FVV Reports

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Centrifugal compressors are suitable for a wide variety of applications. Their best-known area of implementation is turbochargers, which are an indispensable component of internal combustion engines, like turbodiesel in passenger cars or ships, due to their efficiency enhancing effects. In order to optimally design them, experimental pilot examinations on a test stand are essential. Experts from the scientific community and turbomachinery industry now jointly developed and built a brand new high performance test stand at the RWTH Aachen University. The project was co-financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation – DFG) and FVV. The facility was specified in such a way to allow for the entire spectrum of industrial applications to be covered and also for it to be flexible and expandable. Other important aspects of the test stand concept were robust safety and noise protection technology as well as modern (pressure and temperature) measurement and plant control. With a drive power of 2 MW and its outstanding technical features, the new FVV test stand is one of the most powerful centrifugal compressor research facilities in Europe. It makes possible pressure ratios – ratios from end to suction pressure – of 6 to 7 as well as the examination of transonic compressor stages. The focus of future research work lies in optimising transonic radial compressor stages with respect to noise reduction and greater efficiency as well as improving numerical calculation methods. Currently, the SRV-4 and NUMECA-C impellers are being tested for performance and acoustic measurements. The optimised properties of both impeller wheels had been shown to date by numerical simulations only. An experimental validation is therefore absolutely necessary in order to be able to verify the performance increase and noise reduction actually in the test. This is just one of many examples how important this new testing tool is for the manufacturers, suppliers and service providers of the turbomachinery industry for optimally designing innovative centrifugal compressors. Research Institute: Institute of Jet Propulsion and Turbomachinery (IST), RWTH Aachen University Chairmen: Dr.-Ing. Karl-Heinz Rohne, ABB Turbo Systems AG, and Dr.-Ing. Thomas Hildebrandt, NUMECA Ingenieurbüro

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