Andrea Spinelli

Design of a Test Rig for Organic Vapours

A blow-down wind tunnel for real gas applications has been designed to characterize an organic vapour stream by independent measurements of pressure, temperature and velocity. Experiments are meant to investigate flow fields representative of expansions taking place in Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) turbines. Strong real gas effects, high Mach numbers and approximations affecting the calculated properties of novel compounds, make the knowledge of ORC turbine blade passage flow field still rather limited. A significant enhancement of turbines efficiency is expected from detailed investigations on expansion streams. Despite Organic Cycles have attracted large research efforts in recent years, present days design tools still suffer from a lack of relevant experimental data. So far, ideal gas test cases and equilibrium measurements have supported separately CFD and thermodynamic model validations. These considerations prove the relevance of such a test rig. This paper discusses the design and the final layout of the facility, whose construction is currently in progress. A straight axis supersonic nozzle has been chosen as test section for early tests; investigations on blade cascades are foreseen in the future. Due to high stream densities and temperatures, a throat size compatible with probes intrusion made a continuous cycle plant unaffordable, requiring an input thermal power of around 2.5 MW. A reduction to 30 kW has been achieved by adopting a blow-down tunnel: the fluid, slowly vaporized in a high pressure vessel, feeds the nozzle at a lower pressure. The vapour is then collected in a low pressure tank and condensed. The loop is closed by liquid compression through a pump. Such a batch operating system also offers the option to select test/condensation pressures and temperatures, allowing experimentation of a wide variety of working fluids, even though new ORC compounds (e.g. Siloxanes, Fluorocarbons) remain of major interest. Maximum temperature and pressure are 400 °C and 50 bar. Despite the unsteady operational mode, the inlet nozzle pressure can be kept constant by a control valve. Depending on the fluid and test pressure, experiments may last from 20 seconds to several minutes, while their set-up requires a few hours. Fast response pressure transducers, pressure probes and thermocouples have been selected for thermodynamic measurements; Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) and Schlieren techniques allow direct measurements of velocity and flow visualization. The design has been carried out with a lumped parameter approach, using Siloxane MDM and Hydrofluorocarbon R245fa as reference compounds and FluidProp® for properties calculation.Copyright

Preliminary characterization of an expanding flow of siloxane vapor MDM

The early experimental results on the characterization of expanding flows of siloxane vapor MDM (C8H24O2Si3, octamethyltrisiloxane) are presented. The measurements were performed on the Test Rig for Organic VApors (TROVA) at the CREA Laboratory of Politecnico di Milano. The TROVA test-rig was built in order to investigate the non-ideal compressible-fluid behavior of typical expanding flows occurring within organic Rankine cycles (ORC) turbine passages. The test rig implements a batch Rankine cycle where a planar converging-diverging nozzle replaces the turbine and represents a test section. Investigations related to both fields of non-ideal compressible-fluid dynamics fundamentals and turbomachinery are allowed. The nozzle can be operated with different working fluids and operating conditions aiming at measuring independently the pressure, the temperature and the velocity field and thus providing data to verify the thermo-fluid dynamic models adopted to predict the behavior of these flows. The limiting values of pressure and temperature are 50 bar and 400 °C respectively. The early measurements are performed along the nozzle axis, where an isentropic process is expected to occur. In particular, the results reported here refer to the nozzle operated in adapted conditions using the siloxane vapor MDM as working fluid in thermodynamic regions where mild to medium non-ideal compressible-fluid effects are present. Both total temperature and total pressure of the nozzle are measured upstream of the test section, while static pressure are measured along the nozzle axis. Schlieren visualizations are also carried out in order to complement the pressure measurement with information about the 2D density gradient field. The Laser Doppler Velocimetry technique is planned to be used in the future for velocity measurements. The measured flow field has also been interpreted by resorting to the quasi-one-dimensional theory and two dimensional CFD viscous calculation. In both cases state-of-the-art thermodynamic models were applied.

Preliminary design of a supercritical CO2 wind tunnel

The preliminary design of a test-rig for non-ideal compressible-fluid flows of carbon dioxide is presented. The test-rig is conceived to investigate supersonic flows that are relevant to the study of non-ideal compressible-fluid flows in the close proximity of the critical point and of the liquid-vapor saturation curve, to the investigation of drop nucleation in compressors operating with supercritical carbon dioxide and and to the study of flow conditions similar to those encountered in turbines for Organic Rankine Cycle applications. Three different configurations are presented and examined: a batch-operating test-rig, a closed-loop Brayton cycle and a closed-loop Rankine cycle. The latter is preferred for its versatility and for economic reasons. A preliminary design of the main components is reported, including the heat exchangers, the chiller, the pumps and the test section.

Experimental And Numerical Analysis Of Supersonic Blade Profiles Developed For Highly Loaded Impulse Type Steam Turbine Stages

The paper describes the results of a numerical and experimental research program addressing the aerodynamic investigation on the performance of blade profiles specifically developed for application in highly loaded impulse type turbine stages. The industrial requirements driving toward the adoption of highly loaded stage solutions are presented, along with an estimation of the profiles operating parameters. Two stator vanes and one rotor blade profile have been developed and extensively tested by means of flow field measurements and schlieren visualization in a transonic blow-down wind tunnel for linear cascades. Experimental results for the relevant operating conditions are presented, providing validation data for the CFD model used for blade design and evidencing that the main goals of the design optimization procedure have been achieved.