Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 565577 www.elsevier.

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Eects of tip clearance and impeller geometry on the performance of semi-open ceramic centrifugal fan impellers at elevated temperatures
Tahsin Engin
b

a,*

, Mesut Gur a, Reinhard Scholz

a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sakarya University, Esentepe Campus, 54187 Sakarya, Turkey Institute for Energy Process Engineering and Fuel Technology, Clausthal Technical University, Agricolastrabe 4, 38678 Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Germany

Received 25 September 2004; accepted 2 December 2005

Abstract Centrifugal fans are being widely used in many industrial applications. However, when handling gases with temperatures exceeding 800 C, the use of centrifugal fan impellers are of particular interest since the conventional steel impellers would not be operated at such elevated temperatures. In the present experimental study, three semi-open centrifugal fan impellers have been designed and fabricated using ceramic materials to provide high resistance to temperature. Experiments have been conducted to investigate the performance characteristics of these impellers and the deteriorations in their performance due to varying tip clearance. Factors have been determined to estimate the tip clearance losses. Results showed that the simple impeller geometries of ceramic materials were less sensitive to the varying tip clearance. In addition, the gas temperature has been found to have almost no inuence on the performance degradation due to the tip leakage ow. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Centrifugal fan impeller; Ceramic impeller; Hot gas handling; Tip clearance eects; Semi-open impeller; Shrouded impeller; Waste heat recovery

1. Introduction It is well established that signicant alterations in the performance of rotating machines are unavoidable due to varying tip clearances. These eects have to be particularly taken into account for the design considerations of hightemperature machines, such as liquid metal turbo pumps [1], and hot gas fans [2]. As for the closed impellers, these eects generally play an insignicant role, while they are a major source of degradation in the hydraulic performance for semi-open impellers. This is mainly due to complex ow eld existed in the ow passage of the semi-open impellers. A survey of literature shows that there are three
*

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +90 264 346 0160. E-mail address: engint@sakarya.edu.tr (T. Engin).

major eects associated with the tip clearance, namely, (i) secondary ow due to pressure gradients across the ow passage, (ii) leakage of the ow past the tip clearance due to the pressure dierence across the blade tip, and (iii) the boundary scraping eect caused by the blades moving relative to the wall boundary layer and scraping uid from it. Although the eects of varying tip clearance on the performance of turbomachineries have attracted much interest by many investigators for long time, there is currently no theory or method, which can be used to predict these eects. Wood et al. [3] tested several models of centrifugal pump impellers to determine the tip clearance eects on non-cavitating and cavitating performance and observed that the varying degrees of produced dissimilar trends in the hydraulic performance for dierent impeller models.

0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2005.12.002

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Nomenclature a relative tip clearance () b blade width (mm) bave average blade width (mm) d impeller diameter (mm) ds suction pipe diameter (mm) fa, fb, fc tip clearance inuence factors () m a factor () Ma fan Mach number based on fan peripheral speed () n shaft speed (rpm) Ns specic speed () P shaft power (W) Q volumetric ow rate (m3/h) Re Fan Reynolds number based on fan peripheral speed () rE radius of curvature at impeller inlet (mm) T temperature (C) u peripheral speed (m/s) x tip clearance width (mm) Z number of blades Dp Dpth1 fb b a u q m k w l gh,ci pressure rise (Pa) theoretical pressure rise for closed impeller (Pa) modied pressure inuence factor () blade exit angle () blade inlet angle () ow number () gas density (kg/m3) kinematic viscosity (m2/s) power number () pressure number () slip factor () hydraulic eciency of closed impeller (%)

Subscripts 1 impeller inlet 2 impeller exit x at given tip clearance x = 0 at zero tip clearance ci closed impeller th1 theoretical

They reported that the maximum eciency for all semiopen impellers tested occurred at the minimum value of the tip clearance. Engeda and Rautenberg [4] investigated experimentally ve dierent centrifugal pump impellers to reveal the performance degradation due to varying tip clearance. They reported that it was dicult to correlate the tip clearance eects to the machine specic speed, since no general trend was observed. Hesselgreaves [5] proposed a correlation to predict the eciency drop of mixed-ow and axial-ow turbomachines based on the published data. He indicated that an increase in the tip clearance was shown to have two distinct eects: to reduce the work output of the machine owing to the change in load distribution on the blade, and to reduce the eciency owing to the loss in kinetic energy of the tip leakage ow. Howard and Kittmer [6] measured velocity components inside a rotating radial impeller passage of both closed and semi-open impellers. They concluded that there was a secondary ow pattern progressed from a single vortex at entry to a vortex near each of the hub and shroud. Plutecki and Wajda [7] examined the eects of axial clearance on total head, eciency and suction ability of four, dierently bladed impellers operated in one casing with the axial clearance varying from 0.5 to 2 mm. They found that the total head decreased proportionally to the tip clearance ratio up to about 11%, while the eciency decreased with the growth of the tip clearance. Tip clearance eects have also been the subject for two-phase ows such as airwater [8], and solidwater ow through the semi-open impellers [9]. Ishida and Senoo [10] measured the pressure distribution along the shroud for three types of centrifugal impeller at seven dierent values of tip clearance and found that the pressure loss due to

