the impeller outlet. In order to understand various
shows total pressure rise along the rotor is more than that of the splitter blade outlet configurations total pressure as a parameter
design total pressure rise required. But at the same time, it’s is selected as shown in figure 14. The total pressure rise profile
interesting to observe that the total pressure falls along the of with and without splitter blade designs can clearly
diffuser passage which indicates the pressure losses due to flow distinguish for different configurations, this change shows the
separation in vaneless diffuser having complex geometry with reason for total pressure rise discussed in figure 13B-1. For
specially design requirement of axial outflow. Overall it clearly without splitter blade the wider area of exit shows the relatively
shows that at the exit of the stage, total pressure rise of 3025 Pa low pressure from mid-span to the casing.
is achieved as per the design requirement. The merging of passage flow along with the leakage flow
4.1 Splitter blade placement covers a large extent of exit which affect the pressure rise.
For radial machines with an increase in diameter at the exit, the While in the case of the splitter blade the whole exit flow
passage area at the exit will be larger, hence more chances for passage divides into two separate exit passages which are
flow to get separate under an adverse pressure gradient. It is a helping to the improvement of overall flow management. The
common practice to accommodate the shorter length blades placement of the splitter blade within the flow passage with
also known as “Splitter Blades” or “half blades” to introduced different lengths of splitter blades shows the variation in flow
in the passage between the main impeller blades. This adds structure at the exit. It is interesting to observe that the flow
advantages in terms of achieving a higher pressure rise, coming through the passage of the main blades gets split into
uniform flow at impeller outlet and improve overall compressor two different flow domains. The effect of length of S.B clearly
performance. Generally, the splitter blades are used in high indicates the flow region improvement. The low pressure
speed radial and mixed flow compressor to increase the region shifts from main blade towards the adjacent S.B with

8 © 2021 by ASME
 for further analysis, this configuration was selected. To clearly
understand the influence of splitter blades on impeller passage
flow, velocity contour at various spanwise locations (50%,
80%, and 90% span) are depicted and compared along without
splitter blade design (figure 15A). Adding splitter blade seems
to give the blade better control ability on passage flow, the flow
is observed to have more acceleration and minimum secondary
flow formation (figure 15A, A1, B1).
It’s noteworthy to observe that splitter blades homogenise the
A flow near the shroud region. Examining flow at 80% span, the
splitter blade suppresses and minimize the secondary flow
formation in main passage to the maximum extend. The
B acceleration or energy passage flow gained by including splitter
blade help in overcoming the adverse pressure gradient or
boundary layer separation from the blade wall as reduces the
passage flow angle compare to without splitter blade case. It
clearly shows the migration of tip leakage flow in combination
with the wall separation flow combines within the passage at
the exit, thus form the low momentum flow region which acts
as flow blockage. While the placement of S.B just 20%
downstream of the main blade L.E help in flow acceleration
and also suppresses the secondary flow development thus,
minimizing the exit low momentum flow region formation as
shown in figure 15A, B2, B3. Moving towards the shroud
region, boundary layer separated flow interaction with tip
leakage flow to form highly complex near tip area which seems
Figure 13: A.) Various chord-lengths S.B added for analysis B.)
Comparison of total pressure rise without and with for various S.B
to extent up to impeller outlet shown in figure 15A, A4. In case
of splitter blade addition, as observed near 80% span, the near
L.E secondary flow formation is diminished and the extent of
C tip leakage flow dominant only near impeller outlet shown in
figure 15A, B4.
The performance of the diffuser is mainly dependent on the
velocity profile coming out of the impeller outlet, in order to
explain the different loss generations in a diffuser, the velocity
contour with and without S.B at impeller outlet is depicted in
figure 15B. It is clearly seen that with splitter blade case, the
velocity found to be of higher magnitude as compared to
without splitter case and is more uniform along the spanwise
direction. The low velocity fluid extending from mid-span to
casing acting as a secondary loss regime and has a prominent
effect on pressure loss happening in the diffuser section (figure
15B, D1). While the inclusion of splitter blade shows the
improve overall velocity profile at the impeller outlet.
It is interesting to observe the M.B tip leakage flow moves
directly towards the splitter blade SS tip area, develop a low
momentum zone near the casing shown in figure 15B, D2. This
low intensity secondary flow mixes rapidly with incoming main
flow and forms homogeneous flow at the impeller outlet.
Figure 14: Total pressure in stagnation frame at impeller exit
The flow passage area between the main blade and splitter
reduction in the length of the splitter blade and increasing blade plays important role in terms of passage fluid flow
length shows improvement at the exit of the rotor. At the same uniformity. So the study was further extended to understand the
time, tip leakage flow which is the dominant source of effect of placement of splitter blade shifting towards main blade
secondary flow formation gets minimise and hence it shows pressure and suction side as shown in figure 16A. To depict the
improvement in pressure rising capacity. In terms of performance variation due to relocation of splitter blade, the
improvement, the splitter blade with L.E 20% posterior to main total pressure in stagnation frame in streamwise direction is
blade L.E give overall better results among all the designs and plotted as shown in figure 16B.

