The influence of different installation angles of the 180° inlet bend pipe on the centrifugal compressor performance

As one type of compressor intake pipe, the bend pipe is widely used in Vehicle turbocharger. It is essential to evaluate the effects of such pipe on the centrifugal compressor for the optimal design of the engine intake pipe. This paper conducted the experiment and numerical simulation to investigate the effects when the straight pipe and the 180° bend pipe in different installation angles were coupled with centrifugal compressor. The results show that the bend pipe causes the degradation of the compressor performance which has related to circumferential installation location, and the effects are more apparent as the mass flow rate increases. The flow structure in front of the impeller inlet is changed by the combined actions of the inlet pipe, the potential flow inside the impeller and the downstream non-axisymmetrical volute. The corresponding total pressure distortion changes the inlet conditions of the impeller, which leads to the deterioration of compressor performance in varying degrees.