Hua Chen

Honeywell Turbo Technologies,

Cheadle Hulme,
Cheshire SK8 6QS, UK
e-mail: hua.chen@honeywell.com
Vai-Man Lei
Honeywell Turbo Technologies,
Torrance, CA 90505
e-mail: vaiman.lei@honeywell.com
Casing Treatment and Inlet Swirl
of Centrifugal Compressors
Ported shroud is a cost-effective casing treatment that can greatly improve stability of
centrifugal compressors. It is widely used in turbochargers and other applications where
compressors with a wide ow range are required. This paper reviews the development of
the ported shroud concept from its rst conception in the 1980 s to its current various
congurations and explores the underline mechanisms that deliver the performance
improvement. It is explained that, by removing stagnant uid from impeller inducer
shroud end wall boundary-layer region and recirculating it to the impeller inlet, blade
loading near the inducer shroud is increased with improved inlet suction. For transonic
ow, the ported shroud weakens the shock wave and reduces ow separation on the in-
ducer suction surface. It is argued that the effectiveness of ported shroud is a balance of
blade loading and the ow loss inside the ported shroud cavity. The loss needs to be mini-
mized if ported shroud is to be more effective. Blade loading may be increased by various
methods, such as using high inducer blade turning and using full-bladed impellers. The
blade loading can also be improved by removing ow swirl in ported shroud ow by
vanes or imposing negative swirl by vanes in ported shroud. Circumferential ow varia-
tion caused by volute housing can be taken into account by variable pitch vanes or by
variable port position. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4007739]
1 Introduction
Surge is an unstable ow phenomenon that affects a centrifugal
compression system (the centrifugal compressor, upstream and
downstream piping, and devices). It is characterized by a limited
cyclic oscillation with large amplitude uctuations of the mean
ow through the system. Because of the large uctuations of
pressure and mass ow rate, surge can result in total loss of per-
formance of the compressor and induce large mechanical loads to
the system, which can lead to mechanical failure. In comparison
to surge, stall is a relatively minor local instability of the compres-
sor. When stall occurs, there are regions of relatively low ow at
isolated locations inside the compressor. Stall can cause undesir-
able pressure pulsating and noise and can trigger surge under
certain conditions.
For many applications, such as turbocharging, a large compres-
sor operating range or a wide compressor map is required.
Strategies to delay or postpone stall and surge become necessary.
Ported shroud is an effective casing treatment technique that
fullls such a task. It has been applied extensively in turbo-
charging and other areas thanks to its simplicity and low cost of
implementation. This paper reviews its development in more than
20 years history, explores the underline mechanisms that deliver
the performance improvement, and puts forward suggestions for
possible further improvement.
2 Ported Shroud
The rst successful casing treatment of centrifugal compressor
was perhaps due to Jansen et al. [1]. A groove or slot was placed
on the casing at the inducer region of the impeller. A similar
technique of placing a casing groove upstream of and over the
impeller leading edge (LE) was used in production for Nissan
applications by Honeywell in the 1980 s. More recently, some tur-
bocharger manufacturer introduced two grooves sequentially
placed in front of the impeller. Comparing to the groove casing
treatment, however, ported shroud due to Fisher and Langdon
[2,3] is a more effective technique in delaying surge. The layout
of a typical ported shroud compressor is given in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Ported shroud compressor
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of ASME for
publication in the JOURNAL OF TURBOMACHINERY. Manuscript received July 1, 2012;
nal manuscript received September 3, 2012; published online June 5, 2013. Assoc.
Editor: David Wisler.
Journal of Turbomachinery JULY 2013, Vol. 135 / 041010-1 Copyright VC
2013 by ASME
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The ported shroud consists of a port slot and a port cavity that
pneumatically connect the inducer region to the compressor inlet.
Near surge when the inducer is highly loaded, static pressure dif-
ference between the inducer and the compressor inlet drives ow
from the inducer shroud region to the port cavity. This ow is
then recirculated and mixed with the inlet ow. This recirculation
stabilizes the compressor stage, and the underlying mechanisms
will be further explained in the later sections. When the compres-
sor operates near choke, the static pressure difference drives ow
into the inducer shroud through the port slot and increases the
choke ow capacity. The ow directions at the port cavity during
surge and choke are indicated in Fig. 1.
Figure 2 compares the measured compressor maps for a small
turbocharger with and without ported shroud. Signicant improve-
ment in the surge margin and map width is evident.
The port location relative to the impeller LE and port width had
been subjected to extensive studies. In general, the closer the port
to the LE, subject to a certain minimum limit, the more effective
the ported shroud is in improving surge margin and compressor
efciency near surge. This is because of high blade loading near
LE at a reduced mass ow condition. However, this reduces the
effectiveness in increasing ow condition, as the pressure differ-
ence between inlet and port slot reduces and mass addition occurs
upstream of the aerodynamic throat. The port location in the com-
pressor shown in Fig. 2 has been optimized for surge end
improvement. Smaller port width reduces the potential penalty to
compressor peak efciency, but the effect on surge margin