the tip clearance was relatively small in the region where the relative velocity was nearly constant. They also underlined that this loss was proportional to the pressure rise caused by the deceleration of the relative velocity. In another study, Senoo and Ishida [11] derived equations for predicting the tip clearance eects on centrifugal and axial blower impellers, and compared the predicted eciency drops versus experimental data. Their model showed fair agreement with the experimental data. Tip clearance eects on compressor stage performance have been extensively studied by some other investigators such as [1217]. Engeda et al. [18] presented a tip clearance loss sensitivity factor depending upon pump specic speed, and observed that the pump with a specic speed of 57 was highly insensitive to the varying tip clearance and could be regarded as an ideal design for semi-open centrifugal pump impeller. In a later study, Engeda [19] analyzed ve dierent centrifugal pump impellers with specic speeds ranging from 17 to 80 to model the degradation in the pump eciency due to the tip clearance eects. He developed an empirical correlation based on specic speed and tip clearance that predicts the tip clearance eects within a fairly good margin. There are some other studies on the investigation of the tip clearance eects on mixed-ow pumps [20,21], and axial-ow fans [22,23]. All of these studies indicated a considerable deterioration in the machine performance due to the change in the tip clearance. The main problem associated with the tip clearance eects in the ow machines is that these eects generally dier from one machine to another. This is why there is no generalized procedure, method or correlation to predict these eects for any ow machine with semi-open impeller. The Pei-

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derers empirical model [24] has been widely used to estimate tip clearance eects, which gives a simple linear eect of the tip clearance, and it oers a good approximation for the range of small gaps. The use of open impellers is quite favorable in some processes due to the fact that they oer low friction losses, which is very important in handling viscous uids, easy of manufacturing, and being favorable for coating surfaces with some protective materials such as ceramics. In the present study, centrifugal fan impellers have been designed, fabricated and tested for handling hot process gases with temperatures up to 1050 C. The impellers have been made of ceramic materials to ensure high resistance to temperature. Due to the limitations in the manufacturing of ceramic impellers, the geometry has been selected to be two-dimensional with dierent blade exit angles. To make the manufacturing process easy, the test impellers have been designed as open on one side. The performance tests of these impellers have been carried out for varying tip clearances, which are relatively large compared to the usual ones to compensate the thermal expansion eects. Tip clearance inuence factors have been introduced to predict the pressure drop due to the tip clearance based on the presented experimental data. 2. Problem description and design considerations for ceramic impellers The fans are of particular interest when operated to handle hot gases at elevated temperatures, e.g., exceeding 800 C. Some industrial processes require hot gases being conveyed at elevated temperatures to increase the product quality, to reduce the energy consumption and gas emissions. Examples are glass industry, some chemical engineering processes, ceramic industry, some metallurgical engineering processes, etc. The steel fan impellers can be safely operated up to 800 C. On the other hand, the mechanical strength of the steel materials drops drastically due to both high temperatures exceeding 600 C and to increased centrifugal forces acting on the impeller blades. To overcome this problem, one possible alternative is to considerably reduce the rotational speed of the fan, which leads low performance characteristics due to o-design operating conditions. The operating temperature essentially limits the allowable peripheral speeds for centrifugal steel fan impellers, which can be as high as 800 C. A peripheral speed of 50 m/s can be regarded as the upper limit at this temperature [25,26]. The 3-D impeller geometry can be optimized to meet the high pressure-rise by considering these limitations. For the temperatures exceeding 800 C, a more specic fan design procedure must be followed. The use of ceramic materials for the fan impellers would come to mind at rst. Ceramic materials oer some remarkable advantages such as high resistance to temperature, low friction losses owing to the smooth surfaces, high corrosion and wear resistance, lightness, and low thermal expansion. On the other hand

