Design of radial impellers: A combined extended analytical and numerical method

Abstract

The use of high-speed radial impellers is very common in blowers for industrial application. It is also very common to manufacture these impellers using circular arc blades. The design process as well is almost always based on former impeller series and experimental data available. In this work, a method is presented to improve the efficiency of radial impellers with a combined analytical and numerical method. This method is based on an extended analytical formulation of the flow in radial impellers, allowing optimizing efficiency in the design stage. It is complemented by the mathematical implementation of a well-known qualitative principle of efficiency optimization according to Carnot. Finally, the torque-speed characteristic of the motor is included in the design stage. The blade shapes are computed using an inverse method. The design is then validated by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computation with a commercial solver. Finally, a prototype was built and measurements were carried out in a test rig. It is also shown that the design method provided very good predictions leading to an efficiency increase of 13 per cent and a maximum flowrate increase of 11 per cent. The design point was also met. It is also shown that the numerical computations and measurements are in good agreement. An analysis of the CFD results is also presented, giving an insight view into the substantial flow information within the old and the new impellers. The method presented is a combined analytical and numerical method suited to design high-efficiency radial impellers considering also the torque-speed characteristic of the motor without the need of a previous impeller series or knowledge of experimental data.