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US 4,063,848 AGranted
Centrifugal compressor vaneless space casing treatment
AssigneeCaterpillar Tractor Co.
InventorsJesse O. Wiggins, Gerry L. Waltz
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AssigneeCaterpillar Tractor Co.
InventorsJesse O. Wiggins, Gerry L. Waltz
Estimating the term…
The invention is concerned with an improvement in a centrifugal compressor. Such a compressor includes an inducer section including an impeller having a plurality of impeller blades rotatingly driven by a shaft of the compressor to impel air centrifugally outwardly from the shaft with an air intake duct defined by a casing radially about the impeller blades and a diffuser having a plurality of diffuser vanes in said duct downstream a spaced vane-free distance from a downstream end of the inducer. The improvement of the invention comprises a slot extending into the casing upstream of the diffuser vanes to bring about a reduction in surge flow and hence a reduction in a flow value at which stalling of the compressor occurs. Generally, the slot comprises a circumferential groove in the casing. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the slot is located intermediate the inducer and the diffuser vanes.
In a centrifugal compressor which includes an inducer section including an impeller having a plurality of impeller blades rotatingly driven by a shaft of said compressor to impel air centrifugally outwardly from said shaft with an air duct defined by a casing radially about said impeller blades and a diffuser section including a plurality of diffuser vanes in said air duct downstream of a vane-free space a distance downstream of said impeller, an improvement comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.