9 © 2021 by ASME
 A

Figure 16: A.) 2-d view of shifted S.B A.) S.B relocation
performance comparison
B
blades at a streamline. The detailed literature survey pertaining
to the selection of wrap angle shows the wrap angle has a
prominent effect on the performance of mixed compressor.
Based on the literature survey four different wrap angles are
selected and the effect of changing the wrap angle on blade
passage is exhibited in figure 16. The change in wrap angle
changes the flow path geometry and overall length of the
impeller; it clearly shows that increasing the wrap angle
generates the highly twisted blade profile. Secondly, with the
increase in wrap angle, the flow passage overall length which
Figure 15: Velocity contour comparison between without and with
also increases the frictional losses.
splitter blade A.) At 50%, 80%, and 90% span B.) Impeller exit It is well known fact that jet-wake mixing phenomena observed
for radial compressor can be minimized by leaning the blade at
For low speed mixed flow compressor, the effect of shifting of the rotor exit. By changing the wrap angle the blade shape leans
splitter blades has not shown much variation in terms of total at the exit. Wrap angle variation investigation is reported for
pressure rise thus; exit velocity profile variation in the flow special application in high speed radial flow compressor.
field is not discussed in detail here. Most reported numerical analysis available in the open domain
Thus, the inclusion of splitter blade for low speed mixed flow shows the range of wrap angle varies between 20 0 to 600 [28].
compressor exhibits better performance and flow uniformity in For the present work impellers having wrap angles of 10 0, 200,
rotor section which helps in improving the overall performance 300 and 500 were considered for numerical investigation
of the compressor stage so, it was decided for further keeping all other parameters same as mentioned in earlier
parametric study of low speed mixed flow compressor the discussion.
splitter blade L.E at 20% chord-length posterior to M.B L.E The mass average total pressure in the stagnation frame along
will be included in the middle of impeller passage. the streamwise direction for different wrap angles operating at
4.2 Effect of Wrap angle change design conditions is shown in figure 17. It is interesting to
The wrap angle is the angle formed between the radial line notice a significant difference in total pressure rise along
passing through the leading and trailing edge of the impeller streamwise direction among all four cases.

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 Figure 16: Wrap angle effect on blade shape

Figure 17: Comparing mass average total pressure in stagnation

fame along streamwise direction for various wrap angles

For 100 wrap angle, the pressure rise slope is lower compare to
others (figure 17-1), the reason for this is the least curvature
along impeller meridional passage compare to other cases. The
key observation is that wrap angle significantly influence the
impeller outlet pressure rise profile as shown in figure 17-
“region 2”. For 100 wrap angle, the highest pressure rise was
achieved at impeller and diffuser outlet. It is to notice here Figure 18: Effect of wrap angle change
except 100 wrap angle, for all cases have comparatively lower
total pressure loss at impeller outlet. dynamics within the flow passage to get idea of nearly
As discussed earlier the lower wrap angle gives the lower optimum value of wrap angle is required for achieving the best
overall passage length which may be needed for special satisfactory aerodynamic performance.
applications where available axial length is restricting For insight understanding of flow field influenced by wrap
parameter or constrain. While increasing wrap angle the angle, the velocity contour in impeller meridional passage at
curvature and length of the blade increases, which is prone to different spanwise locations (50%, 70%, and 90%) is exhibited
early boundary flow formation and may have boundary layer in figure 18. Increasing the wrap angle increases curvature &
separation within impeller passage. This is more likely to meridional flow passage, and it generates the narrow blade-to-
happen for the compressor having high wrap angle which blade passage. It is interesting to notice that increasing wrap
generate highly twisted blade profile and operating at a lower angle accelerate the flow in impeller passage as shown in figure
speed. Hence, it becomes necessary to understand the flow 18 A1, B1, C1, and D1. Moving from the hub towards mid-

