Effect of Hub Gap on Expanding Stability of Centrifugal Compressor

In this paper, the possibility of using hub gap (“ HG ”for short) to suppress gas stall and expand the range of stable working condition of compressor is verified by numerical method. The research shows that when designing flow rate, HG increases, the efficiency and pressure ratio of model level decrease. When there is a large flow, the efficiency and pressure ratio of HG model are higher than those without HG. The larger HG is, the higher the efficiency and pressure ratio is. From the analysis of the expanding stability capacity, the model-level flow margin of small HG and large HG is 5% and 15% higher than that of models without HG, and the comprehensive stall margin is 6.87% and 23.59% higher on average. When operating at unstable working conditions, the action of HG causes the airflow in the high pressure zone to flow into the gap and out of the low pressure zone, which improves the flow distribution in the blade passage and makes the flow field stable. However, when operating near the design condition, the leakage flow and its mixing with the momentum of the mainstream are the main sources of aerodynamic loss. The larger HG is, the greater the pressure loss caused by the leakage flow is. Generally speaking, HG can play the role of compressor expansion stability, but at the cost of efficiency; The bigger HG is, the stronger the role of expanding stability is and the greater the efficiency loss is.