CHAPTER FIVE

CENTRIFUGAL AND AXIAL

COMPRESSOR
 INTRODUCTION
• Compressors used to increase the pressure of
a gas (compressible fluid)
• Examples
– Increase the pressure for instrument air
systems (to get control valves to operate),
transport gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen,
fuel gas, etc. in a chemical plant
 Types of Compressors
Compressor

Positive
Dynamic
displacement

Rotary
Axial Centrifugal

Reciprocating
 Positive Displacement Compressors:
Rotary type
• Rotary compressors (get their name from the
rotating motion of the transfer element)
compress gases with lobes, screws, and vanes
into smaller volumes.
• 4 Primary Types of Rotary Compressors:
– Rotary Screw
– Sliding Vane
– Lobe
– Liquid Ring
 Rotary Screw Compressors
• Commonly used in industry.
• It operates with 2 helical rotors that rotate toward each
other, causing the teeth to mesh.
• As the left rotor turns clockwise, the right rotor rotates
counterclockwise. This forces the gases to become
trapped in the central cavity.
• The 2 rotors are attached to a drive shaft and drive that
provide energy to operate the compressor.
• Have an inlet suction line and outlet discharge port.
Rotary Screw Compressor
 Sliding Vane Compressors
• Uses a slightly off-center rotor with sliding vanes to
compress gas.
• Inlet gas flows into the vanes when they are fully
extended and form the largest pocket. As the vanes
turn toward the discharge port, the gases are
compressed.
• As the volume decreases, the pressure increases
until maximum compression is achieved. Then the
gas is discharged out the compressor.
Sliding Vane Compressor
 Lobe Compressors
• Characterized by 2 kidney-bean shaped
impellers used to trap and transfer gases.
• The 2 impellers move in opposite directions on
parallel mounted shafts as the lobes sweep
across the suction port.
• Compressed gases are released into the
discharge line.
• The lobes do not touch each other. A few
thousands of an inch clearing exists between
the casing and lobes.
 Lobe Compressor
• Designed to have constant
volume discharge
pressures and constant
speed drivers.
• Lobe Compressors can be
used as compressors or
vacuum pumps
 Liquid Ring Compressors
• It has one moving transfer element and a casing
that is filled with water or seal liquid.
• As the rotor turns, the fluid is centrifugally forced
to the outer wall of the elliptical casing. An air
pocket is formed in the center of the casing.
• As the liquid ring compressor rotates, a small % of
the liquid escapes out the discharge port. Make
up water or seal liquid is added to the compressor
during operation. The liquid helps cool the
compressed gases.
 Liquid Ring Compressors

• Used to compress hazardous and toxic gases as

well as hot gases.
 Positive Displacement Reciprocating
Compressors
• Most common type of compressors.
• Work by trapping and compressing specific
volumes of gas between a piston and a cylinder
wall.
• The back and forth motion incorporated by a
reciprocating compressor pulls gas in on the
suction (or intake) stroke and discharges it on the
other.
• Spring-loaded suction and discharge valves
open/close automatically as the piston moves up
and down in the cylinder chamber.
 Positive Displacement Reciprocating
Compressors
• Basic Parts of PDRC are:
– Piston
– Connecting Rod
– Crankshaft
– Driver
– Piston Rings
– Suction Line
– Discharge Line
– Spring -Loaded Suction and Discharge Valves
Positive Displacement:Reciprocating
Compressors

• Can have 1 to 4 cylinders. One shown only has

one cylinder.
 Mulitstage Compressors

• Discharge from Stage 1 is suction for Stage 2.