improvement may be hampered, as the recirculation ow rate may
be reduced.
Typically three or four ribs are used to support the shroud (oth-
erwise the front part of the shroud is unsupported). It was found
that these ribs could cause high cycle fatigue (HCF) of the impel-
ler inducer blade. The frequency of the excitation force is equal
to n rib number impeller rotating frequency, n 1 and 2, and
is the rst and the second order harmonics of the rib excitation.
One effective technique to reduce the risk of this HCF is to asym-
metrically place the ribs. This reduces the amplitude of lower
order harmonics, although the amplitude of higher order harmon-
ics may increase. Another technique is not to use any rib at all. An
example used by Honeywell Turbo Technologies (HTT) [4] is
shown in Fig. 3. Without supporting ribs, the port cavity does
not communicate with the inlet directly and a pipe is used to recir-
culate the ow to the inlet. It was found that such a compressor
performed as well as one with ribs.
Nikpour [5] carried out a study on the length of the port cavity.
He found that the longer the length (ow joining point further
away from impeller LE), the more effective the ported shroud
will be, and when he let the port ow discharge directly into
ambient (not into compressor inlet), compressor surge ow was
reduced and compressor pressure ratio increased (Fig. 4, map
width enhancement (MWE) open to test cell).
The ow coming out of the port cavity has swirl in the same
direction as the wheel rotation. This swirl reduces the incidence
Fig. 2 Effects of ported shroud on a small turbocharger
centrifugal compressor (see online publication for color
representation)
Fig. 3 Ribless ported shroud compressor housing [4]
Fig. 4 Effects of ported shroud length, from Ref. [5]
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angle at the impeller LE, and it was once regarded as helpful to
stability. However, Nikpours work implied that this swirl might
have negative effect on compressor stability. HTT tested a ported
shroud compressor with vanes in line with the swirl direction in
the port, Fig. 5 [6]. Test results in Fig. 6 show that keeping the
swirl reduced compressor stability, but compressor choke ow
and efciency were increased by the vanes. Yamaguchi et al. [7]
studied effects of vanes in ported shroud and discovered that
negative swirl at impeller inlet introduced by their vanes in ported
shroud improved compressor stability (Figs. 7 and 8). The reason
for improvement to the stability was investigated by computa-
tional uid dynamics (CFD) and experiment: increase of impeller
work coefcient was considered to be the reason.
3 Mechanism of Ported Shroud
An explanation of ported shroud function is given by Ref. [2].
CFD results showing the effect of ported shroud are given in
Fig. 9. Near surge, stagnant ow near the shroud region is
removed through the port slot and is recirculated into the
Fig. 5 Vaned ported shroud; vane orientation is the same as
swirl direction of port ow [6]
Fig. 6 Effects of keeping swirl of port ow [6] (see online pub-
lication for color representation)
Fig. 7 Counter swirl ported shroud (CSCT) and no swirl casing treatment (NSCT) [7]
Fig. 8 Effect of counter swirl ported shroud [7]. WOCT: with-
out casing treatment; CT: conventional casing treatment.
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compressor inlet; near choke, some ow is sucked through the
port into the impeller, adding to compressor choke mass ow.
Chen and Yin [8] found that ported shroud also reduced the
strength of the main inducer shock wave (Fig. 10). Connection of
the blade ow passage to the compressor inlet through ported
shroud reduces pressure gradient of the passage at the location of
ported shroud, which reduces the maximum Mach number of
inducer suction side before the shockwave. Reduced shock
strength has a positive effect to compressor stability.
One important aspect of ported shroud ow that deserves more
attention is the loss in the port cavity. This loss affects the effec-
tiveness of the ported shroud. Figure 11 depicts the ow inside a
ported shroud compressor (near surge) in the meridional plane.
When the compressors back pressure increases and compressor
mass ow is reduced, there is a backow along the compressor
shroud clearance. If this backow reaches the blade leading edge,
a large portion of the blade loading, which concentrates near the
LE shroud region due to increased positive incidence, will be lost
and the impeller pressure rise is reduced. This would further
strengthen the backow, and the compressor will eventually stall.
The use of the ported shroud relieves the backow and recycles it
to the compressor inlet and thus delays the onset of the stall.
The following pressure balances apply to the port ows:
P
01
DP
0p
P
02
(1a)
P
01
P
02
DP
0b
(1b)
P
01
is the total pressure at the port inlet, DP
0p
the loss generated
by the port, and DP
0b
the increase in total pressure associated with
the blade loading near the shroud region between the port inlet
and impeller LE. There is a mixing of port ow and main ow;
hence, the sign of greater than is used in Eq. (1a). From Eqs. (1a)
Fig. 9 Effect of ported shroud on ow. Near surge (left), near choke (right). Flow
vector (top) and contour (bottom) of circumferentially averaged streamwise veloc-
ity are shown.
Fig. 10 Weaker inducer shockwave due to ported shroud:
without ported shroud (left), with ported shroud (right). CFD
results from Ref. [8]. Fig. 11 Meridional ows inside a ported shroud compressor
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and (1b), one obtains the following working condition for the
ported shroud near surge:
DP
0b
DP
0p
(1c)
That is, for ported shroud to work, the total pressure rise associ-
ated with the work input by the inducer prior to the port slot must
overcome the losses inside the port. So reduction of port ow loss
is important to the functioning of ported shroud, and the ported
