The Internal Cooling of Reciprocating Compressor Parts (ICRC) is a promising technology to reduce the temperature of the thermally stressed piston and piston rod of process gas compressors. The underlying heat transport is based on the flow of a two-phase cooling medium that is contained in the hollow reciprocating assembly. The reciprocating motion forces the phases to mix, enabling an enhanced heat transfer. In order to investigate this heat transfer, experimental results from a vertically reciprocating hollow rod are presented that show the influence of different liquid charges for different working temperatures. In addition, pressure sensors are used for a crank angle dependent analysis of the fluid mechanical processes inside the rod. The results serve to investigate the two-phase flow in terms of the velocity and distribution of the liquid and vapour phase for different liquid fractions.
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