they have some disadvantages such as diculty in forming, fragileness, and low resistance to even low-temperature gradients. Ceramic materials are not continuum and due to this reason, thermal stresses would not be compensated by elastic deformations. When the excessive stresses occur in the ceramic blades, micro cracks would become unavoidable in the material, which may result in costly damages. Further, ceramic materials are very sensitive to the sudden changes in temperature. Due to their low thermal conduction coecient, obtaining a uniform temperature distribution through the ceramic blade may take longer time as compared to the steels ones. The increments in the temperature should be low enough to avoid high internal stresses. Unpredictable damages can occur when combined eects of internal stresses and centrifugal forces due to high rotational speeds take place. Therefore, an exclusive attention must be given to the ceramic impeller design. Due to these limitations, the optimized 3-D geometries for the steel impellers may not be achieved for the ceramic impellers. In the case of such high-temperature gases, the priority is generally to convey the gas rather than high performance characteristics. Therefore, one of the objectives of this study is to investigate the feasibility of the use of ceramic materials for the centrifugal fan impellers with 2-D simple geometries. As noted above, the semi-open impellers with simple geometries can be successfully designed and manufactured. One of the main energy losses in such impellers occurs due to tip leakage ow across the tip gap between open side of the impeller and stationary casing. Furthermore, the tip clearance should be large enough due to thermal expansion eects in order to provide a safe operation, otherwise the open side of the impeller may hit to the casing surface, which would result in costly damages. Therefore, the tip clearance eects have to be considered for such impellers. Considering the easy of manufacturing, the impeller type with blade angles b1 = b2 = 90 can be preferred. This type of blade forms can lead to a higher resistance against centrifugal forces. The closed and open forms of a typical fan impeller with main dimensions are shown in Fig. 1, in which the absolute tip clearance is indicated by x. The typical design is done based on the required pressure rise and ow rate. In order to increase the fan internal eciency, the following parameters are usually changed without reducing design pressure and ow rate: d1/d2, rE, x/ds, and m = 4b1/ d1. Usually m = 1.7 refers to the optimal value for most of the designs. For most of the ow machines, the performance of the impeller deteriorates as the tip clearance x increases. The sensitivity of the machine performance is relatively much higher for small tip clearances, and over a critical value, the performance may become insensitive to the tip clearance. The severity of the degradation in the performance depends generally upon both the tip clearance and the fan ow rate. The relative tip clearance is usually dened as the ratio of the tip clearance to the blade width, e.g., a = x/b. Generally the tip absolute clearance (x) is selected

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Fig. 1. Tip clearance in radial ow impellers: (a) Closed impeller and (b) semi-open impeller.

to be less than 5 mm, which refers to a relative tip clearance of a = 30% or less. However, this ratio must be remarkably higher than 30% for hot gas fans due to thermal expansion eects. The ratio of b2/b1 is another important design variable, and is usually selected less than unity for conventional fans. For simplicity, these blade widths can be taken to be equal to each other, that is b1 = b2. 3. Experimental study 3.1. Experimental set-up Experiments were conducted to ascertain performance characteristics of the test impellers with blades made of ceramic under varying tip clearances. An experimental set-up was designed and constructed to carry out the cold and hot gas experiments. The set-up consisted of two main sections, namely fan test section and combustion chamber section, as shown in Fig. 2. The hot gas was provided from the combustion chamber wherein natural gas was used as the fuel. The test section was based on the DIN 24163 and designed according to the combustion chamber capacity. The maximum ow rate was 1500 m3/h (at 1 atm and 20 C) through a pipe section with a diameter of 100 mm. The inner surface of the pipe was lined by employing refractory material to

protect the pipe from high temperatures. The maximum temperature that can be achieved was about 1300 C. The fan test section enables the operator to easily mount various test impellers. The inside of the casing was also lined with the same refractor material. The test section allows the operator to measure temperatures (T1T5), pressures (P1, P2), and ow velocity (ow rates Q1Q4) at dierent locations as illustrated in Fig. 2. The calibration of each electronic transducer has been checked before and after each of test run. The gas components such as CO, CO2, O2, SO2, H2, and NO2 were periodically measured to ensure an eective combustion. All measurements of pressure, temperature, fan speed, ow velocity, and the power transmitted to the motor shaft were made using electronic transducers, and the electrical signals corresponding to these physical quantities were collected by a data acquisition and control system commanded by a PC. A data processing code was utilized for real-time calculations and monitoring the process. Rotational speed of the fan has been measured using a digital tachometer. Since the speed slightly vary over the tests, the following anity laws have been used to convert the fan pressure rise and volume ow rate into the desired test speed: ndesired Qdesired Qactual 1 nactual  2 T actual ndesired Dpdesired Dpactual 2 T desired nactual
Combustion section

Chimney

Test section Secondary air Test fan

p2, T6 T7, Q4

T2, Q2

T1, Q1

V1 V5 Combustion chamber V4 T3, Q3 V3 Booster fan

Mixing chamber

Fresh air

Natural gas V2

p1, T5

T4

Fig. 2. Experimental set-up and instrumentation.

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Fig. 3. The tested impellers.

