Swirl Brake Design for Improved Rotordynamic Vibration Stability Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics System Level Modeling

The accurate characterization of compressor rotordynamic coefficients during the design phase reduces the risk of subsynchronous vibration problems occurring in the field. Although rotordynamists extensively investigate discrete compressor components (such as seals and front shrouds) to tackle instability issues, integrated or system-level analysis of compressor rotordynamics is very sparse. In reality, the impeller, eye-labyrinth seal, and the front shroud heavily influence one another; and the collective dynamic behavior of the system differs from the sum of the dynamic behavior of isolated components. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based approach is taken to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the system as a whole. The geometry and operating conditions in this work are based on the recent experimental study of Song et al. (2019, “Non-Axisymmetric Flows and Rotordynamic Forces in an Eccentric Shrouded Centrifugal Compressor—Part 1: Measurement,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 141(11), p. 111014. 10.1115/1.4044874) on centrifugal compressor. The commercial CFD code cfx 19.0 is used to resolve Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations to quantify the eye-labyrinth seal and front cavity stiffness, damping, and added mass. The entire compressor stage is modeled to uncover the coupled behavior of the components and assess the stability of the whole system instead of just discrete components. In the current work, three CFD approaches, namely quasi-steady, transient static eccentricity, and transient mesh deformation techniques are studied and benchmarked against analytical and experimental results from the literature. Having established the efficacy of the proposed approach, four types of swirl brakes are proposed and analyzed for stability. The novel swirl brakes create negative swirls at the brake cavities and stabilize both the front shroud and the eye-labyrinth seal simultaneously.