Performance Measurements of a Low Specific Speed TurboClaw® Compressor

Abstract

Low specific speed compressors have been historically based on positive displacement machines. Attempts to bring advantages of turbomachinery such as oil free, low parts counts, low cost of manufacture, and reliability to low flow rate applications have not been sparse, but the principle difficulty has always been that the conventional turbomachine design operates at ultra-high speed to deliver low volume flow rates. This is synonymous with low efficiency due to higher losses (windage, surface finish, and tip clearances). The innovative TurboClaw® design is a low specific speed turbomachinery with forward swept impeller geometry. It owes its high efficiency and operational stability to careful design of its nearly tangential forward swept blading and diffuser geometry.