An experimental study of the performance characteristics with four different rotor blade shapes on a small mixed-type turbine

A small mixed-type turbine with a diameter of 19.9 mm has been substituted for a rotational part of pencil-type air tool. Usually, a vane-type rotor is applied to the rotational part of the air tool. However, the vane-type rotor has some problems, such as friction, abrasion, and necessity of accurate assembly etc.,. These problems make the life time of the vane-type air tool short, but air tools operated by mixed-type turbines are free of friction and abrasion because the turbine rotor dose not contact with the casing. Moreover, it is assembled easily because of no axis offset. These characteristics are merits for using air tools, but loss of power is inevitable on a non-contacting type rotor due to flow loss, tip clearance loss, and profile loss etc.,. In this study, four different rotors are tested, and their characteristics are investigated by measuring the specific output power. Additionally, optimum nozzle location against the rotor is studied. Output powers are obtained through measured pressure, temperature, torque, rotational speed, and flow rate. The experimental results obtained with four different rotors show that the rotor blade shape greatly influences to the performance, and the optimum nozzle location exists near the mid span of the rotor