This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of real gas effects on the performance and matching of centrifugal compressors operating in supercritical CO2. The analytical framework combines first principles based modeling with targeted numerical simulations to characterize the internal flow behavior of supercritical fluids with implications for radial turbomachinery design and analysis. Trends in gas dynamic behavior, not observed for ideal fluids, are investigated using influence coefficients for compressible channel flow derived for real gas. The variation in the properties of CO2 and the expansion through the vapor-pressure curve due to local flow acceleration are identified as possible mechanisms for performance and operability issues observed near the critical point. The performance of a centrifugal compressor stage is assessed at different thermodynamic conditions relative to the critical point using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations. The results indicate a reduction of 9% in the choke margin of the stage compared to its performance at ideal gas conditions due to variations in real gas properties. Compressor stage matching is also impacted by real gas effects as the excursion in corrected mass flow per unit area from inlet to outlet increases by 5%. Investigation of the flow field near the impeller leading edge at high flow coefficients shows that local flow acceleration causes the thermodynamic conditions to reach the vapor-pressure curve. The significance of two-phase flow effects is determined through a nondimensional parameter that relates the time required for liquid droplet formation to the residence time of the flow under saturation conditions. Applying this criterion to the candidate compressor stage shows that condensation is not a concern at the investigated operating conditions. In the immediate vicinity of the critical point however, this effect is expected to become more prominent. While the focus of this analysis is on supercritical CO2 compressors for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), the methodology is directly applicable to other nonconventional fluids and applications.
Carbon capture and storage could significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. One of the major limitations of this technology is the energy penalty for the compression of CO2 to supercritical conditions. To reduce the power requirements, supercritical carbon dioxide compressors must operate near saturation where phase change effects are important. Nonequilibrium condensation can occur at the leading edge of the compressor, causing performance and stability issues. The characterization of the fluid at these conditions is vital to enable advanced compressor designs at enhanced efficiency levels but the analysis is challenging due to the lack of data on metastable fluid properties. In this paper, we assess the behavior and nucleation characteristics of high-pressure subcooled CO2 during the expansion in a de Laval nozzle. The assessment is conducted with numerical calculations and corroborated by experimental measurements. The Wilson line is determined via optical measurements in the range of 41–82 bar. The state of the metastable fluid is characterized through pressure and density measurements, with the latter obtained in a first-of-its-kind laser interferometry setup. The inlet conditions of the nozzle are moved close to the critical point to allow for reduced margins to condensation. The analysis suggests that direct extrapolation using the Span and Wagner equation of state (S–W EOS) model yields results within 2% of the experimental data. The results are applied to define inlet conditions for a supercritical carbon dioxide compressor. Full-scale compressor experiments demonstrate that the reduced inlet temperature can decrease the shaft power input by 16%.
Supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) power cycles have demonstrated significant performance improvements in concentrated solar and nuclear applications. These cycles promise an increase in thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency of up to 50% over conventional gas turbines (Wright, S., 2012, “Overview of S-CO2 Power Cycles,” Mech. Eng., 134(1), pp. 40–43), and have become a priority for research, development, and deployment. In these applications the CO2 is compressed to pressures above the critical value using radial compressors. The thermodynamic state change of the working fluid is close to the critical point and near the vapor–liquid equilibrium region where phase change effects are important. This paper presents a systematic assessment of condensation on the performance and stability of centrifugal compressors operating in S-CO2. The approach combines numerical simulations with experimental tests. The objectives are to assess the relative importance of two-phase effects on the internal flow behavior and to define the implications for radial turbomachinery design. The condensation onset is investigated in a systematic manner approaching the critical point. A nondimensional criterion is established that determines whether condensation might occur. This criterion relates the time required for stable liquid droplets to form, which depends on the expansion through the vapor–pressure curve, and the residence time of the flow under saturated conditions. Two-phase flow effects can be considered negligible when the ratio of the two time scales is much smaller than unity. The study shows that condensation is not a concern away from the critical point. Numerical two-phase calculations supported by experimental data indicate that the timescale associated with nucleation is much longer than the residence time of the flow in the saturated region, leaving little opportunity for the fluid to condense. Pressure measurements in a converging diverging nozzle show that condensation cannot occur at the level of subcooling characteristic of radial compressors away from the critical point. The implications are not limited to S-CO2 power cycles but extend to applications of radial machines for dense, saturated gases. In the immediate vicinity of the critical point, two-phase effects are expected to become more prominent due to longer residence times. However, the singular behavior of thermodynamic properties at the critical point prevents the numerical schemes from capturing important gas dynamic effects. These limitations require experimental assessment, which is the focus of ongoing and future research.
This paper presents a design strategy for very low flow coefficient multistage compressors operating with supercritical CO2 for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). At flow coefficients less than 0.01, the stage efficiency is much reduced due to dissipation in the gas-path and more prominent leakage and windage losses. Instead of using a vaneless diffuser as is standard design practice in such applications, the current design employs a vaned diffuser to decrease the meridional velocity and to widen the gas path. The aim is to achieve a step change in performance. The impeller exit width is increased in a systematic parameter study to explore the limitations of this design strategy and to define the upper limit in efficiency gain. The design strategy is applied to a full-scale reinjection compressor currently in service. Three-dimensional, steady, supercritical CO2 computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the full stage with leakage flows are carried out with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) real gas model. The design study suggests that a nondimensional impeller exit width parameter b2* = (b2/R)ϕ of six yields a 3.5 point increase in adiabatic efficiency relative to that of a conventional compressor design with vaneless diffuser. Furthermore, it is shown that in such stages the vaned diffuser limits the overall stability and that the onset of rotating stall is likely caused by vortex shedding near the diffuser leading edge. The inverse of the nondimensional impeller exit width parameter b2* can be interpreted as the Rossby number. The investigation shows that, for very low flow coefficient designs, the Coriolis accelerations dominate the relative flow accelerations, which leads to inverted swirl angle distributions at impeller exit. Combined with the two-orders-of-magnitude higher Reynolds number for supercritical CO2, the leading edge vortex shedding occurs at lower flow coefficients than in air suggesting an improved stall margin.
A stochastic sub-grid model for the droplet breakup in Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is developed. An Eulerian description of the continuous phase is adopted and fully coupled with a Lagrangian definition of the dispersed phase. A stochastic model is incorporated into the equation describing the evolution of the spray pdf in order to simulate the atomisation of sprays in the framework of uncorrelated breakup events.The results of the simulations are compared with experimental data from a diesel injector and in spray in cross flows.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.