Towards enabling high quality testing of modern high-pressure ratio turbomachines, the laboratory is establishing a new test facility driven by a 315kW ABB motor with variable speed drive. The tested geometry is scaled and connected to the motor via a step-up gearbox with a ratio of 15.5:1. The duct and the test section will be instrumented and beyond measuring the aerothermal performance via pressure and thermocouple probes, the facility is intended to allow performing detailed acoustic measurements using range of microphones, signal conditioners and amplifiers. Baseline noise measurements will be conducted in the far field via free-field microphones evenly spaced between 0-180°, while the duct measurements will be performed through a rotating inlet, with microphones in two opposite axial rows. Rotation is added due to the three-dimensional behavior of a sound propagation, which allows to obtain an accurate sound footprint of the tested geometry. In addition, EMFi surface microphones (piezo layers sandwiched between two metal sheets with a total thickness of 100µm) can be attached to the stators and the housing in order to
quantify the unsteady pressure field.
