Unsteady Pressure Measurements in a High-Speed Centrifugal Compressor

This paper presents the unsteady data acquisition system used to measure the pressure field in high speed compressors. Details and electronic sketches are given for the conditioners developed in-house that have been used to amplify and to filter the pressure signal with the aim of acquiring data up to 150 kHz. A discussion of the experimental results carried out in a centrifugal compressor is proposed. Through different processing of the pressure signals and a comparison with URANS simulations, the excitation of the pressure transducers by the pressure waves generated by shock waves that occur between the impeller and the diffuser is highlighted. The levels of pressure fluctuations measured when entering into surge are also presented and reveal very repetitive behaviour of the flow instabilities.