Investigation of a

Centrifugal compressor MWE

Compressor Performance Map

Introduction 5.50
MWE@70k

S-MWE@70k

Diesel engines are limited by the 5.00

Test@70k

turbocharger’s ability to provide higher 4.50

MWE@90k

boost levels over a wide range of engine 4.00

S-MWE@90k

Pressure Ratio (Tot-tot)

speeds. Turbocharger compressor flow 3.50
Test@90k

MWE@103.5k

range improvements are required to meet S-MWE@103.5k

the demand of reduced exhaust gas 3.00

Test@103.5k

emissions, particularly where exhaust gas 2.50

recirculation is employed. The map width 2.00

enhancement (MWE) is a bleed slot on the

shroud surface of impeller casing which
1.50

improves the flow range . 1.00

20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0 110.0 120.0
0.5
Mass Flow Parameter (M*T /P)

Fig. 3: Compressor map for the base MWE model

Aims
A numerical and experimental investigation
of 3 geometrical parameters of the bleed
slot (shown by the red circle in Fig. 2) with
the aim of understanding the interaction
between the impeller passage flow, the flow
in the bleed slot and the mixing of the
recirculated flow at impeller inlet as flow
goes towards surge.
Results
Fig. 4 shows some of the flow passing
through the bleed slot which then mixes
with the main flow upstream of the
impeller. The mixing of these flows
produces negative pre-swirl (swirl which
rotates in the same direction as the
impeller). Fig. 5 shows this pre-swirl

Bleed
slot

Impeller
Pre-swirl

Fig. 4: Velocity vector Fig. 5: Pre-swirl in flow

Fig. 1: Compressor mesh Fig. 2: Cross-section
highlighting the bleed
slot
Method
The compressor and bleed slots are
meshed using a commercial computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) package Ansys ICEM
CFD . 6 new bleed slots are to be modelled
and then manufactured for testing.
plot on XY plane upstream of impeller
Discussion
As the mass flow was decreased from
0.34kg/s down to 0.24kg/s the pressure
ratio increased. The effect of this on the
bleed flow is that the bleed mass flow rate
increases and the pre-swirl occurs further
upstream of the impeller

Owen Doyle