Analysis of impeller blade parameters and tip clearance of turboexpander in organic Rankine cycle system

Abstract The optimization of a turboexpander can significantly improve the performance of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system, which can use in low‐temperature geothermal energy for high‐efficiency power generation. Therefore, this paper studies and optimizes the expander in the ORC of low‐temperature geothermal energy around 90°C. Firstly, the influence of impeller parameters on the performance of the expander is analyzed. Then, the grid is divided by the turbine mesh, and numerical simulation is performed by CFX. The gas state equation selects the Peng–Robinson equation, and the turbulence equation selects the SST model. Finally, the effect of tip clearance on the performance of the expander was studied. Research on impeller blade parameters shows that with the increase in the outer diameter of the impeller blade outlet, the isentropic efficiency of the expander decreases, and the output power increases. As the increase in the angle between the direction of the impeller blade and the meridian plane, the outlet velocity of the blade increases, the temperature decreases, and the efficiency and control of the turboexpander will decrease. The meridional section width has few effects on the performance of the expander. The study of the tip clearance by numerical simulation shows that the existence of tip clearance will cause clearance flow between pressure surface and suction surface that interferes with the mainstream direction. When the tip clearance increases from 0 mm to 1.2 mm, the efficiency of the expander is reduced by 8.9%.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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