I know that there is a TAG or Turbo Air Guide available that claims to straighten out the turbulent air flow at the turbo inlet, but I have also had quite a bit of experience with turbine engines and was wondering about something. Has anyone done any experimentation with inlet guide vanes or stators? They induce an oposite rotation to the air so that the turbine wheel gets a bigger bite of air. This works great on jet engines. It would seem to me that this technology would work in turbochargers too. Or is this the "tornado" I see advertised?

 

Centrifugal gas compressors often use adjustable inlet guide vanes that allow one to direct the gas straight into the impeller eye or to impart velocity in the same direction or opposite direction of impeller rotation to optimize the head/flow characteristics of the compressor.

It's certainly do-able, but without the turbo's compressor maps and/or a fully instrumented bootstrap testing rig, it would be pretty difficult to predict compressor performance with a lot of confidence.

Rusty

 

I agree... However, GE Aircraft Engine Group sure used to do a lot of whatifwe testing...

 

'04 CTDs now have guide stators stock but still benifit from a TAG.

 

Hey, I'm not naysaying at all. Test away - just not on my pore ole turbo!

My problem would be fitting the inlet guide vanes between my TAG and the impeller.

Rusty