Summary of "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)

Preliminary design in VISTA CCD
- Enter the design specifications to generate an initial impeller design.
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.
Mesh generation using the turbomachinery mesher (Turbo / TurboGrid / TGrid).
- Demonstration used a coarse mesh for speed; mesh quality shown and discussed.
Export mesh to ANSYS CFX (via Workbench).
Set boundary conditions in turbo mode inside CFX setup.
- Tip: ensure the flow arrow direction matches impeller rotation; if opposite, enter negative RPM.
Solve with the CFX solver.
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)