| dc.description.abstract | The development of sidestreams for industrial centrifugal compressors presents many difficult challenges for aerodynamic designers. Most often, past practice dictated the configurations used for new applications. However, as end user’s demanded higher performance and improved predictability, better design methodologies had to be developed. More effective use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes was an obvious solution. However, to properly use such codes, they must be calibrated or validated against available test data. To this end, the OEM funded an extensive project combining model testing with detailed CFD analyses. The goal was to establish more rigorous design and analysis guidelines for incoming sidestreams. Under the project, two sidestream configurations were model tested and analyzed. The test rig, instrumentation, and test program are described in detail. Comparisons are made between the measured data and CFD results. Comments are offered regarding the agreement in the experimental and computational results. Similarities between the model test results and those obtained from a production compressor are also discussed. Finally, observations are presented relative to the use CFD as a sidestream design tool. | en |
