Aerodynamic Flow Characteristics Inducing Centrifugal Compressor Noise Generation in High-speed Turbomachinery

Centrifugal compressor is a device that converts kinetic energy to increase the air pressure. It rotates at a high speed of up to 200,000 RPM and directly affects aerodynamic noise. Various studies have already been conducted, but the direct calculation method of acoustics based on the unsteady solution is inefficient because it requires a lot of resources and time. Therefore, flow characteristics and numerical comparison according to various aerodynamic factors predicted as a cause of noise generation were analyzed in this study based on the steady solution. High-frequency noise was calculated locally near the asymmetric flow properties. Vortex and turbulent kinetic energy were generated at similar locations. Among static components, a large-sized vortex of 3.48×107 s-1 was distributed at the location where the rotational flow around the compressor wheel combined with the inlet suction flow. In addition, a locally high vortex of 8.16×105 s-1 was distributed around the balancing cutting configurations that cause asymmetric flow characteristics. Analysis of these factors and causes that directly affect noise can be efficiently improved in the pre-design stage. Therefore, the efficient design methodology for centrifugal compressors that considers both performance and noise is expected based on the results of this study.