OPTIMIZING IMPELLER GEOMETRY

FOR PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT

OF A CENTRIFUGAL BLOWER USING
THE TAGUCHI QUALITY CONCEPT
R RAGOTH SINGH
PhD Scholar, Anna University, Chennai, INDIA
Assistant Professor, Karpagam College of Engineering, Coimbatore, INDIA
ragothsingh@rediffmail.com
M NATARAJ
Associate Professor, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, INDIA.
Abstract :
As the diffusion of flow process is highly complex in centrifugal blower operation, it is necessary to design /
develop the geometry of impeller and casing to reduce the flow losses significantly. In the present study, the
methodology to find near optimum combination of blower operating variables for performance enhancement
were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics(CFD). Taguchi orthogonal array (OA) based design of
experiments (DoE) technique determines the required experimental trials. The experimental results are justified
by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and confirmed by conformation experiments. The parameters chosen for
design optimization are Impeller outlet diameter, Impeller wheel width, Thickness of blade and Impeller inlet
diameter. The levels for the parametric specification are chosen from the ranges where the blower will get the
best efficiency. CFD results were validated by the fine conformity between the CFD results and the
experimental results.
Keywords: Centrifugal blower; CFD; Taguchi; Impeller.
1. Introduction
Centrifugal blowers are widely used in different industrial applications, which are proficient of as long as
restrained to high-pressure rise and flow rates. Centrifugal blowers are mainly two main parts, namely, the
casing and the impeller. Many experimental studies have been reported on the performance of centrifugal pump
impeller. The performance of centrifugal blower is mainly on design parameters of impeller. Changing some
geometric characteristics of the centrifugal pump impeller the blower has more efficiency taking with energy
crises into consideration. In this paper, an experimental study has been carried out to study the performance
characteristics of centrifugal blower. In order to improve the performance the effects that the pertinent design
parameters has been carried out for different cases of primary geometry of the impeller including the Impeller
outlet diameter, Impeller wheel width, Thickness of blade and Impeller inlet diameter.The performance
evaluation and optimized design of backward curved centrifugal blower has been analysed by [Chen-Kang
Huang, et al(2009)]. In their research the Backward-curved airfoil centrifugal blowers were numerically
simulated and compared with experimentally measured data. [P. N. Son, et al (2011)] studied the Effects of bell
mouth geometries on the flow rate of centrifugal blowers using CFD. The blade optimization design and
performance investigations of an ultra-low specific speed centrifugal blower using the multi-point approach for
the blade optimization design was put forward and the analysis procedure was given by [ZHANG Bin, et al
(2011)]. [J ie J ina Ying Fan, et al (2012)] CFD simulation and performance tests were adopted to study the
model of the centrifugal pumps, to analysis the hydraulic properties of the ultra-low specific-speed centrifugal
pump. 3-D flow Numerical solution has been carried out for different cases of primary geometry along with the
volute, and for the changes made to the outlet angle and passage width of the impeller in centrifugal pump
[M.H. Shojaeefard et al (2012)] Theoretical, numerical and experimental analyses were performed between
pump and pump as turbine (PAT) in the direct and reverse modes of a single stage centrifugal pump and for
more accurate CFD result, all domains within the PAT control volume were modeled and hexahedral structured
mesh was generated during CFD simulation [Sun-Sheng Yang, et al (2012)]. Results can be obtain more
accurately and efficiently than other approaches using the Taguchi methods [Taguchi (1992a)] by arranging a
Orthogonal Arrays (OA) and analysis of results, also fewer number of tests are needed even when the number of
parameters being investigated is quite large. Since Taguchi Methods have been proved successful for many
R Ragoth Singh et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
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design optimization problems [Taguchi (1992b)] it is chosen in this study. In the present work, CFD simulations
were carried out to acquire the performance curves and the flow field for each design using the FLUENT
software. To determine the optimal design parameters, Taguchi analysis was performed.
2. Centrifugal Blower and CFD
2.1. Model Construction
For this study, the three-dimensional blower model Figure 1 and impeller Figure 2 was first created with the
base model. The technical specifications of the base model blowers are listed in Table 1. The design of impeller
mainly include: Impeller outer diameter, Impeller width, Blade Thickness and Impeller inlet diameter. Geometry
parameters were changed based on the Taguchi OA and impeller solid model were developed using solidworks
and exported into STEP file. The STEP files were then imported into ANSA the mesh generator. In ANSA,
model construction and split were processed. The fluid volume was set for inlet, outlet and the impeller wheel
volume and stationary casing volume. The inlet and outlet ducts were purposely set to simulate the definite
measuring situation and to make available enhanced boundary conditions for simulations. The flow was
assumed fully developed when leaving the inlet and outlet ducts. Constant rotational speed is set for blower
impeller volume fixed as a rotating reference frame and others were defined as a stationary frame. The frozen-
rotor method is used at interfaces between rotating and stationary elements. Interfaces are located at the surface
between the inlet and impeller, and between the impeller and volute. Frozen rotor indicates that the relative
orientation of the two interface components across the interface is fixed. The calculation of the downstream
surface of the interface plan was based on the average mixing plane approach.

