A centrifugal compressor stage with an unusually high inlet hub/tip ratio of 0.87 was designed for a pressure ratio of 2.0 at a corrected mass flow of 2.45 lb per sec. The geometry was selected so that the centrifugal stage could replace several of the last stages of a multistage axial compressor. The stage was tested with two diffuser schemes. One diffuser consisted of a series of drilled conical pipes, whereas the other employed multirow vaned cascades. Sea level aerodynamic tests of the compressor stage with each diffuser showed a peak total-to-total efficiency at design speed of 83.8 percent for the pipe diffuser and 82.9 percent for the vaned cascade diffuser. Additional tests were conducted with a vaneless diffuser to determine effects of impeller discharge tip clearance and inlet prewhirl on impeller performance.
Experimental interstage performance data provide the most useful basis currently available for correction of faults in performance of multistage compressors. However, to describe stage performance adequately requires much more information than the amount needed to describe over-all compressor performance, and to interpret the data requires that all of this information be correlated. Because the wealth of the data may conceal its meaning, some simple method is needed to focus attention on the matching of one stage to another and to the over-all compressor as well. A technique is presented whereby performance of individual stages can be depicted graphically upon the performance map of an over-all multistage compressor. Through this presentation the individual and over-all effects can be examined together. Insight is afforded into performance relationships of one stage to another; and faults can be diagnosed if any exist in the matching, radial or axial, of individual stages. Changes of blade geometry can then be prescribed upon a clear and explicit basis. To illustrate use of the technique, data are presented describing gains that have been achieved experimentally.
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