The improvement of radial compressor components (impeller, diffuser, volute) requires specific data of the flow inside the compressor. The our Laboratory this can be performed by measuring and visualizing the flow with various probes and modelling the flow with computational flow dynamics.
Pneumatic probes:
The three-hole cobra probe is used to measure the static pressure, total pressure, flow angle and Mach number of the flow simultaneously.
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Traversing device above moves the the cobra probe (right) accurately in the inlet cone of the compressor. The probe can be put very close to the rotating wheel.
Below one can see the nozzle calibrator to calibrate probes with speeds from 50 m/s to 300 m/s. Probes for lower speeds are calibrated in the Laminar Wind Tunnel. And on the right below is the Kiel probe to measure the total pressure in the flow. |
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High frequency response probes:
Turbulent and pulsating flow can be measured with Constant Temperature Anemometers or Kulite high frequency transmitter, which can measure the components of the flow velocity vector up to 200 kHz frequency. The CTA anemometer can register the static pressure fluctuation up to 50 kHz frequency.
Flow visualization:
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Flow visualization is an excellent method to understand complex flow fields.
It can also be used to localize the most interesting and troublesome targets, which then can be measured more comprehensively with pneumatic probes. |
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Computerized Fluid Dynamics:
Specific information of flow fields inside the compressor is also received with means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as can be seen in the calculated compressor flow below.