11 © 2021 by ASME
span flow profile found to be similar for all the cases. While at blade and narrowing the blade to blade passage which
50% span (mid-span), the flow acceleration found to be accelerates the flow in impeller passage, reduce the secondary
pronounced with increasing wrap angle in the streamwise and tip leakage flow formation within rotor. Hence, the flow
direction. The flow acceleration helps in reducing the wake found to be more inline and low extent of low velocity fluid is
thickness for both the main and splitter blades as seen in figure observed to form at impeller exit compare to the low wrap
18 A1, B1, C1, and D1. angle. As mentioned earlier, by increasing the (50 0) wrap angle
Moving towards the shroud the prominent difference in passage the impeller blade to blade passage and curvature increases,
secondary flow development can be observed (75% spanwise which is prone to early boundary layer formation on S.S of both
location). For 100 wrap angle, the separated low velocity fluid main and splitter blade. Near impeller outlet boundary layer
extent from S.S to P.S of main and splitter blade respectively separate and combine with tip leakage flow to form low
shown in figure 18, A2. While increasing the wrap angle (200 to momentum zone which expends from mid-span to rotor casing
300) reduces the flow separation and low momentum fluid shown in figure 19, h4, causing high pressure losses.
accumulation in the impeller passage. It is noteworthy to
observe that up-to 75% span negligible boundary layer flow
separation and secondary flow formation was observed for 300
wrap angle case shown in figure 18, C2. The reason for flow
separation is low speed compressor, for low wrap angle (100
and 200) the impeller passage is more diffusive hence low
speed flow become more prone to early boundary layer
separation show in figure 18, A2, and B2. For high wrap angle
(500), the impeller passage is more curved and elongated which
induces higher friction losses and flow separation near the
impeller outlet as shown in figure 18, D2.
To investigate the near shroud region the velocity contour is
depicted at 90% spanwise location. For all the cases, small flow
separation can be seen posterior to main blade L.E, which is
due to highly curved blade profile as shown in figure 18, A3,
B3, C3, and D3. For 100 wrap angle, the uniform velocity
profile is observed between the P.S and S.S of main and splitter
blade respectively. While in adjacent channel, the flow
separation increases eminently and this low velocity flow is
getting mix with tip leakage flow which migrates downstream
to form passage blockage at impeller exit as shown in figure 18,
A4. This justifies the high drop in total pressure for 100 wrap
angle at impeller outlet seen in figure 17-2. Increasing wrap Figure 19: Velocity contour impeller exit for various wrap angles
angle (200, 300), the flow becomes more uniform and stabilized
as shown in figure 18, B4, C4. While further increment in wrap From the numerical investigation, it is observed that by
angle (500), the prominent flow separation is observed to begin increasing the wrap angle up to some range (200 to 300) the low
at impeller exit which combines with tip leakage flow to form speed mixed flow compressor blades have more control ability
low momentum zone at impeller outlet. on passage flow and further increment of wrap angle results in
To predict different loss generations in the diffuser section and increase in secondary flow formation within the impeller
for insight understanding of the velocity profile, the velocity passage as well as extend till outlet. Hence, it is clear that the
contour at impeller exit was analysed shown in figure 19. As low speed mixed flow compressor blade having a wrap angle
discussed earlier that the impeller outlet region is highly between 200 to 300 exhibits better performance.
dominant by the combined effect of tip leakage flow and 4.3 Axial length and Cone angle variation effect
secondary flow and hence it forms complex 3-dimensional flow The exit cone angle is the parameter that determines the
at the exit. For all the cases, a uniform spanwise velocity profile meridional geometric topology of the mixed flow compressor.
is developed at the impeller exit. It is well known that the Based on a detailed literature survey the high speed mixed flow
uniform spanwise velocity tends to mix rapidly and compressor having 600 cone angle exhibits superior duty over
inhomogeneity in the flow vanishes in a short length. As axial and radial compressor operating under the same
discussed 100 wrap angle has a higher diffusive blade to blade conditions [29]. In order to understand the effect of exit cone
passage, thus flow tends to separate due to adverse pressure angle for low speed mixed flow compressor, the numerical
gradient and this low momentum flow combine with main analysis on various geometric meridional topology of the
blade tip leakage flow to form low velocity flow regime at rotor compressor were explored to understand flow field and its
exit extending from 70% to 100 % span shown in figure 19, h1. effect on overall performance under design conditions.
Increasing wrap angle (200 and 300) mainly help in leaning the

