DOI QR Code
(Green Energy System Technology Center, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology)
;
(Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education)
Visualization of internal flow of a regenerative blower has been made by injecting a tracer directly into the flow. For the convenience of visualization, working fluid has been replaced by water and marbling color oil has been used as a tracer. Oil droplet has been injected near the inlet of the blower and the streak has been recorded using a high speed camera with the illumination of high power light sources. At first, droplets have irregular motion in the near inlet area and enter into a groove of the impeller. Then the droplets circulate inside the groove while translated by the rotational motion of the impeller. When the droplets get out of the impeller groove, their speed is lower than that of impeller. And the droplets repeatedly enter into the groove and circulate inside the grooves. Then the droplets either flow to the outlet or reenter into the inlet area through stripper. Through this experimental study, internally circulating motion of the flow inside a regenerative blower has been characterized.