Thermal Deformation Analysis of a Scroll Compressor for Automobile according to the Change of Materials

An inverter scroll compressor is used for the air conditioning in cars. Scrolls would be changed from the aluminum material to the magnesium material in order to satisfy the light weight trends of cars. The material changing influences on the scroll dimensions particularly the gap between two scrolls. Since the larger gap declines the performance of the compression, the gap between wraps of scrolls or the gap between wraps of scrolls to the plate of the opposite scroll is regarded as an important design variable. This paper is focused on the effects of the thermal stress due to the materials changing. The temperature difference between the inlet and the outlet is about 60 degrees and the highest operating temperature in the compressor is less than 110 degrees. The level of thermal stresses in the magnesium scroll is less than the result from aluminum one. The trend of the deformation is revealed that the normal directional deformation is 2 times lager than the in-plane directional deformation. Therefore the gap between the top of the wrap to the plate of the opposite scroll become more important than the other gaps. The orbiting scroll deforms larger than the fixed scroll by the thermal stresses. The deformation of the magnesium scroll is about 10% lager than that of the aluminum scroll. This value is similar to the ratio of the coefficients of thermal expansion of two materials. At the initial design stage, the results give many useful guides to engineers to propose gaps between parts.