Similarity model for predicting the performance of an R718 compressor

Abstract

A general compression refrigeration system consists of a compressor, condenser, pressure-reducing valve, and evaporator to induce phase changes in the refrigerant. The performance of the compression refrigeration system strongly depends on the type and characteristics of the refrigerant. However, synthetic refrigerants such as chlorofluorocarbon, hydrochloro-fluorocarbon, and hydrofluorocarbon directly affect the environment as greenhouse gases and indirectly affect the environment by generating substances as they decompose. Thus, researchers have been focusing on developing refrigerants with a low or zero global warming potential. R718 (i.e. water) is an ecofriendly refrigerant, but its specific volume rapidly changes between the liquid and gas phases. This requires making the components of the compression refrigeration system larger than normal to accommodate these volume changes, which is inefficient for manufacturing prototypes. In this study, an alternative refrigerant was applied to the design of a centrifugal compressor that uses R718 as the working fluid. To address the volume change of R718, a numerical analysis was conducted by using the similarity method, where the size of the impeller was reduced and the rotational speed was controlled. To ensure the reliability of the similarity model, its results were compared against the experimental data of the original model for verification.