This paper describes a design and experimental effort to develop small centrifugal compressors for aircraft air cycle cooling systems and small vapor compression refrigeration systems (20 - 100 tons). Efficiency improvements at 25 % are desired over current designs. Although centrifugal compressors possess excellent performance at high flow rates, low-flow-rate compressors do not have acceptable performance when designed using current approaches. The new compressors must be designed to operate at a high rotating speed to retain efficiency. The emergence of the magnetic bearing provides the possibility of developing such compressors that run at speeds several times higher than current dominating speeds. Several low-flow-rate centrifugal compressors, featured with three-dimensional blades, have been designed, manufactured and tested in this study. An experimental investigation of compressor flow characteristics and efficiency has been conducted to explore a theory for mini-centrifugal compressors. The effects of the overall impeller configuration, number of blades, and the rotational speed on compressor flow curve and efficiency have been studied. Efficiencies as high as 84 % were obtained. The experimental results indicate that the current theory can still be used as a guide, but further development for the design of mini-centrifugal compressors is required.
Design and experimental study of high-speed low-flow-rate centrifugal compressors
Entwurf und experimentelle Untersuchung von Hochgeschwindigkeits-Kreiselverdichtern für geringen Volumenstrom
1995
7 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 14 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
Flow in centrifugal compressors
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