Geometry Optimization of Filter House Components Fitted at Compressor Entry

Shweta Narayan, Darshana Bhalgat

Abstract: One of the prime needs of the industries today is procuring clean air and liquids for various manufacturing or other processes. This air is then supplied for varied applications viz. Turbomachinery, HVAC and automotive applications. Our focus is the air filtered and supplied for Turbomachinery applications. Such air filters consist of various components such as anti-icing systems, weather hoods, bird screens and filter panels, followed by transition ducts and elbows at entry to transition ducts and elbows at entry to the turbomachinery. As the air flows through these sections, there occurs a pressure drop across them, in accordance with Bernoullis principle. This, in turn, increases the amount of energy required to be provided to the machinery in order to maintain required discharge. Thus it is essential to minimize the pressure drop across various filter sections and transition duct. Our task here is to optimize the geometry of these components to enable smooth flow of air, minimize the pressure drop and reduce energy requirement. Initially, our task involves manual calculations, which will be followed by a MATLAB program to calculate pressure drop in weather hood, bird screen and transition section. Then we perform validation of calculations using computational techniques i. e. CFD software ANSYS 15.0.

Keywords: CFD analysis, filter house, weather hood, bird screen, transition section, ANSYS FLUENT