Suppression of inducer stall based on inlet recirculation in a centrifugal impeller (1st report, improvement in stall limit by ring groove arrangement)

A ring groove arrangement is proposed to suppress unstable flow or surge in a centrifugal blower. The ring groove arrangement connects the upstream position of impeller inlet and the inducer throat tip through a bypass. The recirculation flow was formed by the pressure difference between the two positions, and the recirculation flow rate was changed by increasing the ring groove widths. The inlet recirculation results in a decrease in the flow rate of unstable flow inception, and an up to 8% improvement in stall limit was obtained by the ring groove arrangement at a small expense of the delivery pressure drop. The improvement of stall limit in the present experiment seems to be mainly due to decrease in flow incidence based on the inlet recirculation flow. Tre flow incidence decreases more as the recirculation flow rate increases, thus resulting in a larger improvement in stall limit.