 Centrifugal Compressors
• Centrifugal compressors accelerates the
velocity of the gases (increases kinetic
energy) which is then converted into
pressure as the gas flow leaves the volute
and enters the discharge pipe.
• Usually operate at speeds > 3,000 rpm.
• Deliver much higher flow rates than
positive displacement compressors.
 Centrifugal Compressors
• 2 Types of Centrifugal Compressors
– Single- Stage : Compress the gas once
• Use for high gas flow rates, low discharge
pressures
– Multi- Stage : Take the discharge of one stage
and pass it to the suction of another stage
• Use for high gas flow rates, high discharge
pressures
Centrifugal Compressor
 Axial Compressor
• Composed of a rotor that has rows of fan like
blades.
• In industry, axial compressors are used a lot high
flows and pressures are needed.
• Gas flow is moves along the shaft.
• Rotating blades attached to a shaft push gases
over stationary blades called stators.
• Stator blades are attached to the casing.
Axial Compressor
 Dynamic Compressors
Classes and comparisons between Centrifugal and Axial
compressors
Function Centrifugal Axial
Engine type Small engine Large engine
Mass flow rate < 15 kg/s Very large (> 100 kg/s)
Efficiency Low 86-87 % High 94 %
# of stages small large
Pressure ratio per stage High (5-7) Low (<1.5)
Pressure loss High for more than Low, thus allow using
one stage many stages
Fixing and easy Not easy
manufacturing
Cost Cheap, wider Very expensive
operating range
 5.1 Centrifugal Compressors

A centrifugal compressor is a radial flow rotodynamic fluid machine

that uses mostly air as the working fluid and utilizes the mechanical
energy imparted to the machine from outside to increase the total
internal energy of the fluid mainly in the form of increased static
pressure head.
 Centrifugal Compressors

 Air is sucked into the impeller eye and whirled

outwards at high speed by the impeller disk.
 At any point in the flow of air through the impeller the
centripetal acceleration is obtained by a pressure head
so that the static pressure of the air increases from
the eye to the tip of the impeller.
 The remainder of the static pressure rise is obtained in
the diffuser, where the very high velocity of air leaving
the impeller tip is reduced to almost the velocity with
which the air enters the impeller eye.
 Centrifugal Compressors
Before further discussions following points are worth
mentioning for a centrifugal compresssor.

I. The pressure rise per stage is high and the volume

flow rate tends to be low. The pressure rise per
stage is generally limited to 4:1 for smooth operations.
II. Blade geometry is relatively simple and small foreign
material does not affect much on operational
characteristics.
III. Centrifugal impellers have lower efficiency compared
to axial impellers and when used in aircraft engine
it increases frontal area and thus drag. Multistaging is
also difficult to achieve in case of centrifugal machines.
 Centrifugal Compressors

Principle of Operation

Centrifugal compressors consist of stationary casing

containing

a. Rotating impeller (imparts a high velocity of air),

b. Fixed diverging passage (The air is decelerated with rise

in static pressure).

c. Impeller may be single or double-sided

A centrifugal compressor essentially consists of
three components.
1. A stationary casing
2. A rotating impeller as shown in Fig. 5.1 which
imparts a high velocity to the air. The impeller may
be single or double sided, but the fundamental
theory is same for both.
3. A diffuser consisting of a number of fixed diverging
passages in which the air is decelerated with a
consequent rise in static pressure.
 Work done and pressure rise
Since no work is done on the air in the diffuser, the energy absorbed
by the compressor will be determined by the conditions of the air at
the inlet and outlet of the impeller.
At the first instance, it is assumed that the air enters the impeller eye
in the axial direction, so that the initial angular momentum of the air
is zero.
The axial portion of the vanes must be curved so that the air can pass
smoothly into the eye. The angle which the leading edge of a vane
makes with the tangential direction, α, will be given by the direction
of the relative velocity of the air at inlet, Vr1 , as shown in Fig. 5.2.
The air leaves the impeller tip with an absolute velocity of V2 that will
have a tangential or whirl component Vu2.Under ideal conditions,
V2, would be such that the whirl component is equal to the impeller
speed U2 at the tip. Since air enters the impeller in axial direction,
Vu1=0.
 Work done and pressure rise of CC
Under the situation of Vu1=0 and Vw2= U2, and the
energy transfer per unit mass of air as:
2
E U2
Because of slip, we obtain Vw2 <U2 . The slip factor σ is defined in the
similar way as done in the case of a centrifugal pump as

