A geometric study of different curves for the rotor profiles of a twin-screw compressor

Abstract

This paper presents the results of comparisons among some patented solutions for profiling the contours of the rotors in twin-screw compressors. Referring to a base case where all the generating curves are circumferences, patents suggesting to replace arcs of circumference with arcs of conic sections, i.e. parabola, ellipse and hyperbola, but even a straight line segment, are presented and guidelines for rotor profile construction are reported. After setting the size of the compressor, attention is paid to the inter-lobe area, as the sum of the area between two consecutive lobes in the male rotor and of the area of the groove in the female rotor. Actually, this area is strictly related to the volume displacement. Limited to the current case study, the profile including an elliptic segment seems to be the preferable solution for higher inter-lobe area, then for higher displacement, though a number of considerations should be necessary for a broader context.