ASME) for these compressors result in large thick casings to maximize safety. The impellers are often if not always of the covered style which makes them look much like pump impellers. This type of compressor is also often termed API-style. The use of real gas properties is needed to properly design, test, and analyze their performance. Theory of operation In the case where flow passes through a straight pipe to enter a centrifugal compressor, the flow is axial, uniform, and has no vorticity, i.e. swirling motion. As the flow passes through the centrifugal impeller, the impeller forces the flow to spin faster as it gets further from the rotational axis. According to a form of Euler's fluid dynamics equation, known as the pump and turbine equation, the energy input to the fluid is proportional to the flow's local spinning velocity multiplied by the local impeller tangential velocity. In many cases, the flow leaving the centrifugal impeller is traveling near the speed of sound. It then flows through a stationary compressor causing it to decelerate. The stationary compressor is ducting with increasing flow-area where energy transformation takes place. If the flow has to be turned in a rearward direction to enter the next part of the machine, e.g. another impeller or a combustor, flow losses can be reduced by directing the flow with stationary turning vanes or individual turning pipes (pipe diffusers). As described in Bernoulli's principle, the reduction in velocity causes the pressure to rise. Performance While illustrating a gas turbine's Brayton cycle, Figure 5.1 includes example plots of pressure-specific volume and temperature-entropy. These types of plots are fundamental to understanding centrifugal compressor performance at one operating point. The two plots show that the pressure rises between the compressor inlet (station 1) and compressor exit (station 2). At the same time, the specific volume decreases while the density increases. The temperature-entropy plot shows that the temperature increases with increasing entropy (loss). Assuming dry air, and the ideal gas equation of state and an isentropic process, there is enough information to define the pressure ratio and efficiency for this one point. The compressor map is required to understand the compressor performance over its complete operating range. Figure 5.2, a centrifugal compressor performance map (either test or estimated), shows the flow, pressure ratio for each of 4 speed-lines (total of 23 data points). Also included are constant efficiency contours. Centrifugal compressor performance