A method to select loss correlations for centrifugal compressor performance prediction

Abstract

The study reviews the main loss mechanisms and corresponding loss correlations, which are used to predict centrifugal compressor performance. There are one or more loss correlations in the open literature for the same loss mechanism. The purpose of this review is to identify a reliable loss correlation set for centrifugal compressor performance prediction. According to the inlet tip relative Mach number and specific speed, a new method to select loss correlations is proposed by testing multiple loss correlations. This method is validated by experimental results on eight centrifugal compressors in public and one in-house. The performance as-predicted by the proposed method is in close agreement with the experimental results. Compared with the conventional set, the proposed method is superior.