• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.21-27
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• 2018

It is difficult to fabricate and maintain moving parts of expander at cryogenic temperature. This paper describes numerical analysis and experimental investigation on a cryogenic reciprocating expander without moving piston. An intake valve which takes high-pressure gas, and an exhaust valve which discharges low-pressure gas, are connected to a tube. The inside pressure of the tube is pulsated for work production. This geometric configuration is similar to that of pulse tube refrigerator but without regenerator. An orifice valve and a reservoir are installed to control the phase of the mass flow and the pressure. At the warm end, a heat exchanger rejects the heat which is converted from the produced work of the expanded gas. For the numerical analysis, mass conservation, energy conservation, and local mass function for valves are used as the governing equations. Before performing cryogenic experiments, we carried out the expander test at room temperature and compared the performance results with the numerical results. For cryogenic experiments, the gas is pre-cooled by liquid nitrogen, and then it enters the pulse tube expander. The experiments are controlled by the opening of the orifice valve. Numerical analysis also found the expander conditions that optimize the expander performance by changing the intake pressure and valve timing as well as the opening of the orifice valve. This paper discusses the experimental data and the numerical analysis results to understand the fundamental behavior of such a newly developed non-mechanical expander and elucidate its potential feature for cryogenic application.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.42-47
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• 2016

A free-piston reciprocating expander is a device which operates without any mechanical linkage to a stationary part. Since the motion of the floating piston is only controlled by the pressure difference at two ends of the piston, this kind of expander may indispensably require a sophisticated active control system equipped with multiple valves and reservoirs. In this paper, we have suggested a novel design that can further reduce complexity of the previously developed cryogenic free-piston expander configuration. It is a simple replacement of both multiple valves and reservoirs by a combination of an orifice valve and a reservoir. The functional characteristic of the integrated orifice-reservoir configuration is similar to that of a phase controller applied in a pulse tube refrigerator so that we designate the one as a phase controller. Depending on the orifice valve size in the phase controller, the different PV work which affects the expander performance is generated. The numerical model of this unique free-piston reciprocating expander utilizing a phase controller is established to understand and analyze quantitatively the performance variation of the expander under different valve timing and orifice valve size. The room temperature experiments are carried out to examine the performance of this newly developed cryogenic expander.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.815-820
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• 2011

A scroll expander was designed for an energy converter from waste heat of IC engine coolant to useful shaft work. The scroll expander is to run in a Rankine cycle which receives heat energy transferred from engine coolant circulation cycle. The working fluid was Ethanol. For axial compliance, a back pressure chamber was provided on the rear side of the orbiting scroll. Lubrication oil was delivered by a positive displacement type oil pump driven by the shaft rotation. Performance analysis on the scroll expander showed that the expander efficiency was 63.4%. It extracts shaft power of 0.6 kW out of engine coolant waste heat of 17.5 kW, resulting in the Rankine cycle efficiency of 3.43%.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.58-63
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• 2013

This paper presents the new cascade liquefaction cycles using $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ and $CO_2-N_2O-N_2$. The performance of the cascade liquefaction cycles with respect to temperature differences in the LNG heat exchangers is analyzed using HYSYS software and then compared the performance of these cycles with phillips optimized cascade liquefaction cycle. The coefficient of performance of the new liquefaction cycles considered in this study decreases with the temperature differences in the LNG heat exchangers, but the compressor work, expander work and heat capacity in the LNG heat exchanger increases, respectively. From the comparison of performance of three cycles, the cascade liquefaction cycles using $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ showed the highest COP. And the cycles using $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ and $CO_2-N_2O-N_2$ presented the second and third highest COP, respectively. In the view of performance, the optimized cascade liquefaction cycle using $C_3H_8-C_2H_4-C_1H_4$ yields much better COP. But, in the environment view, it is found that the cascade liquefaction cycle using $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ shows favorable characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.50-56
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• 2016

In this work, the open-drive oil free air compressor is modified to activate an organic Rankine cycle system as an expanding machine. The shape of the modified scroll expander case is a rectangular parallelepiped and the size of the case is $0.0394m^3$. The scroll expander is operated in an ORC using R245fa as working fluid with various working conditions for the performance test. The test data points are used to calculate the parameters of the scroll expander semi-empirical simulation model. The simulation results are compared with the experimental results to validate the simulation model.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.12-21
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• 2014