3.2. The tested impellers The photographs of the impellers tested are given in Fig. 3. As a basis, a conventional centrifugal fan impeller (type A) made of steel was tested. The specications of this steel impeller and other three ceramic impellers are shown in Table 1. For the steel impeller, the performance parameters at the best eciency point were determined to be Q = 1500 m3/h (at 1 atm, and 20 C), Dp = 520 kPa, when tested at 800 C, and 1535 rpm. The other types of impeller (types B, C and D) have ceramic blades with dierent congurations. The ceramic blades have been mounted on the rear-disk of the impeller one by one. The rear-disk was made of steel, and internally cooled by circulating cold air through cooling ducts inside it. The maximum temperature has been limited to 1050 C for these fan impellers

(Type B, C, and D). The ceramic materials used for the blades were silicon-nitrate (SiN) and silicon-carbide (SiC). The following parameters have been selected as the test variable: Tip clearance, x: 530 mm by an increment of 5 mm. Gas temperature: 20 C, 600 C, 800 C, and 1000 C. Fan speed: 1000 rpm, 1535 rpm, 1760 rpm, 2000 rpm, and 2200 rpm.

4. Analysis 4.1. Performance characteristics of the impellers The following non-dimensional parameters have been dened to represent the performance characteristics of the impellers: Pressure number

Table 1 Technical specications of the impellers tested Test impellers Impeller type b1 b2 d1 (mm) d2 (mm) ds (mm) b1 (mm) b2 (mm) m () Z () Material A Closed 32 90 315 630 250 100 100 1.3 10 Steel B Semi-open 34 54 275 550 250 71 41.5 1.0 11 SiC C Semi-open 34 90 275 550 250 71 41.5 1.0 12 SiC D Semi-open 90 90 275 550 250 71 41.5 1.0 11 SiN

Dp q u2 2 =2

Flow number Q u pd 2 2 u2 4 Power number P shaft P shaft pd 2 k pd 2 q 2 2 2 u2 2 u2 qu3 2 4 8 5 4

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T. Engin et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 565577 Table 2 The reference parameters for theoretical closed impellers Impeller type B C D Dpth1 (Pa) 840 1000 1000 gh,ci (%) 83 79 77 l () 0.743 0.706 0.687 Ns (metric) 52 42 43

Eciency g wu 6 k These parameters enable us to make a direct comparison among the various test impellers. Using accepted error analysis, the uncertainty associated with a parameter as a function of other measured variables f(k1, k2, . . ., kn) can be expressed as v u n  2 uX of t 7 Uf Uk ok i i i1

where Uf is the uncertainty in the parameter f, ki are the variables of functional dependence, and U ki is the uncertainty in the measurement of each functional dependence variable ki. Using Eq. (7), for each non-dimensional performance parameter, the uncertainties were determined to be w 0.5%, u 1%, k 2.4%, and g 2.65%. Analyzing the particular uncertainty revealed that the main problem was the accuracy of the power number as the outcome of the diculties on determining both pressure rise (Dp) and volumetric ow rate (Q), which were highly sensitive to uctuations in the gas temperature. Particularly at elevated temperatures, it took hours to achieve a stable working condition. For this reason, tests were conducted at identical experimental conditions on multiple occasions to assess the repeatability of the data. For a few selected experimental conditions for which the repeatability was studied, the data replicated with a deviation of 0.8%. In general, however, the uncertainties in the performance parameters can be regarded as reasonable when considering many other parameters that may aect the experimental accuracy. 4.2. Tip clearance inuence factors In order to quantify the eects of the varying tip clearance on the performance of semi-open fan impellers, the relative tip clearance based on the average blade width is proposed x x a 8 bave b1 b2 =2 where x is the tip clearance, b1 and b2 are the inlet and exit blade widths, respectively. Peiderer [24] proposed a linear relationship for the relative drops in the pressure rise, the fan ow rate and the overall fan eciency due to tip clearance such that Dpx0 Dpx wx0 wx fb a Dpx0 wx0 Qx0 Qx ux0 ux fa a Qx0 ux0 gx0 gx fc a gx0 9 10 11

equations, fb, fa, and fc are termed pressure, ow rate and eciency inuence factors, respectively. Obviously, the determination of these values is not an easy task and is generally done by appropriately extrapolating the curves of pressure rise vs. relative tip clearance, and overall eciency vs. relative tip clearance. However, this extrapolation approach can lead to large errors in determining the performance characteristics of the impeller at zero tip clearance due to absence of knowledge on what happens to the impeller ow for the very small tip gaps. On the other hand, there is no clear procedure or method to directly design the semi-open impellers. Semi-open impellers are generally designed based on the procedures developed for the conventional closed-type impellers. In order to be able to adopt the same design procedure, it is naturally expected that the performance parameters at zero tip clearance should be obtained from the tests of closed impellers. Unfortunately, this was impossible due to diculties in working with ceramic materials at high temperatures. However, from the conventional theory, the pressure rise of a closed-type centrifugal fan impeller can be written as Dpci lgh;ci Dpth1 12

where l is the slip factor, gh,ci is the hydraulic eciency of the closed impeller, and Dpth1 is the theoretical pressure rise. These reference parameters are listed in Table 2. The prediction of Dpci is well established owing to the fact that the reliable estimations can be made for the slip factor and the hydraulic eciency. Therefore, Eq. (9) can be modied as follows: Dpci Dpx wci wx fb a Dpci wci 13

has to be determined experimentally to predict the detefb rioration in the pressure rise of the semi-open impeller, and this job is one of the main objectives of this study. Therefore the pressure rise for a given relative tip clearance can be found from the following relation: Dpx Dpci 1 fb a lgh;ci Dpth1 1 fb a

