The Fundamental Research And New Concepts Compressor - LTF’s new low-speed axial compressor test rig for atmospheric and sub-atmospheric operation

This paper introduces the Fundamental Research And New Concepts Compressor FRANCC of the Institute of Turbomachinery and Flight Propulsion (LTF) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The compressor is a 3.5-stage low-speed axial research compressor designed to investigate new blading concepts, such as tandem and hybrid blades in a representative, multistage environment. The test rig features an inlet throttling system to lower the absolute pressure level to 250 mbar to investigate the influence of the Reynolds number on the blade’s performance. The measurement system consists of fixed pressure and temperature instrumentation as well as a traversing system for aerodynamic probes downstream of each blade row. Besides the concept of the test rig, the testing and data processing methodology is presented in this paper. Following a commissioning phase, the first scientific test campaign using a configuration with conventional (single-blade) rotors and tandem stator vanes has now been completed, showing dependable results with high-quality resolution. Building on the tandem design and using the modularity of the test rig, further projects are already being planned and prepared.     «

This paper introduces the Fundamental Research And New Concepts Compressor FRANCC of the Institute of Turbomachinery and Flight Propulsion (LTF) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The compressor is a 3.5-stage low-speed axial research compressor designed to investigate new blading concepts, such as tandem and hybrid blades in a representative, multistage environment. The test rig features an inlet throttling system to lower the absolute pressure level to 250 mbar to investigate the...     »