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Compressor maps are developed by the manufacturer of dynamic compressors. They are compressor equivalents of the pump performance curves. It is the performance chart of a specific compressor which manufacturer calculates and draws up for the unique design characteristics of that compressor. An example of an air compressor from a car turbocharger is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Sample air compressor map A compressor map is two dimensional and has all the information an engineer needs for design purposes. In the sample compressor map represented in figure-1, the blue curved lines represent compressor curves for different impeller speed values with the uppermost line being the maximum speed that the compressor can reach. The skewed ellipses are the efficiency islands or the efficiency areas. The Y axis is the pressure ratio which is explained below and the X axis is the air / gas flow before the turbo. To read of a point from the compressor map is straight forward. For example the red circled point on the map, represents compressor output of 520 CFM (corrected air
flow) at a pressure ratio of 2.1. At this point the compressor is spinning at 144000 rpm and has an efficiency of only 61% (indicated by the corresponding efficiency area).
different compressor is required. At the maximum flow point, compressor efficiency is at its lowest so it is highly desirable to use a different compressor. The maximum discharge pressure that a compressor can achieve is found using the uppermost point on the map. At this point the pressure ratio can be found and using the formula above the outlet pressure can be calculated. Compressor maps are very important in design of systems because they give you vital information on surge, choke and compressor speeds. They also let you know if your compressor is going to be efficient enough for your application.