The Effect of Gas Models on Compressor Efficiency Including Uncertainty

Abstract

Since isentropic efficiency is widely used in evaluating the performance of compressors, it is essential to accurately calculate this parameter from experimental measurements. Quantifying realistic bounds of uncertainty in experimental measurements are necessary to make meaningful comparisons to computational fluid dynamics simulations. This paper explores how the gas model utilized for air can impact not only the efficiency calculated in an experiment, but also the uncertainty associated with that calculation. In this paper, three different gas models are utilized: the perfect gas model, the ideal gas model, and the real gas model. A commonly employed assumption in calculating compressor efficiency is the perfect gas assumption, in which the specific heat, is treated as a constant and is independent of temperature and pressure. Results show significant differences in both calculated efficiency and the resulting uncertainty in efficiency between the perfect gas model and the real gas model. The calculated compressor efficiency from the perfect gas model is overestimated, while the resulting uncertainties from the perfect gas model are underestimated. The ideal gas model agrees well with the real gas model, however. Including the effect of uncertainty in gas properties results in very large uncertainties in isentropic efficiency, on the order of ten points, for low pressure ratio machines.