Fig. 1. Three dimensional Blower model
2.2. Numerical simulation
The computational fluid dynamics is the recent trend followed by most of the fluid machinery industries to get
insights into flow details. In this study, commercial CFD package is used to simulate the centrifugal blower.
Fluent solves the Navier-Stokes equation using the finite volume method (FVM), which has been applied widely
in fluid mechanics and engineering applications. Pre-processing consists of CFD domain extraction, CFD
Modelling, Surface Mesh Generation Figure 3, Surface Mesh Clean Up, Volume Mesh Generation Figure 4 and
Volume Mesh Clean Up. In this study a robust CFD Mesh generator called ANSA is used to perform the CFD
Domain extraction and model clean up. Post processing of simulation enables examining of the results to review
solution and extract useful data. Tools of post processing can be either graphical display or numerical report.
Visualization tools can be used to understand the overall flow pattern, presence of separation, areas of shocks
and determination of key flow features while numerical reporting tools can be used to calculate quantitative
results like flux balances, moments, surface and volume integrated quantities.
2.3. Boundary conditions and Solver setting
According to ANSA technical documents, the system automatically chooses the most suitable elements for
complex geometry. The rotating fluid and scroll volumes were defined by tetrahedral/hybrid elements, and
hex/wedge elements were selected for the inlet cone and inlet/outlet duct volumes. The operating condition was
selected for appropriate high-speed flow, free delivery for the grid independency test. Surface Mesh is generated
in the ANSA itself all the surfaces are meshed with triangular mesh elements with the maximum skewness of
0.6. The total numbers of triangular elements for all the 10 geometries were varied between 130000 and 160000
trias. Volume Mesh is generated in TGrid which is another robust volume mesh generator. The size of the
volume mesh is varied between 1.5 million and 1.8 million Tetrahedrons. The maximum skewness for the
tetrahedrons is varied between 0.8 and 0.96 on the models. The inlet flow rate was then given as the inlet
boundary condition. The outlet boundary condition was set as static pressure equal to the atmospheric pressure.
If the difference of the outlet flow rate caused by further increasing grid size was below 1%, the grid size was
taken to perform all simulations for the model. For each model, the same process and judging philosophy were
R Ragoth Singh et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
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applied to choose the suitable grid size. K - Epsilon turbulence models was used to obtain a baseline solution.
For the near wall treatment, the standard wall function was used to implement the wall boundary condition. To
solve the governing equations, the finite-volume scheme based on the Fluent code was used for the pressure
velocity coupling. Moving Reference frame is used to model the rotating impeller.

