Experimental method on the port flow of the wave rotor

A wave rotor can serve a gas turbine aero-engine as a pressure exchanger, and its timeaveraged port flows reflect how the gas turbine engine utilizes it as a component, so the port flow properties are worth detailed investigations. This work presents an experimental method to investigate the wave rotor port flows. It is based on a newly established four-port throughflow wave rotor experimental rig. This experimental method performs detailed measurements on the port flow. The measurements are conducted very close to the critical sections of the rotor ends. A movable thermometer is utilized to measure the temperature distributions with relatively high spatial resolutions. Uncertainty quantifications were conducted for each type of measurement. Experiments validated its feasibility and its capability to study the in-depth flow mechanisms in wave rotors.