shroud ow channel should be designed like a proper (vaned)
diffuser, with minimum loss.
Figure 12 shows the insert containing vanes used in an HTT-
patented ported shroud compressor [9] for such a purpose. The
vanes and ow passages were designed to minimize ow loss in
ported shroud. Figure 13 compares the maps of the compressor
using this device (blue) to one using a standard ported shroud
(red). Both efciency and stability of the compressor were
improved. Note that diffusion of the port ow, including removal
of the swirl of the ow, reduces exit ow velocity of the port, and
this reduces mixing loss between the port ow and the incoming
main ow. Nevertheless, costs associated with the diffuser geome-
try needs to be reduced to a reasonable level before this concept
can be productionized.
Equation (1c) indicates that high inducer blade loading is useful
to the functioning of ported shroud. This helps to explain the
results of the counter swirl concept shown in Fig. 8. An examina-
tion of the impeller inlet velocity triangle reveals increased
relative velocity and increased positive incidence angle: both will
lead to higher inducer blade loading. A more elaborated explana-
tion was given by Tamaki [10].
One way to increase the blade loading near the LE is to have
an inducer that turns ow early and quickly. Because this type of
Fig. 12 Minimizing loss in ported shroud using vane diffuser [9]
Fig. 13 Performance improvement by minimizing port ow loss [9] (see online
publication for color representation)
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inducer is often associated with high compressor efciency,
Eq. (1c) explains why ported shroud is more effective with ef-
cient impeller designs. Another effective way to increase inducer
blade loading is to use full-bladed wheels. By increasing the in-
ducer blade number, the total inducer loading can be signicantly
increased. One issue restricting applications of ported shroud
compressors to passenger vehicles is the acoustic noises at blade
passing frequency (BPF) generated by the ported shroud [11].
This noise exists in compressors without ported shroud, but ported
shroud increases the strength of the noise. Using full bladed
wheels increases BPF and moves the noise to higher frequencies
beyond human comprehension, thus reduces the effect of the
noise. Broadband noise generated by ported shroud can be
reduced using a silencer at the compressor inlet to avoid head-on
collision of port and main ows, as indicated in Fig. 5.
4 Nonuniform Distributions
One type of nonuniform distribution of supporting ribs was
mentioned earlier to mitigate HCF risk. Asymmetric ow at the
inducer region can also be caused by volute housing commonly
used by centrifugal compressors. At off design conditions, such as
near surge, static pressure distribution is not circumferentially uni-
form in the volute, and this nonuniformity is felt at the compressor
inlet. Figure 14 shows measured streamline and ow velocity at
the inlet of a ported centrifugal compressor by laser particle image
velocimeter (PIV) at an operating condition near surge. Asymmet-
ric ow features are visible.
Yang et al. [12] and Zheng et al. [13] were the rst to recognize
there was potential performance gain by utilizing an asymmetric
ported shroud. They tested several conventional, axisymmetric
ported shrouds and asymmetric ported shrouds with the port axial
location as a function of azimuth angle (Fig. 15). Their test results
in Fig. 16 show the best asymmetric ported shroud G (port front is
closest to the LE under the tongue) has smaller surge ow than
the best conventional, symmetric ported shroud C.
An alternative technique to circumferentially vary the port axial
location is to use variable pitch vanes. This is particularly suitable
for vaned ported shroud compressors. Figure 17 shows calculated
ow eld inside a new HTT ported shroud compressor (patent pend-
ing). One can see that the ow is asymmetric and stalls inside
Fig. 14 PIV measurement of ow at inlet region of a ported
shroud compressor working near surge
Fig. 15 Asymmetric ported shrouds from Ref. [13]. Sr is the
axial distance between impeller LE and port front. A, B, and C
are conventional ported shrouds with different constant Sr val-
ues; D to G are asymmetric ported shrouds with Sr as function
of azimuth angle.
Fig. 16 Effects of asymmetric port location on compressor
surge ow, from Ref. [13]. See Fig. 15 for additional information.
C and G are the best symmetric and asymmetric port locations,
respectively.
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channels under the housing tongue and 180 deg apart from the
tongue. A variable pitch arrangement of vanes was then tried, with
reduced pitch for the channels with severe stall (Fig. 18). CFD
results of both constant pitch and variable pitch vanes are compared
in Fig. 19, and the results suggest a better performance with the vari-
able pitch. Similar to the diffuser port concept, cost is a major chal-
lenge to overcome before this concept can be used in production.
As a concluding remark, a variable distribution concept may
also be applied to spanwise distribution of swirl at the impeller
inlet. At reduced mass ow condition, the impeller blade shroud
region has insufcient loading compared with the hub region. So
if the swirl is positive at the impeller inlet hub region and negative
at the impeller inlet shroud region, then this unbalance of span-
wise loading might be corrected and the compressor might be
more stable. Near choke condition, one would like to have less
ow going through the shroud and more going through the hub,
and this might be achieved by a swirl distribution that is positive
at shroud and negative at hub. It would be useful to investigate
these and other distributions.
5 Conclusion
Ported shroud is a cost effect casing treatment that improves
the range of the centrifugal compressor. Stability near surge is
improved by