14

5. Results and discussions 5.1. Eect of impeller geometry Experiments have been carried out using four dierent impellers, namely types A, B, C, and D. The type A is a 3-D conventional centrifugal fan impeller made of steel, and taken as the basis for comparisons. The tests of the

where the subscript x = 0 represents the value of the performance characteristic at zero tip clearance. In the above

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1.25
Flow number, 0.05 A D

571

Pressure

0.00 2500

0.10 1.5
p
u 2 = 50 m/s

1.00 Performance parameters, (, , )

Pressure rise, p (Pa)

2000

0.75

u2 = 50 m/s u2 = 64 m/s

1.0

1500

0.50

Efficiency

0.25
Power

1000 1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

0.5 6000

Flow rate, Q (m3 / h)

Fig. 5. Eect of peripheral speed on impeller pressure number for impeller types A and D (T = 20 C, a = 17.8%).
0.00 0.03 0.05 0.08 0.10 Flow number,

1.30 A (u 2 = 50 m/s) 1.20 C (u2 = 64 m/s) Pressure number,

Fig. 4. Comparison of the performances for the tested impellers (T = 20 C, u2 = 50 m/s, a = 17.8%).

semi-open impellers have been conducted for a constant relative tip clearance of 17.8%. The non-dimensional performance characteristics of these impellers have been shown in Fig. 4. As expected, the highest performance pressure rise is obtained from type A. However, the overall eciency of the type C is higher than all other three types. This is mainly due to lower shaft power consumption compared to the other types. The drag on the type C would be lower than type D that results in an increase in the input power. Type C has 12 blades on it with b1 = 34 while type D has 11 blades with b1 = 90. Since the type A is a closed impeller, it exhibits relatively high friction characteristics, and therefore its overall eciency is lower than type C as shown in Fig. 4. It is also clear that the overall eciency ranges from 40% to 50% for simple 2-D geometries. It is interesting to observe that the simplest impeller (type D) gives almost 40% of eciency. Although this can be regarded as relatively low compared to the conventional fans, the energy consumption of this impeller could be negligible when considering the energy level of the process (recovered or delivered). 5.2. Eect of fan speed and gas temperature Figs. 5 and 6 show the eect of fan speed (therefore impeller peripheral speed) and the gas temperature, respectively. In Fig. 5, the temperature was kept constant at T = 20 C, and the relative tip clearance was adjusted to 17.8%, which corresponds to a tip clearance of 10 mm. It is clear that, if the peripheral speed of type D is increased by nearly 25%, that is, from 50 m/s to 64 m/s, a higher

1.10 1000 oC 1.00 800 oC

0.90

0.80 D (u2 = 64 m/s) 0.70 0.02 0.04 0.06 Flow number, 0.08 0.10

Fig. 6. Eect of peripheral speed and gas temperature on impeller pressure number for impeller types A, C, and D.

pressure rise (Dp but not w) compared to the closed-type impeller (A) can be achieved at the same ow rate. However, this remarkable increase in the pressure rise cannot be seen when it is represented its corresponding non-dimensional pressure number as shown in the same gure. This is basically due to the fact that the pressure rise is proportional to the square of u2, whose square is used for nondimensionalize the fan pressure rise. It can therefore be concluded that by bearing a moderate increase in the centrifugal loads due to increased speed, it is possible to achieve the same pressure rise (Dp) with the type A. Fig. 6 compares the pressure-rises of three types of impeller A, C, and D at elevated temperatures. As noted earlier, u2 = 50 m/s at T = 800 C is the upper limit for the steel impellers, and therefore the type A cannot be employed at higher limits. In such cases, the semi-open impellers

Pressure number,

A B C D

u2 = 64 m/s

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1.20

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1.20

n = 1000, 1760 rpm T = 20 oC, 600 oC, 800 oC, 1000 oC C Pressure number, 0.90
Pressure number, a= 1.00

2x b1 + b2

a=8.9% a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3%

0.80

D 0.60 u2 d2 B

0.60

0.40

Re = 0.30 105 1.0E+5

(Ma < 0.18 at all conditions)

Impeller type: B 0.20 0.02

106 1.0E+6 Reynolds number, Re

2x10 6

0.04

0.06

0.08

(a)
0.12 a= 2x b1 + b2

Flow number,

Fig. 7. Eect of fan Reynolds number on pressure number at various operating conditions (impeller types B, C, and D).

