The M.I.T. Blowdown Compressor Facility

Abstract

A Blowdown Compressor Test Facility has been developed which allows aerodynamic testing of full-scale compressor stages at low cost. The rotor is brought to speed in vacuum, a diaphragm is opened, and the test gas allowed to flow for a time of the order of one tenth second, during which the rotor is driven by its own inertia. Both "steady state" performance evaluation and detailed time resolution of the flow on the blade-passing time scale have been demonstrated in a preliminary way for a two-foot diameter transonic rotor with tangential Mach number of 1.2 and nominal pressure ratio of 1.6.