A GAS COMPRESSOR USING MAGNETIC FLUID - 4TH REPORT, TEST OF A NEW APPARATUS HAVING COILED CHANNEL AND ROTATING PERMANENT MAGNETS

摘要

Development of a gas compressor using magnetic fluid (MF in abbreviation) and traveling magnetism has been under way. In the compressor, a number of discrete MF slugs are moved in a coiled channel with an external traveling magnetism, and gas sucked between the MF slugs are forced to flow and thus compressed. Since each MF slug functions as a piston in a positive-displacement-type compressor, no mechanical moving parts causing vibration and noise exist in the compressor. Following to previous studies in this series, a new-type compressor has been designed, and tested experimentally. In the new-type one, in order to make the magnetism strong, 12 pairs of very strong permanent magnets, NEOMAX-48, were fixed on outer surface of a rotor inside the coiled channel. The rotor was rotated with magnetic attractive force generated by a 24-poles stator coil outside of the channel, and its rotational velocity was controlled with an inverter, which supplies 3-phase AC into the stator coil. In the experiment, in order to study the compressor performances, the maximum discharge pressure and the discharge rate of the gas at a fixed discharge pressure were measured at various rotational velocities. As a result, the maximum discharge pressure was raised up to about 600 kPa, 4 times higher than the latest type. In this paper, modifications of design in the new type from the latest type have been described in detail together with a comparison of experimental results between them.