An investigation of compressible flows with large whirl components

Abstract

This investigation was conducted to determine the losses in the scroll and inlet guide vanes of a dual discharge, radial-inflow turbine. Difficulties are encountered in such tests because the air is discharged from the guide vanes with a large whirl component into the cavity normally occupied by the turbine rotor. Connected with such flows are phenomena such as choking and energy separation. This led to the investigation of the flow in a vortex chamber where the vortex is driven by the inlet guide vanes of the radial turbine. The air tests were conducted at the Turbo-Propulsion Laboratory of the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.