Development of test facility at BARC for large flow turboexpanders

High speed high flow turboexpander test setup is an important and necessary facility for performance evaluation of a new class of aerostatic bearing based turboexpanders involving rotor dynamic and thermodynamic studies and establishing the reliability of operation. The large flow turboexpander test facility is developed along with its various subsystems and emergency systems. The set-up development process along with trial runs with turboexpanders conducted on the test facility are reported in this paper.