Experimental study of radial low specific speed turbocompressor running in reverse as turboexpander

摘要

This paper includes small market research in the field of turboexpanders. The market research includes list of applications as well as list of some of major manufacturers of turboexpander. During the course of this research numbers of experiments were carried out to assess the performance of a small turboexpander with 65mm diameter rotor operating at relatively low speeds in comparison to standard radial turbines. The output power of the turboexpander was calculated based on the electrical output of the loading generator. The turbine rotor comprised of a TurboClaw compressor operating in reverse with two set of experiments for the following nozzles; as expander with single nozzle and a set of six nozzles. It was found that even for a non optimised geometry (rotor is a compressor not a turbine) the system efficiency for micro turboexpander is excellent.