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Design and investigation of a partial admission radial 2.5‐kW organic Rankine cycle micro‐turbine
Author(s) -
Rzadkowski Romuald,
Zywica Grzegorz,
Kaczmarczyk Tomasz Z.,
Koprowski Arkadiusz,
Dominiczak Krzysztof,
Szczepanik Ryszard,
Kowalski Miroslaw
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.5670
Subject(s) - organic rankine cycle , turbine , computational fluid dynamics , mechanical engineering , working fluid , engineering , turbulence , mechanics , waste heat , aerospace engineering , heat exchanger , physics
Summary In recent years, organic Rankine cycle (ORC) micro‐turbine distributed energy systems have become increasingly popular. Design methods for this type of fluid‐flow machinery are still being developed. In this paper, a 2.5‐kW radial‐flow four‐stage ORC micro‐turbine with HFE7100 is experimentally and numerically analysed. CFX ANSYS was used for the numerical analysis as well as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in‐house code based on finite volume discretisation with Godunov‐type upwind differencing, a high‐resolution essentially non‐oscillatory (ENO) scheme and a turbulence model with two‐equation shear stress transport (SST). The experimental stand and measurements are described. The numerical results are compared with experimental ones and prove to be satisfactory. The developed micro‐turbine does not require the use of any traditional lubricant (oil‐free technology) because the bearings are lubricated with the vapour of the low‐boiling HFE7100. The developed micro‐turbine is an innovative solution providing maintenance‐free operation and high durability with low friction losses. The experimental studies have also confirmed a considerable reduction in noise and vibration levels.