Investigation on Thrust and Moment Coefficients of a Centrifugal Turbomachine

Abstract

In radial pumps and turbines, the centrifugal through-flow in both the front and the back chambers is quite common. It strongly impacts the core swirl ratio, pressure distribution, axial thrust and frictional torque. In order to investigate these relationships experimentally, a test rig was designed at the University of Duisburg-Essen and described in this paper. Based on both the experimental and numerical results, correlations are determined to predict the impacts of the centrifugal through-flow on the core swirl ratio, the thrust coefficient and the moment coefficient. Two correlations respectively are determined to associate the core swirl ratio with the local through-flow coefficient for both Batchelor type flow and Stewartson type flow. The correlations describing the thrust coefficient and the moment coefficient in a rotor-stator cavity with centripetal through-flow (Hu et al., 2017) are modified for the case of centrifugal through-flow. The Daily and Nece diagram distinguishing between different flow regimes in rotor-stator cavities is extended with a through-flow coordinate into 3D. The achieved results provide a comprehensive data base which is intended to support the calculation of axial thrust and moment coefficients during the design process of radial pumps and turbines in a more accurate manner.