Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Pressure Losses at Suction of a Twin Screw Compressor

9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems

Arjeneh, M.^1 ; Kovacevic, A.^1 ; Rane, S.^1 ; Manolis, M.^1 ; Stosic, N.^1

Centre for Positive Displacement Compressor Technology, City University London, London

EC1V 0HB, United Kingdom^1

关键词: Experimental investigations;    Flow calculations;    Multiphase fluids;    Numerical meshes;    Operating condition;    Pressure variations;    Screw compressors;    Single-phase flow;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012006/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012006

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Rotary twin screw machines are used in the wide range of industrial applications and are capable of handling single and multiphase fluids as compressors, expanders and pumps. Concentration of liquid in the inlet flow can influence the performance of the machine significantly. Characteristics of the multiphase flow at the suction of a screw compressor depend on the local flow velocities and concentration. Local flow velocity measurements inside the screw compressors are difficult to obtain. However other flow properties such as local pressures are easier to attain. It is therefore useful to carry out experiments with local pressure variations in the suction which can be used to validate the 3D numerical Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models that could help in studying the single and multiphase flow behaviour in screw compressors. This paper presents experimental efforts to measure the local pressure losses inside the suction plenum of the screw compressor. Pressure variations are measured at 23 locations in the suction port at various operating conditions and compared with 3D CFD model. The grid generator SCORGTMwas used for generating numerical mesh of rotors. The flow calculations were carried out using commercial 3D solver ANSYS CFX. It was found that the local pressure changes predicted by the CFD model are in the good agreement with measured pressures. This validated the use of CFD for modelling of the single phase flows in suction of screw machines.