Ricerc@Sapienza

An analysis of the erosion due to water droplet on a compressor blade is performed. The study reports the erosion patterns due to droplets of 15 μm diameter dragged by the main flow. An analysis of the droplets dynamics and erosion patterns is provided. The study put in evidence the influence of the tip leakage vortex and the separation close to the hub on the droplet motion and erosion patterns.

Here, a new model for predicting the water droplet erosion (WDE) from online water washing in compressors is developed and its results are discussed in comparisons with a baseline model. The model development started with the analysis of existing WDE models as well as pertinent experimental campaigns aiming at extracting a comprehensive erosion model able to account for the influence of droplet velocity and diameter, impact angle, surface roughness and hardness on the erosion phenomena.

Recent year witnessed an increasing interest in online water washing technique since it allows to minimize compressor performance losses in the time interval between two off line washing. However, the washing capability and the related erosion risk depend on several parameters such as the injection duration , the d roplet size , the s pray angle , the water mass flow rate and the i nje ctor position s The influence of such parameters on the washing capability and erosion rate is analysed .