Vaneless Diffuser Performance in a Super-Critical Carbon Dioxide Centrifugal Compressor With Real Gas Effects

Super-critical Carbon dioxide (s-CO₂) flows are neither incompressible nor ideal gas flows. Unlike perfect gases, the enthalpy of s-CO₂ near the critical point is a strong function of pressure. Incorporation of these effects is necessary for accurate modeling of flows in centrifugal compressor vaneless diffusers. This study reviews the existing vaneless diffuser modeling technique, and modifications are made to incorporate real gas effects. Like the existing procedure, the proposed formulation does not require multiple iterations for convergence. The results are obtained in a single step using a marching technique. Hence, this model can be incorporated in standard centrifugal compressor design and analysis tools, especially for super-critical carbon dioxide flows, subject to experimental validation.