Performance test for the compressor of 100kW APU

100kW급 보조동력장치용 압축기 성능시험

The performance test of a centrifugal compressor for APU(Auxiliary Power Unit) which is developed by the collaborative research of KARI and Samsung TechWin has been conducted. The investigated compressor consists of a curved inlet, a centrifugal impeller, a channel diffuser and a plenum chamber. The experiments were carried out in an open-loop centrifugal compressor test rig driven by a turbine. For three different diffusers, overall performance data were obtained at 80%, 90% and 97% of design speed. For the initially designed wedge-type diffuser, test results showed that the compressor was operated at a higher mass flow rate than the design requirement. By reducing the diffuser throat area, the compressor operating range was shifted to lower mass flow rate range. The test result of redesigned wedge-type diffuser showed high pressure loss. To reduce the diffuser loss, diffuser inlet radius was increased and airfoil-type of diffuser was adopted. This airfoil-type diffuser showed reasonal results in terms of design requirement.