removal of low momentum uid near the shroud region by

the port slot and recycling it to the inlet

reducing strength of shock wave on the blade suction surface

Fig. 17 CFD results of ow eld inside a constant pitch, vaned ported shroud,
showing asymmetric feature
Fig. 18 Variable pitch vanes in ported shroud. White line indi-
cates tongue position; reduced pitch under the tongue and 180
deg from the tongue.
Fig. 19 CFD results showing effects of variable pitch; conven-
tional ported shroud with 4 ribs also included
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Compressor ow capacity near choke is increased by additional
ow entering the blade passage through the port slot.
Performance of the ported shroud can be improved by

careful design of the port geometry to minimize losses

removing swirl from the port ow to minimize mixing loss

with the main stream ow

enhancing recirculation ow with blade design more loaded

near the inducer and by increasing the blade loading with
counter-swirl near the shroud

take into account asymmetric ow at ported shroud and at

compressor inlet
Variable spanwise distribution of swirl at the impeller inlet
might be useful and needs further investigation.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Honeywell Inc. for permission to
publish this paper.
Nomenclature
BPF blade passing frequency
CFD computational uid dynamics
HCF high cycle fatigue
HTT Honeywell Turbo Technologies
LE leading edge (of impeller)
MWE map width enhancement (device)
P
01
total pressure at port inlet
P
02
total pressure at impeller inlet
DP
0p
total pressure loss inside ported shroud
DP
0b
blade loading of inducer shroud region
P1c compressor inlet total pressure
P2c compressor outlet total pressure
t/t total-to-total
g isentropic efciency (total-to-total)
References
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