The Comparison of Aerodynamic Performance Data Acquired From Thermal Measurements and a Torquemeter on a Compressor Impeller

Full-thermal heat-soak of machinery is vital to acquiring accurate aerodynamic performance data, but this process often requires significant testing time to allow for all facility components to reach a steady state temperature. Even still, there is the potential for heat loss in a well-insulated facility, and this can lead to inaccurate results. The implementation of a torquemeter to calculate performance metrics, such as isentropic efficiency, has two potential advantages: 1) the method is not susceptible to effects due to thermal heat loss in the facility, and 2) a torquemeter directly measures actual torque, and thus work, input, which eliminates the need to fully heat-soak to measure the actual enthalpy rise of the gas. This paper presents a comparison of aerodynamic performance metrics calculated both from data acquired with thermal measurements as well as from a torquemeter. These tests were conducted over five speedlines for a shrouded impeller in the Southwest Research Institute Single Stage Test Rig facility. Isentropic efficiency calculated from the torquemeter was approximately 1–2 efficiency points lower than the isentropic efficiency based on thermal measurements. This corresponds to approximately 0.5–1°C in heat loss in the discharge collector and piping. Furthermore, observations from three full-thermal heat-soak points indicate the significant difference in time required to reach steady state performance within measurement uncertainty tolerances between the torque-based and thermal-based methods. This comparison, while largely suspected, has not yet been studied in previous publications.