A series of conical and annular diffuser geometries was tested in the National Research Council's 10 ft ×20 ft propulsion tunnel, under conditions of non-uniform inlet velocity distribution, generated by the operation of a short entry pipe in cross flow.
The results suggest a wide applicability of the simple distortion factor, defined by the ratio of maximum to mean velocity in the inlet cross-section, to the prediction of pressure recovery in diffusers and diffuser exit settling pipes.
A marked effect of inflow distortion on optimum diffuser geometry was indicated. The correlation of Sovran and Klomp was corroborated for the range of inlet distortion factor pertaining to the original data.
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