Patent ID: 8231341
Filing Date: 2012-07-31
Classification: F02C,F04D

Abstract:
1. A gas compressor comprising a rotor rotatable about a compressor axis and cooperating with an annular compressor shroud to define a gas path extending from an upstream compressor inlet to a downstream compressor outlet, the inlet substantially parallel with the compressor axis and the outlet being non-parallel with the compressor axis, the rotor having first and second compression stages, the first compression stage comprising a circumferential array of blades extending from a rotor hub towards the shroud, the second compression stage downstream of the first and comprising a circumferential array of centrifugal-like compressor blades extending from the hub towards the shroud, each compression stage having a mean outlet radius greater than its mean inlet radius, the second compression stage having a pressure ratio exceeding 2:1, the compressor further comprising a diffusion stage interposed between said compressor stages, the diffusion stage comprising a circumferential array of vanes extending from the shroud toward the rotor hub, the diffusion stage vanes disposed between trailing edges of the first stage blades and leading edges of the second stage blades, diffusion stage vanes inclined oppositely to the blades of the compression stages to decrease tangential velocity of gas exiting the first compression stage.