Analysis of Internal Leakage across Radial Clearance in the Improved Revolving Vane (RV-i) Compressor

摘要

An improved design of the Revolving Vane (RV) compressor (Teh and Ooi, 2006) has been introduced in the accompanying paper, 'Design and Friction Analysis of the RV-i Compressor'. The efficiency of the new compressor, alike other refrigeration compressors, is primarily affected by friction and internal leakage losses, amongst which the former has been investigated. In the present paper, the leakage flow across the radial clearance between the rotor and the cylinder in the new compressor is analyzed. The dynamic characteristic of the radial clearance is theoretically formulated, and the leakage mass flow across the clearance gap is calculated based on a method proposed by Yanagisawa and Shimizu (1985a). In a comparison study, it is found that the leakage loss at the radial clearance in the RV-i compressor is typically 40 % lesser than that of the rolling piston type.