The value of σ lies between 0.9 to 0.92. The energy transfer per unit
mass in case of slip becomes

One of the widely used expressions for σ was suggested by Stanitz

from the solution of potential flow through impeller passages. It is
given by
, where n is the number of vanes.
 Work done and pressure rise of CC
Power Input Factor:
The power input factor takes into account of the effect of disk friction,
windage, etc. for which a little more power has to be supplied than
required by the theoretical expression. Considering all these losses,
the actual work done (or energy input) on the air per unit mass
becomes

where Ψ is the power input factor. From steady flow energy equation
and in consideration of air as an ideal gas, one can write for adiabatic
work w per unit mass of air flow as

Where T01 and T02 are the stagnation temperatures at inlet and
outlet of the impeller, and is the mean specific heat over the entire
temperature range; and work done can write as follows:
 Work done and pressure rise of CC
The stagnation temperature represents the total energy held by a
fluid. Since no energy is added in the diffuser, the stagnation
temperature rise across the impeller must be equal to that across
the whole compressor. If the stagnation temperature at the outlet
of the diffuser is designated by T03, then T03=T02 .

The overall stagnation pressure ratio can be written as

and

where, T03s and T03 are the stagnation temperatures at the end of an ideal (isentropic)
and actual process of compression respectively .
 …cont’d
And the isentropic efficiency defined as:

Since the stagnation temperature at the

outlet of impeller is same as that at the
outlet of the diffuser one can also
write T02 in place of T03. Typical values of
the power input factor lie in the region of
1.035 to 1.04.
If we know we will be able to calculate
the stagnation pressure rise for a given
impeller speed. The variation in
stagnation pressure ratio across the
impeller with the impeller speed. For Figure 5.3: Ideal and actual processes of
common materials, U2 is limited to 450 compression on T-s plane
m/s.
 …cont’d
The relative velocity at the eye tip has to be held low otherwise the Mach
umber (based on ) given by

will be too high causing shock losses. Mach number should be in the range of
0.7-0.9.
 Losses in a Centrifugal Compressor
The losses in a centrifugal compressor are almost of the same types as those
in a centrifugal pump. However, the following features are to be noted.
Frictional losses:
A major portion of the losses is due to fluid friction in stationary and rotating
blade passages. Therefore the frictional losses are due to both skin friction
and boundary layer separation. The losses depend on the friction factor,
length of the flow passage and square of the fluid velocity.
Incidence losses:
During the off-design conditions, the direction of relative velocity of fluid at
inlet does not match with the inlet blade angle and therefore fluid cannot
enter the blade passage smoothly by gliding along the blade surface.
 …cont’d
The loss in energy that takes place because of this is known as
incidence loss. This is sometimes referred to as shock losses.
However, the word shock in this context should not be confused with
the aerodynamic sense of shock which is a sudden discontinuity in
fluid properties and flow parameters that arises when a supersonic
flow decelerates to a subsonic one.
Clearance and leakage losses:
Certain minimum clearances are necessary between the impeller
shaft and the casing and between the outlet periphery of the impeller
eye and the casing. The leakage of gas through the shaft clearance is
minimized by employing glands. The clearance losses depend upon
the impeller diameter and the static pressure at the impeller tip. A
larger diameter of impeller is necessary for a higher peripheral speed
and it is very difficult in the situation to provide sealing between the
casing and the impeller eye tip.
The leakage losses comprise a small fraction of the total loss. The
incidence losses attain the minimum value at the designed mass
flow rate.
 Diffuser
The basic purpose of a compressor is to deliver air at high
pressure required for burning fuel in a combustion chamber
so that the burnt products of combustion at high pressure
and temperature are used in turbines or propelling nozzles
(in case of an aircraft engine) to develop mechanical
power.
The problem of designing an efficient combustion
chamber is eased if velocity of the air entering the
combustion chamber is as low as possible. It is
necessary, therefore to design the diffuser so that only
a small part of the stagnation temperature at the
compressor outlet corresponds to kinetic energy.
…cont’d
 Centrifugal Compressors
Example 4.1
• The following data are suggested as a basis for the design
of a single-sided centrifugal compressor:
• Power input factor = =1.04
• Slip factor  = 0.9
• Rotational speed, N= 290 rev/s
Determine the
• Overall diameter of impeller, D=0.5m
pressure ratio of
the compressor
• Eye tip diameter=2re=De=0.3m
and the power
• Eye root diameter, D1=2r1=0.15m
required to drive it
• Air mass flow, m=9 kg/s
assuming that the
• Inlet stagnation temperature To1= 295
velocity of the air
• Inlet stagnation pressure Po1 = 1.1 bar
at inlet is axial.
• Isentropic efficiency, c=0.78
 Solution
(a) impeller tip speed
U   r2  2 *  * N * r2   DN

