Centrifugal Compressor - Theory of Operation

Theory of Operation

Imagine a simple case where flow passes through a straight pipe to enter centrifugal compressor. The simple flow is straight, uniform and has no vorticity. As illustrated below α1=0 deg. As the flow continues to pass into and through the centrifugal impeller, the impeller forces the flow to spin faster and faster. According to a form of Euler's fluid dynamics equation, known as "pump and turbine equation," the energy input to the fluid is proportional to the flow's local spinning velocity multiplied by the local impeller tangential velocity.

In many cases the flow leaving centrifugal impeller is near the speed of sound (340 metres/second). The flow then typically flows through a stationary compressor causing it to decelerate. As described in Bernoulli's principle, this reduction in velocity causes the pressure to rise leading to a compressed fluid.

Read more about this topic:  Centrifugal Compressor

Famous quotes containing the words theory of, theory and/or operation:

    The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any- price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
    Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

    Could Shakespeare give a theory of Shakespeare?
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis. We call intuition here the sympathy by which one is transported into the interior of an object in order to coincide with what there is unique and consequently inexpressible in it. Analysis, on the contrary, is the operation which reduces the object to elements already known.
    Henri Bergson (1859–1941)