A TWO-STEP APPROACH FOR CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR PERFORMANCE MAPPING BASED ON A REDUCED-ORDER MODEL AND AN EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM

Due to their good efficiency, robustness, and wide operating range, centrifugal compressors are pivotal in several industrial and civil applications. In this context, predicting the performance of a centrifugal compressor stage is essential for its aerodynamic design and selection during customer orders. Therefore, the present research focuses on performance mapping once the aerodynamic design is complete. Indeed, once the final stage geometry is achieved, experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses are reliable methods for performance map predictions. However, these methods are expensive and time- consuming, in contrast to typical limitations of the industrial scenario. To limit their cost, a two-step approach based on a reduced-order model leveraging CFD analyses and an evolutionary algorithm is proposed. The main goal is to decrease performance mapping efforts while maintaining a high level of accuracy. Specifically, the theoretical contribution of this research is to investigate the joint use of CFDs with reducedorder models to generate accurate performance maps with low computational effort. While on a practical level, a business-friendly tool for performance mapping is provided. As an example case study, the approach is applied on centrifugal compressor stages for high-head low-Mach number applications. Results show good agreement with CFD and experimental data. The present research lays the foundations for future studies aiming to further reduce efforts in performance mapping and time-to-market of centrifugal compressor stages.