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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Construction - Typical impellers for centrifugal compressors

Construction
10. The construction of the compressor centres around the impeller, diffuser and air intake system. The impeller shaft rotates in ball and roller bearings and is either common to the turbine shaft or split in the centre and connected by a coupling, which is usually designed for ease of detachment. Impellers
11. The impeller consists of a .forged, disc with integral, radially disposed vanes on one or both sides (fig. 3-5) forming convergent passages in conjunction with the compressor casing. The vanes may be swept back, but for ease of manufacture straight radial vanes are usually employed. To ease the air from axial flow in the entry duct on to the rotating impeller, the vanes in the centre of the impeller are curved in the direction of rotation. The curved sections may be integral with the radial vanes or formed separately for easier and more accurate manufacture.Diffusers
12. The diffuser assembly may be an integral part of the compressor casing or a separately attached assembly. In each instance it consists of a number of vanes formed tangential to the impeller. The vane passages are divergent to convert the kinetic energy into pressure energy and the inner edges of the vanes are in line with the direction of the resultant airflow from the impeller (fig. 3-6). The clearance between the impeller and the diffuser is an important factor, as too small a clearance will set up aerodynamic buffeting impulses that could be transferred to the impeller and create an unsteady airflow and vibration.
Fig. 3-6 Airflow at entry to diffuser.
  
Fig. 3-5 Typical impellers for centrifugal
compressors.

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