• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.1 s.34
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• pp.9-18
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• 2006

In the range of very low specific speed ($n_s<0.25$, non-dimensional), the performance of a centrifugal pump is much different from that of a centrifugal pump of normal ns and the efficiency of the pump drops rapidly with the decrease of $n_s$. In order to examine the reason of unstable performance characteristics of the very low $n_s$- centrifugal pump, the internal flow of the pump with a semi-open impeller is measured by a PTV(Particle Tracking Velocimetry) system. The purpose of this study is to make clear the internal flow characteristics and to obtain basic knowledge of the pump performance. The results show that the leakage flow through tip clearance give a strong effect on the flow pattern of impeller passage. A large vortex in the impeller passage and a strong reverse flow at impeller outlet are formed in the range of small flow rates, and the vortex and the reverse flow together reduce the absolute tangential velocity at the impeller outlet and cause the performance instability.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.2 s.233
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• pp.239-246
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• 2005

A rotor dynamic analysis is implemented to confirm the vibration stability of the high speed centrifugal chiller coupled with gear system. As the rotating speed of the centrifugal chiller under investigation is increased up to 17605rpm at the pinion rotating part, the bearing instability is getting higher and, furthermore, the rotor-bearing system might experience a few critical speed which lead to system failure due to the excessive vibration. In this study, considering the loading capacity and stability conditions, offset journal bearings are adopted for the pinion rotating system and general cylindrical bearings are used for motor part. From the modal analysis, the system is found to be stable as the critical damping ratio which shows the damping characteristics of the system are positive over all operating ranges, and in addition, the synchronous rotating frequency does not come across with any whirl natural frequency. From these results the authors confirm the vibration stability of the rotor-bearing system suggested in this study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.193-198
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• 2003

A rotor dynamic analysis is implemented to confirm the vibration stability of the high speed centrifugal chiller coupled with gear system. As the rotating speed of the centrifugal chiller under investigated is increased up to 17,605 rpm at the pinion rotating part, the bearing instability is getting higher and, furthermore, the rotor-bearing system might experience a few critical speed which lead to system failure due to the excessive vibration. In this study, considering the loading capacity and stability conditions, offset journal bearings are adopted for the pinion rotating system and general cylindrical bearing are used for motor part. From the modal analysis, the system is found to be stable as the synchronous rotating frequency does not come across with any whirl natural frequency and, in addition, the critical damping ratio which shows the damping characteristics of the system are positive over the all operating ranges. From these results the authors confirm the vibration stability of the rotor-bearing system suggested in this study.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.5 no.1 s.14
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• pp.42-48
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• 2002

In this study, the instability of a centrifugal compressor with vaned diffuser was investigated. During unstable operation of the test compressor, pressure fluctuations at different diffuser radius ratios were measured by using high frequency pressure transducers. Two different types of stall, mild and deep stalls, were observed alternately and irregularly at some flow rates where the compressor performance was steeply deteriorated. In this transient zone, the size of rotating stall cell was estimated through the wavelet transform analysis. It was about 45 percents of rotor circumferential space at 300 rpm and not dependent on flow rate.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.99-105
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• 2001

In this study, the instability of a centrifugal compressor with vaned diffuser was investigated. During unstable operation of the test compressor, pressure fluctuations at different diffuser radius ratios were measured by using high frequency pressure transducers. Two different types of stall, mild and deep stall, were observed alternately and irregularly at some flow rate where the compressor performance was steeply deteriorated. In this transient zone, the size of rotating stall cell was estimated through the Wavelet transform analysis. It was about 45 percents of rotor circumferential space at 3000 rpm and not dependent on flow rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.368-373
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• 2001

A major concern on high-energy centrifugal pump is the potential for interaction of two-phase flow phenomena with mechanical response of the pumping elements. The other concern is the pressure pulsations created from trailing edge of the impeller blade and flow separation and recirculation at partial load in centrifugal pumps. These interactions generating between rotor and casing cause dynamic pulsation on pump and exciting pipeline vibration. The higher severity responses, the more lead to failure of pump and system components. Finally, it cause severe axial vibration of single stage pump due to the hydraulic instability in flow condition below BEP.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.3639-3648
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• 1996

The effect of 15% pinched diffuser in a centrifugal air compressor with a cascade airfoil diffuser on the aerodynamic performance is investigated using a numerical approach. The commercial CFD code for three-dimensional, turbulent, compressible flow fields is executed for various mass flow rates at a design speed which can be obtained as long as the calculation succeeds. The pinched diffuser is found to help improve the instability of flow within vaneless diffuser space, especially the reverse flow near shroud, and to change both stall/surge line and choking line to increase the surge margin. It is also found to generate more favorable increase of static pressure in diffuser region, and to increase the resulting pressure ratio and efficiency.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 2001

In this paper, the thermal effects on the performance of floating ring journal bearing are investigated theoretically. The numerical analyses include pressure drop at inner film due to a centrifugal force, fluid momentum effects of supply oil into inner film and thermal effects in lubricating films. All performance data are presented as the rotating speed of journal from 10,000 rpm to 70,000 rpm.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.235-244
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• 2010

Recent studies on the moment whirl due to leakage flow in the back shroud clearance of hydro-turbine runners or centrifugal pump impellers are summarized. First, destabilizing effect of leakage flow is discussed for lateral vibrations using simplified models. Then it is extended to the case of whirling motion of an overhung rotor and the criterion for the instability is obtained. The fluid moment caused by a leakage clearance flow between a rotating disk and a stationary casing was obtained by model tests under whirling and precession motion of the disk. It is shown that the whirl moment always destabilizes the whirl motion of the overhung rotor while the precession moment destabilizes the precession only when the precession speed is less than half the rotor speed. Then vibration analyses considering both whirl and precession are made by using the hydrodynamic moments determined by the model tests. For larger overhung rotors, the whirl moment is more important and cause whirl instability at all rotor speed. On the other hand, for smaller overhung rotors, the precession moment is more important and cancels the destabilizing effect of the whirl moment.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.33-46
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• 2011

Concave surface boundary-layer flows are subjected to centrifugal instability which results in the formation of streamwise counter-rotating vortices. Such boundary layer flows have been experimentally investigated on concave surfaces of 1 m and 2 m radius of curvature. In the experiments, to obtain uniform vortex wavelengths, thin perturbation wires placed upstream and perpendicular to the concave surface leading edge, were used to pre-set the wavelengths. Velocity contours were obtained from hot-wire anemometer velocity measurements. The most amplified vortex wavelengths can be pre-set by the spanwise spacing of the thin wires and the free-stream velocity. The velocity contours on the cross-sectional planes at several streamwise locations show the growth and breakdown of the vortices. Three different vortex growth regions can be identified. The occurrence of a secondary instability mode is also shown as mushroom-like structures as a consequence of the non-linear growth of the streamwise vortices. Wall shear stress measurements on concave surface of 1 m radius of curvature reveal that the spanwise-averaged wall shear stress increases well beyond the flat plate boundary layer values. By pre-setting much larger or much smaller vortex wavelength than the most amplified one, the splitting or merging of the streamwise vortices will respectively occur.