Fig. 2. Parameters of Impeller



Fig.3. Impeller surface mesh
3. Taguchi Method
Dr.Taguchi of Nippon Telephones and Telegraph Company, J apan has developed a method based on OA
experiments which gives much reduced variance for the experiment with optimum settings of control
parameters. Taguchi Technique is applied to plan the experiments, in a three step approach namely system
design, parameter design and tolerance design. In System Design, the most influenced process parameters were
identified taking with minimum trials into consideration. Secondly, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio to analyze
experiment data, for determining quality characteristics implemented in engineering design problems. Thirdly,
estimates individual parameter contributions. This study is to maximize discharge, pressure and efficiency
considering power consumption within optimal levels of process parameters; the higher the better quality
characteristic is selected. A standard Taguchi L9 (3
4
) Orthogonal Array (OA) is chosen for this investigation as
it can operate four parameters, each at three levels. The four most influenced identified parameters (A) Impeller
outer diameter; (B) Impeller width; (C) Blade Thickness and (D) Impeller inlet diameter which affect the
performance of blower. Sufficient details of the effect of different parameter values on experimental results can
be obtained by choosing three levels for each parameter to investigate. The test run is designated by replacing
the level number 1, 2, 3 of parameters A, B, C, and D in L9 OA with the chosen parameters level values in
Table 2. Each row of the array represents a test run parameter setting condition.

Fig. 4. Volume mesh
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3.1. Signal-to-Noise ratio
The Signal-to-Noise ratio (S/N) ratio represents both the average and variation of the experimental results to
analyse the test run results using Taguchi Methods. The S/N ratio is also used in Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA). The S/N ratios in Taguchi Methods are, e.g., smaller-the-better, larger-the-better, nominal-the-best
and operating window. The standard S/N ratios can be made to order to fit explicit applications. Depends on the
physical properties of the problem proper S/N ratio is selecting. The performance improvement is the objective
function, so that the larger-the-better S/N ratio is chosen in this study [Fowlkes (1995)]. Where, S/N
LTB
is
larger-the-better Signal-to-Noise ratio, MSD is the mean square deviation around the target, y
i
is the
individually measured response value (experiment result), n is the number of measurements taken in one test
run. Table 3 shows the results of each test run and the S/N
LTB
value calculated from equation (1).
(

=

=
i
1 i
2 LTB
y
1
n
1
10log SN (1)
3.2. Response analysis
In this study, each parameter and level contains three test runs. Table 3 shows the test run, while the level 1 of
parameter A occurs, in test run 1, 2 and 3, all three levels of parameters B, C and D appear once in these three
test runs. Similarly, the level 2 of parameter A occurs in test run 4, 5 and 6, even if all three levels of parameter
B, C and D also appear once in these three test runs. While performing response analysis for each parameter and
level, every other parameter will appear at different level once since different levels of other parameters will be
counterbalanced. So the effect of one parameter at one level on the experiment results can be separated from
other parameters. In this way, the effect of each level of every parameter can be viewed independently. The
response analysis is carried out by experimental results from test runs corresponding to the selected parameter
and level in Table 2. Figure 9 give the results of level average response analysis by S/N ratio. Analysis of
variance is a computational technique to investigate the design parameters relative contribution and significantly
affecting the quality characteristic on the experimental results obtained. ANOVA uses S/N ratio responses to
calculate the sum of the squared deviations by each of the design parameters and the error.
4. Results and Discussion
The following discussion focuses on the effects of design parameters to the observed values based on the
Taguchi methodology. Taguchi uses the S/N ratio to measure the quality characteristic deviating from the
desired value. With the S/N response Figure 9 and ANOVA analyses, the optimal combination of the design
parameters can be predicted. The impeller is the most important part of the blower components because of the
fact that its performance inadvertently determines the blowers performance. The performance was observed by
improving different geometry with original impeller using Taguchi quality concept. The amount of total
pressure and discharge at the entrance and exit of the centrifugal blower is simulated numerically for the
geometry. The numerical results indicate that the centrifugal blower with Taguchi results has the highest
pressure head and discharge therefore, the noted blower has been built, and its results have been compared with
experimental result.


