The decrease in the performance of centrifugal compressors operating at low Reynolds numbers (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles at high altitudes or small turbomachines) can reach 10% due to increased friction. The purposes of this review are to represent the state-of-the-art of the active and passive flow control methods used to improve performance and/or widen the operating range in numerous engineering applications, and to investigate their applicability in low-Reynolds-number centrifugal compressors. The applicable method should increase performance by reducing drag, increasing blade loading, or reducing tip leakage. Based on the aerodynamic and structural demands, passive methods like riblets, squealers, winglets and grooves could be beneficial; however, the drawbacks of these approaches are that their performance depends on the operating conditions and the effect might be negative at higher Reynolds numbers. The flow control method, which would reduce the boundary layer thickness and reduce wake, could have a beneficial impact on the performance of a low-Reynolds-number compressor in the entire operating range, but none of the methods represented in this review fully fulfil this objective.

Bearingless motor (BLM) technology offers a competitive solution to active magnetic bearings (AMBs) in high-speed applications. A bearingless drivetrain (BLDT) working as part of a kinetic compressor in a heat pump exceeding 0.5 MW and 25 000 rpm is open for questions: how should the geometry, materials, and parameters be chosen without exceeding the electromechanical and thermal limits; what rotor configuration would suit the heat pump; and how can the working fluid of the heat pump be used in the motor cooling? This paper presents the interdisciplinary design process of a BLDT as part of the compressor of a high-temperature heat pump (HTHP). The motor design process—the motor constituting the core driving the compressor of the heat pump, each interacting with the others, thus bringing about various design challenges—is summarized in a flowchart and subsequently elaborated on. Dimensioning rules for the bearingless structures are presented. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to evaluate the surface and interior permanent magnet BLM structures under consideration. Different stack materials are considered and preliminary electromechanical optimization by a genetic algorithm is carried out. To ensure structural rigidity, FEA of electromagnetic, mechanical, thermal, and rotor dynamic performance is conducted. FEA of drive losses is carried out and cooling alternatives are considered, based on which temperature distributions and thermal stresses with the chosen cooling arrangements are calculated again with FEA. The power and performance of the structures are discussed. As a result of the analyses, a suitable hermetic motor design is chosen for the HTHP compressor drivetrain.

This paper compares experimental static pressure measurement with CFD simulation in a centrifugal compressor at 12 points through the diffuser. Three mass flow rates are selected, each for three operating speeds giving nine total operating conditions. The results show that the CFD model generally slightly underpredicts the static pressure value as compared to the experimental results. The discrepancy between experimental and numerical results ranges between -8% and +6% and is fairly consistent for a given operating condition, except for close to the blade trailing edge where the pressure variation is less regular and where the pressure is increasing most rapidly with radial position. In the consistent region, where the pressure gradient is low, the discrepancy is around two percent or less for simulations close to the design operating point. Away from the design operating point the errors increase up to approximately 5%. The simulation results were also used to investigate the effect of the position (from the blade trailing edge) of the impeller-diffuser interface (a characteristic of the frozen rotor simulation approach). Here an optimal position for the interface was found to be 2% of the blade radius. This value gave improved agreement with the experimental result in the initial region of the diffuser up to a distance of approximately 10% of the radius. At greater distances the position of the interface became less important. The results also highlighted a change in the pressure along the spanwise direction close to the tips. A dip in the pressure, which was observed in the experimental results, was only observed in the simulations close to the shroud. Close to the hub the simulation results recorded a small local peak. The simulation approach was then applied to further study the flow characteristics by examining the full-field velocity and pressure contours in the impeller and diffuser regions to identify changes due to the different operating conditions.