A study of a green coupled vane compressor

Abstract

Frictional loss is one of the main factors which affects the compressors’ overall performance. High frictional loss can lead to higher energy consumption. In this paper, the current compressor’s vane design has been studied to reduce the frictional loss and other power losses. The mathematical models were formulated by the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student Mr. Pradeep Shakya. With the help of the models, the thermodynamic effects, and power losses results can be observed through a mathematical model written in ForTran programming language. In this study, various modifications of vane design are considered. The simulation results of the modifications suggested that the dimension of the vane tip radius and space between the vane neck with the other vane root have significant effect on the overall compressor’s efficiency. Modifying these two dimensions helped in minimising the overall power losses on the compressor. The results also suggested that through combining both modifications on the vane design for the given compressor, can lead to a better compressor performance. The simulation results showed that the modifications on the vane tip radius together with the total vane length bring about an improvement on the overall efficiencies by approximate to 3%