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 selected cone angles was observed up to 50% chord-length, and
after which the higher cone angle impellers (50 0, 600 and 650)
have a higher slope of total pressure rise compare to lower cone
angle impeller (300, 400) as shown in figure 21-1, and it’s
mainly due to meridional passage topology change. For cone
angles 650, 600 and 500, pressure peak was observed earlier than
cone angles (300, 400) due to shortening of blade length and
more blade meridional curvature.

Figure 20: 1-d meanline design of various impellers with different

cone angles

Meridional length and cone angle of mixed flow Figure 21: Total pressure rise in various cone angle impeller
compressor are two interconnected variables as can be seen in designs
figure 20. By decreasing the cone angle the impeller chord To understand the overall flow field profiles inside the impeller
length will increase as vice versa. At the same time by passage the velocity contour at various spanwise locations for
decreasing the cone angle the blade curvature will reduce which all the cone angles is shown in figure 22. Increasing the cone
influence the centrifugal force acting on flow which has a direct angle observe to accelerate the flow in impeller passage as
impact on the overall pressure rising capability of the shown in figure 22 A1, B1, C1, and D1, due to higher blade
compressor. Secondly, a decrease of cone angle reduces the curvature and the effect of the centrifugal force component.
early boundary layer separation which helps to improve the The flow in all the cases observed to have a uniform velocity
overall flow field uniformity within impeller passage. While profile at (50% span) mid-span location. By comparing flow
increasing cone angle, the meridional shape inclined more fields at 75% span location, lower cone angles (300, 400) design
towards radial compressor kind of topology and have smaller develops uniform passage flow in impeller section as shown in
impeller passage length. Based on the available literature for figure 22, A2, B2. Increasing cone angle to 600, flow separation
low and high speed mixed flow compressors various cone over S.S of splitter blade is observed, this low velocity fluid
angles (300, 400, 500, 600 and 650) were selected for numerical migrate along the splitter blade surface and develop an
study keeping all the other parameters same earlier discussed to extended wake zone at splitter blade T.E shown in figure 22,
understand the effect of cone angle the main geometric D2. For cone angle 500, and 600, the low velocity flow seems to
parameters. The 1-dimensional meanline design of all impeller largely spread in the circumferential direction in the diffuser
having different cone angles and meridional profiles are shown section while cone angle (300, and 400) exhibits uniform flow.
in figure 20. Analysing the flow regime near the tip exhibit better insight
The mass average total pressure in the stagnation frame in the into the secondary flow development in the flow passage as it
streamwise direction is plotted as shown in figure 21. The has combined effect of kind of flow 3-dimensionality as
design requirement of a total pressure rise of 3000 Pa at the exit mentioned earlier. The low momentum fluid zone is observed
of rotor was achieved by all the cone angles. As expected the to be formed on the main blade S.S near L.E which is acting as
impeller with higher cone angle (500, 600 or 650) achieves high a blockage in flow passage shown in figure 22 A3, B3, C3, and
pressure rise, while the 400 and 300 cone angle exhibits no D3. By increasing the cone angle from 300 to 400 the secondary
considerable drop in total pressure due to flow mixing at flow is observed to be suppressed, but increasing the cone angle
impeller exit as shown in the figure 21-2, 21-3. The lower total from 500 to 600 enhance the secondary flow intensity in the
pressure rise was achieved for low cone angles due to less blade impeller passage as shown in figure 22 A4, B4, C4, and D4. As
curvature and elongated impeller chord-length which induces discussed above, the impeller outlet region develops complex
excessive friction losses but the flow exhibits more uniformity flow, the passage secondary flow strongly interact with tip
in impeller passage. Almost similar total pressure rise in all the leakage flow. Increasing cone angle induces dominant tip-