An organic Rankine cycle was analyzed to work at the optimal operating point when the heat source is fluctuated. R245fa was adopted as a working fluid, and an axial-type turbine as expander on the cycle was designed to convert the heat energy to the electricity since the turbo-type expander works at off-design points better than the positive displacement-type expander. A supersonic nozzle was designed to increase the spouting velocity because a higher spouting velocity can produce more output power. They were designed by the method of characteristics for the operating fluid of R245fa. Three different cases, such as various spouting velocities, various inlet total temperatures, and various nozzle numbers, were studied. From these results, an optimal operating cycle can be designed with the organic Rankine cycle when the available heat source as renewable energy is low-grade temperature and fluctuated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2014

In natural gas distribution system, gas pressure is regulated correspond to requirement using throttle valve which is releasing huge pressure energy as useless form. The waste pressure can be recovered by using turbo machinery devices such as a turbo expander. In this process, excessive temperature drop occurs due to Joule-Thompson effect during the expansion process. Installing natural gas boiler before or after the turbo expander prevents temperature drop. Fuel cell or gas engine hybrid system further improve the efficiency, but 1~2% of total transporting natural gas is used for operating the hybrid system. In this study, a heat pump system is proposed as a preheating device which can be operated without using transporting natural gas. Thermodynamic analysis on evaporating and condensing temperatures and refrigerants is conducted. Results show that R717 is proper refrigerant for the hybrid system with high COP and low turbine work within the defined operating conditions. In domestic usage in Korea, the heat pump system has more economic feasibility owing to natural gas being imported with a high price of LNG form.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.103-110
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• 2003

The present work was conducted to achieve the better understanding of the performance analysis technique for the expander type air turbo ramjet engine. For this purpose, the performance analysis was carried out using a small engine(8.0kN thrust) with two types of fuels. From this analysis, at the same input condition, the thrust of methane-fueled engine was 25% lower than that of hydrogen. In addition, the case of methane shows the inapplicable engine performance cycle.(i.e., The compressor work exceeds the turbine output power) These results come mainly from the different heating value of each fuel and specific heat. This analysis also shows that, to build a same performance cycle as the hydrogen case, the methane-fueled engine requires increased air and fuel flow rates, increased turbine expansion ratio, and decreased compressor pressure ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Applied Superconductivity and Cryogenics Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.167-170
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of a series of performance tests for the Stilting cryocooler. A free piston and free displacer(FPFD) Stilting cryocooler for cooling infrared and cryo-sensors is currently under development at KIMM. Our coolers are specifically designed to work in the thermal imaging device and to meet requirements such as cooling capacity, COP and high reliability. In this work, Stilting cryocooler is designed, manufactured and fabricated, and performance characteristics for the vibration, acoustic noise, EMI and leak rate are evaluated. Vibration outputs are measured to 20KHz for compressor and expander, respectively. And, the objective of noise test is a noise level, less than 30㏈ at 5 m. EMI tests are carried out according to the standard MIL-STD-461C tests RE01 and RE02. Leak test for the Stilting cryocooler is performed by bombing method.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2014

In this paper, the performance of the $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ cascade liquefaction cycle with respect to temperature differences in the LNG heat exchangers is analyzed theoretically using HYSYS software and then compared the COP(coefficient of performance) of the cascade liquefaction cycles using $C_3H_8-C_2H_4-C_1H_4$ and $CO_2-N_2O-N_2$. In comparison of COP of three cycles, the cascade liquefaction cycles using $C_3H_8-C_2H_4-C_1H_4$ showed the highest COP. And the liquefaction cycle using $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ and $CO_2-N_2O-N_2$ presented the second and third highest COP, respectively. In case of COP, the $C_3H_8-C_2H_4-C_1H_4$ cascade liquefaction cycle yields better COP. But, in terms of the environment and maintain, it is confirmed that the cascade liquefaction cycle using $CO_2-C_2H_6-N_2$ provides favorable characteristics.