The design and analysis of pipe diffusers for centrifugal compressors

The geometry of the region between the impeller tip and diffuser throat is accepted as being very influential, little understood and crucial to the pe rformance of centrifugal compressors. This paper presents an experimental i nvestigation of the flow in this region where the diffusing section of the compressor is of the 'pipe diffuser' configuration. The results are present ed with an emphasis on design-type correlations. The principal features und er investigation were the size of the diffuser throat and the influence of the number of diffuser passages.