Detailed experimental investigation was carried out to document the effects of vaneless diffuser diameter and width ratios on the fundamental characteristics of flow perturbation in the vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal blower. In addition, a benchmark set of experimental data will be provided to aid numerical investigation of instabilities in the vaneless diffuser flowfield in particular and the entire compression system in general. The current data showed that a decrease of the diffuser width, at constant impeller angular speed, resulted in a decrease of the critical flow coefficient. The data further revealed that a decrease in the diffuser diameter ratio, resulted in an increase in the frequency of rotating stall. Variation of the diffuser width does not have any appreciable effect on the frequency of rotating stall. The effects of flow coefficient on stall characteristics are also reported.

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