• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.6-19
• /
• 2014

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has been widely used to convert renewable energy such as solar energy, geothermal energy, or waste energy etc., to electric power. For a small scale output power less than 10 kW, turbo-expander is not widely used than positive displacement expander. However, the turbo-expander has merits that it can operate well at off-design points. Usually, the available thermal energy for a small scale ORC is not supplied continuously. So, the mass flowrate should be adjusted in the expander to maintain the cycle. In this study, nozzles was adopted as stator to control the mass flowrate, and radial-type turbine was used as expander. The turbine operated at partial admission. R245fa was adopted as working fluid, and supersonic nozzle was designed to get the supersonic flow at the nozzle exit. When the inlet operating condition of the working fluid was varied corresponding to the fluctuation of the available thermal energy, optimal operating condition was investigated at off-design due to the variation of mass flowrate.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.67-72
• /
• 2007

In this paper, numerical results for 3-D supersonic turbine flow have been firstly compared with the experimental results to verify results computed by $Fine^{TM}/Turbo$. It was found that $Fine^{TM}/Turbo$ can accurately predict flow characteristics within supersonic turbine. Next, an grid system for 3D turbine flow was optimized selected through grid independency test. Finally, the effect of axial gap between rotor and nozzle and chamfer angle of blade edge on the flow characteristics within 3-D supersonic turbine was analyzed with Frozen Rotor method.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2005.12a
• /
• pp.481-487
• /
• 2005

A turbopump turbine consists of rotational part including a rotor and stationary part including nozzles and exit guide vanes, of which shape and relative position affect turbine performance owing to supersonic flows with prevailing unsteadiness. In this study, numerical 3-D flow calculations of the turbine with the different number of exit guide vanes and different relative position of each component are conducted and the effect of flow passage variations on turbine performance is analyzed.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.8 no.6 s.33
• /
• pp.26-32
• /
• 2005

1.6 MW class supersonic partial admission impulse turbine has been designed and tested in Korea Aerospace Research Institute for the liquid rocket engine application. The test has been performed using a high pressure air source facility in KARI. For the turbine power absorption, a hydraulic dynamometer has been used. Appropriate similarity relations are used for the determination of test condition. Various settings of turbine pressure ratio and rotational speed are tested to investigate global turbine characteristics. From measured data, parameters related to the turbine design are derived and validated.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2004.12a
• /
• pp.125-131
• /
• 2004

1.6 MW class supersonic partial admission impulse turbine has been designed and tested in Korea Aerospace Research Institute for the liquid rocket engine application. The test has been performed using a high pressure air source facility in KARI. For the turbine power absorption, a hydraulic dynamometer is used. Appropriate similarity relations are used for the determination of test condition. Various settings of turbine pressure ratio and rotational speed are tested to investigate global turbine characteristics. From measured data, Parameters related to the turbine design are derived and validated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.143-148
• /
• 2007

An impulse turbine, which is a main component of a liquid rocket engine, needs to be a small size with light weight and generate large power. Since the impulse turbine is being operated under complicated supersonic conditions, flow analysis and performance prediction largely depend on CFD technique. In order to increase the reliability of the prediction code, however, it often requires an experimental data to compare. In this research a rotating turbine rotor with multiple blades is simulated with a two-dimensional stationary cascade to check the effect of major flow parameters. Mach number is measured at nozzle exit by using a pitot tube and the blade thrust was also measured with a load cell. The measured thrust coefficient and the power are compared well with the designed conditions, which proves the design procedures are properly taken.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.293-301
• /
• 2017

A Sub-kWe small-scale experimental test loop was manufactured to investigate characteristics of the supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle. A high-speed turbo-generator was also designed and manufactured. The designed rotational speed of this turbo-generator was 200,000 rpm. Because of the low expansion ratio through the turbine and low mass flowrate, the rotational speed of the turbo-generator was high. Therefore, it was difficult to select the rotating parts and design the turbine wheel, axial force balance and rotor dynamics in the lab-scale experimental test loop. Using only one channel of the nozzle, the partial admission method was adapted to reduce the rotational speed of the rotor. This was the world's first approach to the supercritical carbon dioxide turbo-generator. A cold-run test using nitrogen gas under an atmospheric condition was conducted to observe the effect of the partial admission nozzle on the rotor dynamics. The vibration level of the rotor was obtained using a gap sensor, and the results showed that the effect of the partial admission nozzle on the rotor dynamics was allowable.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.39 no.8
• /
• pp.735-743
• /
• 2011

In this study, the distribution of surface pressure was measured in a steady state on a turbine blade which was moved the injected region and receded the stagnation region using a linear cascade apparatus. Axial-type blades were used and the blade chord was 200mm. The rectangular nozzle was applied and its size was $200mm{\times}200mm$. The experiment was done at $3{\times}10^5$ of Reynolds number based on the chord. The surface pressures on the blade were measured at three different nozzle angles of $58^{\circ}$, $65^{\circ}$ and $72^{\circ}$ for off-design performance test. In addition, three different solidities of 1.25, 1.38 and 1.67 were applied. From the results, the low solidity caused the low pressure on the blade suction surface at entering region and the reverse rotating force was generated at the low nozzle angle. The positive incidence also made the pressure lower on the suction surface at entering region.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 2014

Organic Rankine Cycle is widely used to convert the low-grade thermal energy to the electrical energy. However, usually available thermal energy is not supplied constantly. This makes hard to use positive displacement expanders. Hence, turbo-expander has merits to apply as an expander in ORC because it can operate well off-design points even though the mass flowrate is fluctuated. The thermal energy fluctuation causes the turbo-expander to operate in partial admission. In addition, supersonic nozzles are required so that the partially admitted turbine operates efficiently. In this study, R245fa was chosen as a working fluid of ORC. A design method and an analysis technique of supersonic nozzle based on R245fa were developed. The shape of the nozzle was designed by the characteristic method. The thermal properties within the nozzle were estimated and the predicted results were agreed well with the computed results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.36 no.9
• /
• pp.898-906
• /
• 2008

A tested turbine consists of two stages, and an axial-type and a radial-type turbine are applied to the first and second stage, respectively. The mean diameter of the axial-type turbine rotor is 70 mm, and the outer diameter of the radial-type turbine is 68mm at the inlet. In this experiment, an axial-type turbine, two different radial-type turbines, and three different nozzle flow angles are applied to find the optimal design parameters. To compare the turbine performance, the net specific output torque is evaluated. The test results show that the nozzle flow angle on the first stage is a more important parameter than other design parameters for partially admitted small turbines to obtain high operating torque. For a 3.4% partial admission rate, the net specific output torque is increased by 13% with the addition of a radial-type rotor to the second stage when the turbine operates at $75^{\circ}$ nozzle flow angle.