Fig.5 Contours of static pressure

R Ragoth Singh et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
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Fig.6 Velocity contours


Fig.7 velocity magnitude

Fig.8 Velocity vectors
The results shown reveal that by improving the impeller geometry (Impeller outlet diameter, Impeller wheel
width, Thickness of blade and Impeller inlet diameter) the increment of efficiency at operating conditions was
mentioned by Static pressure contours and velocity vectors. The static pressure distribution Figure 5 and
velocity contour Figure 6 over the suction and delivery side on the middle-span plane of the impellers for the
best efficiency point condition for the geometry are illustrated. As this figure the pressure increases gradually
along stream wise direction within impeller blade-to-blade passage and has higher pressure on pressure side than
suction side for each impeller. It is demonstrated that the average of pressure and the discharge in the outlet area
of impeller (Outer diameter 600mm, Impeller width 35mm, Blade Thickness 1.8mm and Inner diameter
174mm) is higher than other impellers shown in Table 4. This results cause to increasing the head as well as
discharge shown in Figure 7. Figure 8 illustrates the velocity vectors on the middle-span plane of the impellers
for the viscous fluid flow in the numerical simulations performed at the best efficiency point condition. It is
noticed that a big zone with low velocity exists there in the original impeller. The overall results from the
application of Taguchi Methods experimental design and data analysis are satisfactory.
5. Conclusion
This paper discussed an application of the Taguchi method for optimizing the design parameters in blower
operation. Optimization of design parameters using this technique is directly inclined towards economic solution
for the turbo machinery industry. It has been shown that impeller dimensions were significantly improving the
performance of blower by conducting experiments at the optimal parameter combination Table 4 and also by
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analyzing S/N ratio. The contributions of all the design parameters have good importance for determine the
performance. The conformation experiments were also conducted to verify the optimal combination of design
parameters obtained. Good agreement between the predicted and actual values for static pressure and discharge
has been observed.
Table 1. Design Specification
S.No Parameter Dimension
1 Impeller outer diameter, mm 600
2 Impeller Inlet diameter, mm 174
3 Impeller wheel width, mm 30
4 Blade number 12
5 Blade thickness, mm 2
6 Tongue length, mm 150
7 Outlet size, mm mm 180 123
Table 2. Parameter and Levels
Control Factors
Levels
1 2 3
A Impeller outer diameter (mm) 580 583 600
B Impeller width (mm) 25 29 35
C Blade Thickness (mm) 1.8 2.2 2.5
D Impeller inner diameter (mm) 170 174 180
Noise Factors Range
Speed (rpm) 2640-2814
Current (amps) 3.54-5.60
Frequency (Hz) 49.2-49.6


Fig.9 Responses for parameters A, B, C, and D by S/N ratios
Table 3. Trials and Result
Trial
Inner Array L8 RESULTS
Parameters Discharge
(m
3
/Sec)
Pressure
(Pa)
A B C D
1 580 25 1.8 170 0.285 1650
2 580 29 2.2 174 0.327 2070
3 580 35 2.5 180 0.298 1780
4 583 25 2.5 174 0.285 1650
5 583 29 1.8 180 0.285 1650
6 583 35 2.2 170 0.230 1100
7 600 25 2.2 180 0.285 1650
8 600 29 2.5 170 0.255 1350
9 600 35 1.8 174 0.276 1560

R Ragoth Singh et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 4 No.10 October 2012 4313

Table 4. Optimized result
Sl.No Descriptions
Optimum
values
Design parameters
1 Impeller outer diameter (mm) 600
2 Impeller width (mm) 35
3 Blade Thickness (mm) 1.8
4 Impeller inner diameter (mm) 174
Objective functions
1 Discharge(m3/sec) 0.285
2 Pressure(Pa) 1650
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R Ragoth Singh et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
ISSN : 0975-5462 Vol. 4 No.10 October 2012 4314