Investigating the Effect of Rotor Design Changes on Mechanical Losses Due to Rotor-Fluid Interaction

Abstract

The overall efficiency of high-speed rotating machines depends largely on their mechanical efficiency. Mechanical efficiency is not just a matter of bearing losses, but includes all interactions of the rotor with the environment. Analytical and empirical descriptions of turbulent or laminar flow around rotating surfaces have been used to estimate the mechanical losses of a turbocharger rotor based on geometric parameters and operating conditions. Based on the knowledge of the effect of each parameter, design changes to the rotor were proposed. The positive effect of simple design modifications on mechanical losses was experimentally verified by measurements on a test turbocharger.

Flutter Measurement of a Linear Turbine Blade Cascade with an Angular Position Deviation of One Blade

“…Rotor blades are never identical, and their mode shapes may be affected by geometric variations due to unintended manufacturing and assembly errors or even intentional design modifications [12,13]. In general, experimental methods for performance or stability analysis of coupled fluid-structure systems require sophisticated approaches and advanced system identification and data processing techniques [14][15][16][17][18].…”