CFD Simulation and Experimental Study of Working Process of Screw Refrigeration Compressor with R134a

Abstract

Twin-screw refrigeration compressors have been widely used in many industry applications due to their unique advantages. The performance of twin-screw refrigeration compressors is generally predicted by one-dimensional numerical simulation or empirical methods; however, the above methods cannot obtain the distribution of the fluid pressure field and temperature field inside the compressor. In this paper, a three-dimensional model was established based on the experimental twin-screw refrigeration compressor. The internal flow field of the twin-screw compressor was simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software using structured dynamic grid technology. The flow and thermodynamic characteristics of the fluid inside the compressor were analyzed. The distribution of the internal pressure field, temperature field, and velocity field in the compressor were obtained. Comparing the P-θ indicator diagram and the performance parameters of the compressor with the experimental results, it was found that the results of the three-dimensional numerical simulation were consistent with the experimental data. The maximum error was up to 2.578% on the adiabatic efficiency at the partial load working condition. The accuracy of the 3D numerical simulation of the screw compressors was validated and a new method for predicting the performance of twin-screw refrigeration compressors was presented that will be helpful in their design.

A Review of Recent Research and Application Progress in Screw Machines

“…The special rotor grid generator for rotary positive displacement machines, TwinMesh, also purposely contains the module for twin-screw machines, but can only be used in the CFD solver, ANSYS CFX. As a case, Wu et al [73,74] applied the TwinMesh to generate the rotor grid for a refrigeration TSC. Additionally, some common commercial software, such as Gambit [75] and STAR-CCM+ [76], can also be used to generate dynamic grids for twin-screw machines, but are hardly used owing to the inconvenience.…”

“…Table 1 summarizes the key information of recently reported CFD simulations of screw machines. The CFD simulation makes it possible to simulate the pressure distribution, temperature distribution, velocity distribution, and so on of the full 3D fields in space [73,75,76,80], and thus is more accurate and can provide a better understanding of the working process within twin-screw machines compared with other kinds of models. Therefore, the CFD model sometimes was used to validate the lump model [63].…”

Investigation of radial gap size change under load and the impact on performance for a twin screw compressor using numerical simulation

“…Here, the rotational periodicity of the rotor pair is considered, so that the set of grids is only generated for one pitch angle, i. e. 90° (360° divided by the number of male rotor lobes). This meshing approach and the CFD models were validated for a 2-stage screw compressor [5], a screw refrigeration compressor [6], and a screw expander [7], and in several confidential projects for clients.…”

Analisis Getaran pada Screw Compressor Akibat Pengaruh Putaran Rotor

“…Beberapa kompresor sekrup dilengkapi dengan timing gear dan adanya oli sebagai salah-satu kebutuhan kompresor yang diperlukan. Wu, et al [8], profil rotor menentukan karakteristik kebocoran dan karakteristik dinamis dari kompresor sekrup. Baik penutupan dan distribusi torsi sebagai prinsip dasar dari profil rotor.…”