made of ceramics (types C and D) can successfully fulll the task since they can be operated at higher peripheral speeds. It is clear from Fig. 6 that, both C and D provide higher pressure rises (but not pressure numbers) at even 1000 C as compared to the type A. Since the peripheral velocity of type A is 50 m/s in this case, its pressure number is well above that of types C and D. Fig. 7 shows the eect of fan Reynolds (Re) number on the pressure numbers for ceramic impellers (types B, C, and D) at their best eciency ow rates. The ow numbers at their best eciency points were determined to be, 0.067, 0.065, and 0.067, respectively. The Re number was dened based on the peripheral velocity of the impeller. As shown in Fig. 7, viscous eects can be regarded as important for Re number up to nearly 100,000 beyond which of these eects become almost negligible. For the range of 100,000 < Re < 2,000,000 the maximum deviation from the average pressure number for each ceramic impellers (B, C, and D) are 5.5%, 3.1%, and 6.44%, respectively. In order to investigate the compressibility eects for each impeller, the Mach (Ma) numbers were dened based on the peripheral velocity (u2). It was found that the highest Ma number was less than 0.18, which meant the compressibility eects were also negligible as expected. 5.3. The eect of tip clearance The eects of the tip clearance on each type of centrifugal impeller (types B, C, and D) performance have been studied experimentally for dierent gas temperatures, and fan speeds. In parallel to the expectations, remarkable deteriorations in the performance parameters (w, k, and g) have been noted for three types of impellers. Fig. 8ac show the eect of tip clearance on the B type impeller at 1760 rpm, and T = 20 C. Tip clearance was varied from 5 mm to 30 mm. Since friction losses decrease as the tip clearance increases, the input power to the impeller decreases due

Power number,

0.09

0.06

a=8.9% a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3% Impeller type: B

0.03 0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

(b)
0.50 a= 2x b1+ b2

Flow number,

Efficiency,

0.40

0.30

Impeller type : B 0.20 0.02 0.04 0.06

a=8.9% a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3% 0.08

(c)

Flow number,

Fig. 8. Eect of relative tip clearance on the performance characteristics of impeller B (T = 20 C, n = 1760 rpm).

to lower ow resistance in larger passages. In some cases, the relative reductions in pressure rise and shaft power would be nearly the same order of magnitude, and therefore the overall eciency of the impeller would remain

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unchanged. This is not the case for type B since the overall impeller eciency decreases as the tip clearance increases as shown in Fig. 8c. It can thus be concluded that the type B exhibits high sensitivity to the running tip clearance. Similar performance variations are given for types C and D, in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. However, the severity of these eects varies from one type to another. For example types C and D present poorer dependency in terms of performance parameters as compared to type B, as shown in Fig. 11. The reduction in the overall eciency for these types (types C and D) is totally due to their relative reductions in the pressure rise since the input powers for these types show almost no dependency to the varying tip clearance. Hence, the types C and D are nearly insensitive designs to the varying tip clearance. This is presumably due to the fact that the ow work is mostly converted to the pressure rise within the casing in these types of designs whereas this conversion takes place in the impeller passages for backward-curved impellers (type B). By enlarging the tip clearance the tip leakage ow from high-pressure side to the low-pressure side of the blade increases substantially in such impellers, which bring considerable pressure losses. When the gas temperature is elevated, the viscous eects may become signicant and the combined eects of the tip clearance and high temperature would be of interest for the process. Since the types C and D dictate nearly the same characteristics under the test conditions, it would be interesting to compare type B versus type D. This is because of the fact that the type D is the most appropriate design for ceramic material when considering its simplicity. Fig. 12 gives the variation of pressure number versus ow number for dierent gas temperatures at a shaft speed of 1760 rpm. Tests were conducted for T = 20 C, 600 C, 800 C, and 1000 C. Although a signicant change was expected in the pressure rise of each impeller as a response to the increased gas temperature, it was observed that the both impellers exhibited a weak dependency to the gas temperature for varying relative tip clearances. At only narrower tip clearances, an additional pressure rise due to the increased gas viscosity was noted for especially the type D impeller. This type of impeller became almost insensitive within the range of relative tip clearance of 17.853.3%, whereas the type B was insensitive for whole range of relative tip clearance considered. A similar tendency was recorded for 1000 rpm as well. 5.4. Tip clearance inuence factors and comparisons with the literature In order to determine the tip clearance inuence factors described in Peiderers method [24], the values of performance parameters at zero tip clearance (wx=0, kx=0, and gx=0) have been obtained by extrapolation as can be seen from Fig. 11. The variation of fb and fc with relative tip clearance for three types of impeller (B, C, and D) are shown in Fig. 13. It is seen from this gure that both inuence factors are considerably higher for the type B com-

