ABSTRACT
All turbomachinery flows are governed by the laws of conservation of mass, momentum, energy, and so forth. A good understanding and an accurate application of these laws are critical to the physics-based design of each turbomachine. Such an understanding cannot be relegated to any design tool (software), which should be viewed simply as a computational aid (the modern version of a slide rule) to bring speed into the design process. This chapter is primarily focused on the review and reinforcement of the key conservation laws, related concepts, and mathematical relations, which are helpful for the aerothermodynamic design of turbomachinery primary flowpaths. They also enable accurate performance evaluation of these machines against design specifications. An important aspect of turbomachinery flowpath design is to understand the sources and mechanisms of various losses and how to minimize them for a nearly isentropic design with maximum efficiency.
