A Study of the Flow Patterns in an Impeller Channel of a Radial Turbine : In the Case of a Radial Blade Impeller

Abstract

Results of some experimental investigations of flow in rotating impeller passages of a radial turbine are presented. Velocity and static pressure measurements were made with a yaw meter probe fitted within the impeller channel of the rotating impeller. The influences of two performance parameters, i.e. non-dimensional weight flow and non-dimensional rotation speed on the flow behavior within the impeller passage are shown. Further, the flow patterns in blade-to-blade planes are shown for three different passage depthes. In addition, a theoretical analysis for mixed flow type is made, which includes the inward-flow type as a special case. For the necessary boundary values at inlet of the impeller in the theoritical study, we use the values observed in the experiment. Theoretical results show a fairly good agreement with the experimental data.