Design and analysis of centrifugal compressor using Ansys Workbench | Bladegen | CFX

Overview

Tutorial walkthrough showing an end-to-end design and CFD analysis of a centrifugal compressor using ANSYS Workbench together with external turbomachinery design and meshing tools. Goal: produce an impeller geometry and evaluate aerodynamic performance for a given specification.

Design specification (inputs)

• Pressure ratio: 4.5
• Mass flow: 3 kg/s
• Speed: 40,000 rpm
• Target efficiency: 85%
• Geometric constraints provided

Toolchain and workflow (step sequence)

1. Preliminary design in VISTA CCD
   • Enter the design specifications to generate an initial impeller design.
2. Import preliminary design into BladeGen (blade editor) to create and modify the impeller geometry.
   • Editable items: impeller flowpath and blade profiles, blade count, leading/trailing edge types, splitter blade position.
   • Span-wise control: blade angle progression and blade thickness progression across multiple span sections (4 sections shown).
   • Shape control via beta/angle programs and thickness controls.
   • Export impeller to various CAD/mesh file formats once satisfied.
3. Mesh generation using the turbomachinery mesher (Turbo / TurboGrid / TGrid).
   • Demonstration used a coarse mesh for speed; mesh quality shown and discussed.
4. Export mesh to ANSYS CFX (via Workbench).
5. Set boundary conditions in turbo mode inside CFX setup.
   • Tip: ensure the flow arrow direction matches impeller rotation; if opposite, enter negative RPM.
6. Solve with the CFX solver.
7. Post-process results in CFX-Post.
   • Extract and tabulate major performance parameters (pressure rise, mass flow, efficiency, etc.).

Tip: Boundary-condition orientation matters for rotational sign. If the flow arrow is opposite the impeller rotation, use a negative RPM.

Key features & tips highlighted

• BladeGen provides detailed parametric control: blade angle and thickness progression, splitter placement, number of blades, and leading/trailing edge choices — useful for iterative design exploration.
• Export options enable moving geometry/mesh between tools (BladeGen → Turbo mesher → ANSYS CFX).
• Boundary-condition orientation matters for rotational sign (use negative RPM if flow arrow is opposite rotation).
• The demonstration uses a coarse mesh for speed — expect different results with finer meshes and stricter mesh-quality control.

Outputs shown

• Impeller coordinates / geometry files (exported formats)
• Mesh (turbomachinery grid)
• CFD results from CFX (flow field) and a table of calculated performance metrics

Nature of the video

• Tutorial/demo aimed at CAE users covering the combined toolchain: design → mesh → CFX simulation → post-processing.
• Not a deep dive into mesh convergence or advanced turbulence/physics settings (coarse mesh used for demonstration).

Main speaker / source

• Learn CAE (YouTube channel / presenter)
• Software/tools demonstrated: ANSYS Workbench (CFX, CFX-Post), VISTA CCD (preliminary design), BladeGen (impeller design), turbomachinery meshing tool (Turbo / TurboGrid / TGrid)