Response of centrifugal blowers to simulated tornado transients, July-September 1981

During this quarter, quasi-steady and dynamic testing of the 24-in. centrifugal blower was completed using the blowdown facility located at New Mexico State University. The data were obtained using a new digital data-acquisition system. Software was developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to reduce the dynamic test data and create computer-generated movies showing the dynamic performance of the blower under simulated tornado transient pressure conditions relative to its quasi-steady-state performance. Currently, quadrant-four (outrunning flow) data have been reduced for the most severe and a less severe tornado pressure transient. The results indicate that both the quasi-steady and dynamic blower performance are very similar. Some hysteresis in the dynamic performance occurs because of rotational inertia effects in the blower rotor and drive system. Currently quadrant-two (backflow) data are being transferred to the LTSS computer system at Los Alamos and will be reduced shortly