The design and analysis of pipe diffusers for centrifugal compressors

Abstract The geometry of the region between the impeller tip and diffuser throat is accepted as being very influential, little understood and crucial to the performance of centrifugal compressors. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the flow in this region where the diffusing section of the compressor is of the ‘pipe diffuser’ configuration. The results are presented with an emphasis on design-type correlations. The principal features under investigation were the size of the diffuser throat and the influence of the number of diffuser passages.