1.20 a= 2x b1 + b2
a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3%

Pressure number,

1.00

0.80

Impeller type: C 0.60 0.02 0.04 0.06 Flow number, 0.12 a= 2x b1 + b2 0.08 0.10

(a)

Power number,

0.09

a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3% Impeller type: C 0.06 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08

(b)
0.60 a= 0.50 Efficiency, 2x b1 + b2

Flow number,

0.40 a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3%

0.30

Impeller type: C 0.20 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08

(c)

Flow number,

Fig. 9. Eect of relative tip clearance on the performance characteristics of impeller C (T = 20 C, n = 1760 rpm).

pared to the other two impellers. With the exception of small tip clearances, it can be concluded that the inuence factors are almost independent of the relative tip clearance for types C and D. A similar trend was also observed for

574
1.00 a=

T. Engin et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 565577

1.20

2x
Performance parameters: , ,

0 = 0.91

b1 + b2

1.00

0= 0.86

B C D

Pressure number,

0.80

0 = 0.77 0= 0.55 0 = 0.53

0.80 a=8.9% a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3% Impeller type: D 0.60 0.04

0.60

0.40

0= 0.43 0 = 0.13 0 = 0.11

0.20

0.00

0 = 0.10

0.06 Flow number,

0.08

10

(a)
0.16 2x b1 + b2

20 30 40 50 Relative tip clearance, a (%)

60

Fig. 11. Eect of relative tip clearance on the performance characteristics of the impellers tested at design ow rate (uB = 0.067, uC = 0.065, uD = 0.067: T = 20 C, n = 1760 rpm).
a=

0.14 Power number,

1.20

1.00

0.12
Pressure number,

Impeller D

0.10 Impeller type: D 0.08 0.02

a=8.9% a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3% 0.06 0.08

0.80

0.60

0.40
20 o C 600 o C 800 o C 1000 o C

Impeller B

0.04

(b)
0.45 a= 2x b1 + b2

Flow number,

0.20

0.00

10

20 30 40 50 Relative tip clearance, a (%)

60

Efficiency,

0.40

Fig. 12. Eect of gas temperature on the pressure number at design ow rates (impeller types: B and D, uB = uD = 0.067).

2.00 f f B C D

0.35

Factor f and f

Impeller type: D 0.30 0.04 0.06 Flow number,

a=8.9% a=17.8% a=26.7% a=35.5% a=44.4% a=53.3% 0.08

1.60

1.20

(c)

0.80

Fig. 10. Eect of relative tip clearance on the performance characteristics of impeller D (T = 20 C, n = 1760 rpm).

0.40

the variation of fb with respect to fan Reynolds number (Re = u2d2/m) as shown in Fig. 14, which is plotted for various working parameters. The pressure inuence factor (fb) generally lies within 1.301.80 for type B impeller for the

0.00

10

20 30 40 50 Relative tip clearance, a (%)

60

Fig. 13. Eect of relative tip clearance on pressure and eciency inuence factors (impeller types: B, C, and D at 20 C, n = 1760 rpm).

T. Engin et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 565577

2.00

575

1.60

Factor f

1.20
Impeller B Impeller D

0.80

T = 20 o C, 600 oC, 800 o C

a = 17.8% a = 26.7% a = 35.6% a = 44.4% a = 53.3%

0.40

0.02 10 5 100000

10 6 1000000 Reynolds number, Re

2x106

Fig. 14. Eect of fan Reynolds number on pressure inuence factor for various relative tip clearances and operating conditions (impeller types: B and D).

Re number up to approximately 2 106. On the other hand, for the type D, the range of fb was found to be 0.10.4 for the same limit value of Re number. Engeda [19] reported that the tip clearance eects could be correlated to the machine specic speed for the impellers he tested. A similar conclusion can be drawn from Ganters study [27], in which both inuence factors have been reported to be dependent on machine specic speed and the relative tip clearance. The specic speeds of the types B, C, and D impellers were 52, 42, and 43, respectively, based on the following equation: p u N s 158 q 15 4 w3 Therefore, a comparison between the outcomes of this study and the literature data based on the machine specic speed would be useful. Typical comparisons for fb have been shown in Fig. 15. However, as noted previously, in

Fig. 15. Variation of tip clearance inuence factor with relative tip clearance (impeller types: B, C, and D at T = 20 C, n = 1760 rpm, and some other machines from the literature).

