Stall Development in a Ported Shroud Compressor using PIV Measurements and Large Eddy Simulation

Surge is a phenomenon that limits the operational range of the compressor at low mass flow rates. The objective of this research is to study effective operational range for a ported shroud compressor. The size of the compressor is typical for a turbocharger used on diesel engines. To be able to extend the operational range, the surge characteristics have to be assessed. This is done by performing measurement of the flow at the inlet to the compressor wheel and pressure fluctuations at the inlet and outlet of the compressor housing. Detailed numerical computations of the flow in the entire compressor section under similar operating conditions have also been carried out.

The experimental work includes Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) measurements of the instantaneous and mean velocity field at the inlet. At surge, low frequency pulsations are detected that seem to result from back flow already observed in stall. The numerical computations include details of the flow by having good spatial and temporal resolution and using Large Eddy Simulations (LES) to account for the turbulence. LES is most suitable for the surge flow since it resolves the large scale structures, such as flow separation and reversed flow, which characterize surge.