Study on Design and Improvement of Wedge Vane Diffuser for Centrifugal Compressor

A single-stage centrifugal compressor with a mass flow rate of 2.98 kg/s and a total pressure ratio of 11 was designed in this study. The diffuser is a wedge vane diffuser and the volute is symmetrical with circular cross section. The performance curve and flow field distribution of the compressor were obtained by numerical calculation. The influence of the inlet installation angle of the wedge vane diffuser on the compressor performance was studied, and the blade profile was improved and redesigned. Finally, the overall performance of the whole stage was obtained by matching the volute for the compressor. The results show that the wedge diffuser with larger positive incidence angle and the curved profile has higher performance. An isentropic efficiency of 81.04% and a total pressure ratio of 12.73 was achieved after the redesign and improvement.