Estimating the Influence of Pulsating Flow Conditions on the Performance of a Turbine

Performance of both radial and axial turbines under non-steady flow conditions is of considerable interest to the mechanical engineer. In this paper a new method of estimating turbine performance under such conditions, based on the authors idea of ‘mean effective turbine expansion ratio’ (m.e.t.e.r) has been described and a digital computer programme to evaluate the ‘pulse factor’ presented. The method has been sucessfully used by the author in real-time digital, hybrid and analog computer simulations for the prediction of transient performance of a turbocharged diesel engine. Good agreement was achieved between the predicted and test-bed results.