the majority of the studies, the range of the relative tip clearance was very limited as compared to ones considered throughout this study. Generally, fb for type C and D were found to be remarkably lower than those other conventional impeller types. On the other hand, the type B with a specic speed of 52 presented a fairly good agreement with the data available in the literatures [4,2830]. It is, however, clear that Ganters [27] impellers showed considerably dierent behavior in terms of both factors although their specic speeds were close to others. The scale eects could interpret this departure since Ganters impellers were comparatively very small and they were designed for circulating cooling water in vehicle engines. For example Engedas [4] impeller was having an outer diameter of d2 = 219 mm while that of Ganters [27] was only d2 = 60 mm. The tested impellers in this study have d2 = 550 mm, and all of these impellers have close specic speeds to each other. It can therefore be concluded that scale eects could play important role in terms of severity of the tip clearance eects. The impeller types B, C and D have almost the same geometries except the blade exit angle (b2), and their specic speeds are relatively close to each other. The question arises such that why does the type B exhibit totally dierent behavior as compared with type C and D under the same working conditions? This is presumably because of the fact that the blade exit angle (b2) has a considerable impact on the tip clearance eects, and it should be included in the parameters aecting these eects such as specic speed and scale eects. Based on the above discussion, it appears that there is no general trend for the inuence factors. Another important reason behind this result would be the dierence in elaborating the test data. In Peiderers method, the performance parameters at zero tip clearance must be determined by extrapolation, since these ones are not physically measurable for x = 0. It is well known that the severity of the tip clearance eects can be unexpectedly dierent at very small gaps compared to what is found by extrapolation. This is mainly due to the fact that the case surface is stationary while the impeller rotates. Therefore, the extrapolated performance factors (wx=0, gx=0) are questionable. It was found that a more realistic and reliable predictions for Dpx=0 (or wx=0) could be made by using Eq. (14), since the design procedure of closed impellers is well established. The pressure inuence factor based on Dpci is denoted by fb . As can be seen from Fig. 16, fb values are relatively more comparable with the data available in the literature, and we believe that it can give more accurate predictions when handling hot gases. The modied pressure inuence factor depends mainly on fan specic speed and relative tip clearance as illustrated in Fig. 17. The specic speeds of types C and D are almost the same and they exhibit exactly the same dependency between fb and relative tip clearance. A similar trend was also observed for dierent shaft speeds. It is, however, necessary that more experimental data on centrifugal fans with dierent specic speeds to correlate both pressure and eciency inuence factor to the relative tip clearance,

576

T. Engin et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 565577

2.

3.

Fig. 16. Variation of modied tip clearance inuence factor with relative tip clearance (types: B, C, and D at T = 20 C, n = 1000 rpm, and some other machines from the literature).

4
T = 20 oC, 600 o C, 800 oC, 1000 oC

4.

3 Modified factor, f *

1
Impeller B Impeller C and D

5.

10

20 30 40 50 Relative tip clearance, a (%)

60

Fig. 17. Eect of relative tip clearance on modied pressure inuence factor for the tested impellers (n = 1760 rpm, uB = uD = 0.067, uC = 0.065; Ns,B = 52, Ns,C = 42, Ns,D = 43).

machine specic speed and other relevant parameters depicted earlier should be generated. 6. Conclusions Three centrifugal fan impellers made of ceramic materials have been designed, fabricated and tested. Experiments have been conducted on a specically designed test facility allowing that gases with temperatures up to 1050 C. The eect of impeller geometry, shaft speed, gas temperature, and the tip clearance on the overall performance of the tested impellers have been studied experimentally. The following conclusions can be drawn from the outcomes of this study: 1. Ceramic impellers oer remarkable advantages when handling hot industrial gases with temperatures above 600 C. The maximum allowable peripheral speed for the steel impellers was ascertained to be 50 m/s at

800 C. The use of ceramic impellers was proven to convey the hot industrial gases with temperatures above 800 C at higher peripheral speeds. Due to the manufacturing limitations, the ceramic impellers were designed based on simple 2-D geometries. However, their low performance characteristics due simple un-optimized ow passages have shown to be improved to fulll the process requirement by increasing the shaft speeds over the limits dictated by the steel impellers. However, larger tip clearance ratios must be allowed due to thermal expansion eects. It was found that the anity laws hold for the tested impellers, that is, the pressure rise is proportional to the gas temperature and input power transmitted to the impeller. Since the gas dynamic viscosity increases as the temperature goes up, a remarkable improvement has been observed for increasing temperature for a given tip clearance. However, the performance degradation due to the increased tip clearance was found to be nearly independent of gas temperature. The main variables aecting the performance degradation due to the tip clearance were found to be the tip relative clearance, impeller specic speed, blade exit angle, impeller Re number to some extent, and scaling eects. On the other hand, it was observed that the simple geometries of the type C and D were insensitive to the varying tip clearance, while the type B showed poor dependency to the tip clearance. A comparative evaluation of the tip clearance inuence factors for dierent pump and fan impellers indicated that there is no general agreement in terms of these factors, and they varied from one machine to another. It was also found that the performance parameters at zero tip clearance obtained by extrapolation are questionable, and should not be used for determining these factors. A new pressure inuence factor has been introduced based on the pressure rise of a closed impeller, which is identical to the semi-open impellers tested. The new factor showed no dependency to the gas temperature. It is, however, depends upon mainly the relative tip clearance and fan specic speed.

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