Similarity and cascade flow characteristics of a highly loaded helium compressor

Helium compressor is a major component of the Power Conversion Unit (PCU) used in a High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR). Because the high cost of closed cycle test and leakage problem of helium gas, air could be used as working fluid instead of helium in compressor performance tests. However, the properties of Helium are largely different from those of air, e.g. the adiabatic exponent of Helium is 1.6, while the adiabatic exponent itself is a criterion of similarity between the two compressors. The characteristics of compressor will be different due to the effect of the adiabatic exponent of working fluid, especially for highly loaded compressor working at higher inlet Mach number. In this paper, a theoretical study on the similarity between air compressor and a highly loaded helium compressor is carried out and the deviation of similarity is analyzed. Numerical simulations are then used to confirm the theoretical analysis. The results indicate that the similarity deviation could not be neglected for highly loaded compressor cascade, which means the experience and experimental results of those conventional air compressor cannot be applied directly to the design of highly loaded helium compressor. The flow characteristics of a highly loaded helium compressor at different Reynolds numbers, attack angles, Mach numbers and cascade geometries are then investigated.