Compressors
AssigneeHolset Engineering Company Limited
InventorsFrank B. Fisher, Paul J. Langdon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosure illustrates a range improvement feature for a compressor wheel in which a chamber adjacent the inlet is separated from the outer periphery of the impeller wheel vanes by a wall through which communication is established between the chamber and the impeller wheel. Communication is provided by either an annular slot or a series of radial holes. The feature may be used on single stage or multistage compressors. The area of the communication is such that at high rpm, and/or high flow, flow is from the chamber inward and at lower flows the flow is from the impeller wheel outward. This bidirectional flow improves the range over which the compressor may operate without encountering surge.
Claims10
A compressor for compressing gas, said compressor comprising an impeller wheel including a plurality of vanes each of which includes a leading edge, a trailing edge and an outer free edge, said wheel being mounted for rotation within a housing and operable between choked flow and a surge line, the housing including an inner wall and an outer wall, at least part of the inner surface of the inner wall being in close proximity to, and of similar contour to, the outer free edges of the vanes, and forming an inlet to said impeller wheel in a region adjacent the leading edges of said vanes, said outer wall forming a gas intake surrounding said inner wall and extending in an axial direction, means for forming a chamber between said inner and outer walls in a region at least partly surrounding said vanes and connected to said gas intake, and means for providing a bidirectional flowpath through said inner wall between said chamber and the inner surface of said inner wall whereby gas may pass in both directions between the area swept by the vanes and the chamber via the flowpath means to broaden the range of operation between choked flow and the surge line for said compressor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.