13 © 2021 by ASME
 flow is dominated by tip leakage flow, passage secondary flow
and higher radial velocity component. The migration of this
flow profile in the diffuser passage which is design for special
requirement of axial outflow further enhance the total pressure
losses as shown in figure 21-3.
Numerically observing and analysing the results, the optimum
range of cone angle is 400 to 500 yields promising results for
such a low speed mixed flow compressor. In this range of cone
angles, the flow is more uniform and significant centrifugal
force component helps in achieving a high total pressure rise in
rotor and comparatively lower total pressure loss in diffuser.

5. CONCLUSION
Based on the parametric analysis carried out on splitter blade
placement, wrap angle, and exit cone angle at constant tip
clearance and keeping the other parameters constant to observe
their effect on performance and flow physics, the following
important conclusions are drawn;
1. This paper provides a basic guideline for design of the
low speed mixed flow compressor. At an early stage, it gives
designers the freedom to choose the design parameter
according to their expected performance and constrains to meet
specific requirements. This study will help mitigate the time
and computational efforts to design such low speed mixed flow
test compressor.
2. Including splitter blade to the low speed mixed flow
compressor eminently enhance the performance. While shifting
splitter blade towards S.S or P.S of M.B have negligible
variation in overall performance under design condition. The
low speed mixed flow compressor design with splitter blade
L.E placed at 20% chord-length posterior to M.B and middle of
blade-to-blade passage found to be more suitable for such
compressors.
3. Increasing the wrap angle increases the blade curvature,
meridional flow passage, and it generates the narrow blade-to-
blade passage which helps in flow acceleration. For 100 wrap
angle, the blade-to-blade passage is highly diffusive, thus flow
tends to separate due to adverse pressure gradient which
increases pressure losses within rotor as well as in diffuser
passage. While increasing the wrap angle (200 and 300) reduces
the flow separation within the impeller passage. For high wrap
Figure 22: Effect of cone angle velocity change
-leakage flow, for 500 and 600 the secondary flow extent over angle (500), the impeller passage is more curved and elongated
the whole circumferential passage and completely blocking the which induces higher friction losses and flow separation near
passage flow near casing figure 22, C4, and D4. the impeller outlet. Hence, the author recommends that the
Observing the diffuser section in figure 21-3 and analyzing the wrap angle between 200 to 300 will be more suitable for such a
flow physics in figure 22, it infer the variation in diffuser low speed mixed flow compressor.
section pressure losses for all the cone angles (300, 400, 500, and 4. The meridional geometrical topology of mixed flow
600). It can be clearly seen that for cone angles 300 and 400 compressor depends upon the selection of exit cone angle. It
illustrate minor pressure losses and the flow is found to be more was found that less total pressure rise was achieved for low
uniform. Comparing 500 to lower (400 or 300) cone angles, cone angle (300) due to less meridional curvature, elongated
higher pressure rise was achieved across the rotor and has impeller chord-length which induces excessive friction losses
fewer pressure losses in the diffusion passage. But for 600or 650 and passage secondary flow formation. By increasing the cone
cone angles the pressure losses are higher in diffuser passage angle from 300 to 400 the secondary flow is observed to be
which significantly depends upon the impeller exit velocity suppressed. Selecting a higher cone angle (500 or 600) induces
profile. For high cone angles (600or above) the impeller outlet severity tip leakage flow and the secondary flow extent over the
whole circumferential passage and it acts like flow blockage

14 © 2021 by ASME
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