Simulation of Full Featured Compressor Using Massive Parallel Unsteady CFD

Abstract A major benefit of using CFD in compressor design is reduction of test runs, which speeds up the design process and minimizes costs. This work presents the next step in achieving such a goal. Unsteady simulations of a high-fidelity full annulus compressor rig model with more than 5 billion mesh nodes were performed at part-speed conditions on tens of thousands of cores. Simulated geometric features included among others full cavity geometries, blade clearances and VSV penny gaps. For these comprehensive simulations, a modernized CFD solver was used demonstrating a speedup of more than 3X compared to its original version. This was achieved mainly through several optimizations that improved inter- and intra-node performance as well as through reduction of I/O. For post processing, the in-situ technique has been used to output 1D, 2D and 3D flow data at affordable time and disk usage. The results of these simulations were compared to state-of-the-art steady-state simulations of the same model as well as to the actual rig test data. This example of one of the largest industrial-grade unsteady simulations to date demonstrates significantly improved capability of a modernized CFD solver as well as the opportunities and potential of using high-fidelity CFD models to improve and accelerate the compressor design process.