An Experimental Determination of Losses in a Three-Port Wave Rotor

Abstract

Wave rotors, used in a gas turbine topping cycle, offer a potential route to higher specific power and lower specific fuel consumption. In order to calculate this potential realistically, a knowledge of the loss mechanisms is required. The experiment reported here was designed as a statistical experiment to identify the losses due to finite passage opening time, friction, and leakage, using a three-port, flow divider, wave rotor cycle. Incidence loss was also found to be important. Rotors of 12 in. diameter were used, with two different lengths, 9 in. and 18 in., and two different passage widths, 0.25 in. and 0.54 in., in order to vary friction and opening time. To vary leakage, moveable end walls were provided so that the rotor to end wall gap could be adjusted. The experiment is described, and the results are presented, together with a parametric fit to the data.