Can we really compare the fluids here?  Does air react the same as water
under these conditions?

tc

It does under most conditions. Flow rates and RPM's are different of course.
Water tunnels are frequently used to visualize aerodynamic flows.
I think we had a big discussion on this awhile back.

Paul Lamar

Bill Freeman wrote:

Paul,

I think you are missing a couple of critical points when comparing a air
compressor
to a water pump.  The air cannot 'cavitate' when pressure reaches some critical
low pressre (change phase) like the water can.  Also, the air is
compressible and
the water is not.  These are very big differences in behavior at the inlet and
outlet conditions.  I would not expect the two machines to behave the same
at unusual conditions.  Possibly similar at the middle of their performance
ranges, but not likely the same  at the margins of the perf maps.

Bill
Long EZ builder & pilot
mechanical engineer

 
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