Investigation Concerning the Blade Loading of Centrifugal Impellers

An investigation concerning the optimum blade loading of centrifugal impellers was performed. The three impellers with straight radial blades employed in the present study were of the same configurations except the shroud profiles which rendered to bring different diffusion ratios from each other. The static pressure distributions on blade surfaces, flow patterns within the impeller channel as well as at impeller inlet and at outlet were measured for these impellers. The effect of a secondary flow within impeller channel was clarified to some extent from the measurements. Theoretical investigation was also performed in order to compare with the experimental data.