Experimental Techniques for Turbomachinery Development
"What sort of pressure transducer should I use for this measurement?"
"How often do transducers need calibrating?"
"Can a thermocouple measure the true total temperature?"
"I want to make some LDV measurements, but my manager needs a strong case before he will authorize the equipment. What do I need to know?"
"To get my turbine capacity right, I need to know the exit flow angle to 0.1°, but the lab says they can only measure it to 0.5°. What is the problem?"
"We have this vibration problem that no one understands. What instrumentation do I need, and how should I use it to localize the problem?"
"How accurate are these test data? How do I make an uncertainty analysis?"
Every turbomachinery engineer comes up with questions like these at some time. Laboratory and test stand work is at the heart of all machinery development programs. This course provides engineers with a comprehensive understanding of experimental evaluation and practical development for all types of turbomachines.
The course is highly practical. Participants will make several visits to the laboratory to view demonstrations of instruments and equipment described in the lectures. They will have opportunities for hands-on experience in simple but practical measurements and data reduction.
Many companies use multihole pressure probe traverses for development, but how many engineers know the real problems? In this course you can do a manual probe traverse in a simple blower rig and acquire informative insights into the strengths and weaknesses of this technique.
Instructors
- Dr. David Japikse
- Mr. David M. Karon
- Mr. Daniel V. Hinch
- Mr. Michael J. Platt
The course instructors are engineers actively involved in the management and day-to-day activities of Concepts NREC’s test laboratories. Together, they provide unrivaled range and depth of experience in fluid dynamic and structural evaluations of pumps, fans, compressors, and turbines. Concepts NREC’s laboratories use pneumatic and thermal probes and traverses; hot-wire, hot-film, and laser anemometers; vibration monitoring and machine diagnostic equipment; high frequency pressure transducers; and proximity probes. Data acquisition systems, laboratory software, traversing equipment, and probes are all designed and calibrated. The laboratory is one of the world’s most active and up-to-date turbomachine test facilities.
Course Goals
- Understand the importance of effective experimental data in turbomachinery design, development, and operation.
- Learn how to plan and organize a test program.
- Find out how instruments are designed and selected to meet necessary objectives.
- Become familiar with the selection and operation of many common measurement instruments and methods.
- Learn how to extract the maximum amount of information from test data.
- Understand when performance measurements can be misleading.
- Understand how effective modeling is based on analysis plus critical measurement data.
Course Outline
Introduction:
- Importance of measurement evaluation
Tools for fluid dynamic evaluation:
- Pressure measurements
- Temperature measurements
- Flow traverses
- Hot-wire and hot-film anemometry
- Laser velocimetry
- Flow visualization
Tools for structural evaluation:
- Stress measurement and failure evaluation
- Vibration testing
- Laser Doppler vibrometry
- Designing a test program:
- Program organization
- Data acquisition
- Uncertainty analysis
Using test data in design and analysis:
- Similitude and design correlations
- Development of meanline flow models
- Three-dimensional flow field measurement
Graduate Course Credit
Graduate credit may be earned for this course by qualified participants who register for course number ME 248 with the University of Vermont and complete the course and approved homework study. The course grade will appear on a University of Vermont transcript and may be transferred to other graduate programs in most recognized colleges and universities in the USA. Contact the Course Registrar at Concepts NREC for more details.
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