Experimental Investigation of Aqueous Foam based Heat Transfer in Liquid Piston Compressor for Improvement in Compression Efficiency

摘要

Development of an efficient compressor for many compressor applications relies on the success of achieving isothermal compression. Isothermal compression calls for a significantly higher heat transfer rate during the compression process. A high surface area for heat transfer and a high heat transfer coefficient of aqueous foam can be useful in achieving a significantly higher heat transfer rate in the compression chamber. In this experimental study, an aqueous foam based heat transfer is investigated in a liquid piston compressor. It was observed that the use of aqueous foam in the compression chamber is very effective in reducing the temperature of air during the compression process. A higher volume of aqueous foam in the compression chamber leads to a further increment in isothermal efficiency, however, with a higher variability. The higher variability is due to the higher cyclic variability of the temperature profiles during compression. A completely filled compression chamber with aqueous foam shows a 4-8% improvement in the compression efficiency for a compression ratio of 2.5.