U    0 . 5  290  455 . 5 m / s
Temperature equivalent of the work done on unit mass flow of air, is
U 2 1.04  0.9  455.5 2
To3  To1   3
 193K
cp 1.005  10

p o3   c (To3  To1 )   1  0.78  193  3.5
 1    1    4.23
p o1  To1   295 

Power required
.
 m c p (To  To )  9  1 .005  193  1746 kW
3 1
5.2 Axial Flow Compressors
 …cont’d
• The basic components of an axial flow compressor are a
rotor and stator.
• The stationary blades convert the kinetic energy of the fluid
into pressure energy, and also redirect the flow into an angle
suitable for entry to the next row of moving blades.
• Each stage will consist of one rotor row followed by a stator
row, but it is usual to provide a row of so called inlet guide
vanes. This is an additional stator row upstream of the first
stage in the compressor and serves to direct the axially
approaching flow correctly into the first row of rotating blades.
For a compressor, a row of rotor blades followed by a row of
stator blades is called a stage.
• Two forms of rotor have been taken up, namely drum type and disk type. The
disk type is used where consideration of low weight is most important.
Disk type axial flow compressor
 …cont’d
• In an axial compressor, the flow rate tends to be high
and pressure rise per stage is low. It also maintains
fairly high efficiency.

• The basic principle of acceleration of the working fluid,

followed by diffusion to convert acquired kinetic
energy into a pressure rise, is applied in the axial
compressor. The flow is considered as occurring in a
tangential plane at the mean blade height where the
blade peripheral velocity is U .
• This two dimensional approach means that in general the flow
velocity will have two components, one axial and one peripheral.
 Axial Flow Compressors
Comparison of typical forms of turbine and
compressor rotor blades
…cont’d
 …cont’d
Two basic equations follow immediately from the geometry
of the velocity triangles. These are:

In which Vf1=Vf2=Vf is the axial velocity, assumed constant through

the stage. The work done per unit mass or specific work input, w
being given by

This expression can be put in terms of the axial velocity and air
angles to give
or
 …cont’d

This input energy will be absorbed usefully in raising the pressure and
velocity of the air. A part of it will be spent in overcoming various
frictional losses. Regardless of the losses, the input will reveal itself as
a rise in the stagnation temperature of the air ΔT0. If the absolute
velocity of the air leaving the stage V3 is made equal to that at the
entry V1. the stagnation temperature rise ΔT0 will also be the static
temperature rise of the stage, ΔTs , so that
 …cont’d
The application of an isentropic efficiency to the resulting
temperature rise will yield the equivalent isentropic temperature rise
from which the stage pressure ratio may be calculated. Thus, the
actual stage temperature rise is given by

And the pressure ratio (Rs) by:

where, T01 is the inlet stagnation temperature and s is the

stage isentropic efficiency
 Expression for degree of reaction
for axial flow compressor
Degree of reaction is defined as a measure of static enthalpy rise that
occurs in the rotor expressed as a percentage of the total static
enthalpy across the rotor.
…cont’d