• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 유체기계공업학회 2006년 제4회 한국유체공학학술대회 논문집
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• pp.157-160
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• 2006

A turbo-expander is developed for the regeneration in the expansion process. The turbo-expander operates in the partial admission and supersonic flow, and an axial-type single stage turbine is applied to the turbo-expander. Its outer diameter is 82mm and the operating gas is R134a. A 15kW reciprocating compressor is applied in this experiment and the turbo-expander is installed in the expansion process instead of the commonly using expansion valve. Two supersonic nozzles are applied for the expansion process. The high speed of R 134a after passing the supersonic nozzles gives the impulse force to the turbo-expander and some powers are generated on this process. A generator is installed at the end of the turbo-expander shaft. The generating output power from the turbo-expander is controlled by the power controller. Pressures and temperatures are measured on the lines for the performance investigation. More than 600W/(kg/sec) are generated in this experiment.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.114-121
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• 2005

As fuel cell system is environmental friendly generator, its performance depends on its air supply system. Because, fuel cell stack generates electrical energy by electron and the electron is generated by reacting between air and hydrogen. So, more and more compressed air is supplied, more and more the energy can be obtained. In this study, turbo-expander supported by air foil bearing is introduced as the air supply system used by fuel cell systems. The turbo-expander is a turbo machine which operates at high speed, so air foil bearings suit its purpose for the bearing elements. Analysis for confirming the stability and endurance is conducted. Based on FDM and Newton-Raphson method, characteristics of air foil bearing, dynamic coefficients, pressure field and load capacity, are obtained. Using the characteristics of air foil bearing, the rotordynamic analysis is performed by finite element method. The analysis (stability analysis and critical speed map) shows that turbo-expander is stability at running speed. After the analysis, the test process and results are presented. The goals of test are running up to 90,000 RPM, flow rate of 150 $m^3/h$ and pressure ratio of 1.15. The test results show that the aerodynamic performance and stability of turbo-expander are satisfied to the primary goals.

• 한국가스학회지
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• 제19권6호
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• pp.72-79
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• 2015

천연가스 감압기지에 터보팽창기 감압시스템을 도입하여 천연가스의 감압과정에서 전기에너지를 생산할 수 있다. 터보팽창기의 효율은 천연가스의 유량과 터보팽창기 설계유량의 비에 따라 달라진다. 따라서 터보팽창기로 들어가는 유량을 조절함으로써 감압시스템을 운전하기 위한 최적조건을 결정할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 두 곳의 저압 정압기지에서 천연가스의 압력이 17.5 bar에서 8.5 bar로 감압될 때 천연가스의 유량에 따라 생산 가능한 전력을 계산하고 계산결과의 비교를 통해 터보팽창기 감압시스템이 최적으로 운전되기 위한 조건을 찾았다. 천연가스의 평균 유량이 크고 유량의 변화가 작을 때 터보팽창기가 효율적으로 운전되었고 터보팽창기의 설계유량은 천연가스의 유량을 가장 많이 포함하는 용량에서 결정되었다. 선정된 두 정압기지에서 회수 가능한 전력생산량은 9 MW(B 기지), 12 MW(D 기지)로 추산되었다.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.41-46
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• 2015

Recently, the development of the HTS power cable is actively promoted. As the length of HTS power cable increases, there have been many efforts to develop large capacity cryocooler. Among the various cryocooler, the Brayton refrigerator is the most competitive for HTS power cable. The Brayton refrigerator is composed of recuperative heat exchangers, a compressor, and a cryogenic turbo expander. In these components, the cryogenic turbo expander is a part to decrease the temperature and it is the most significant component that is closely related with overall system efficiency. It rotates with high speed using a high-pressure helium or neon gas at cryogenic temperature. This paper describes the design of a 10 kW class Brayton refrigeration cycle and the cryogenic turbo expander. Flow and structural analysis are performed for the rotating impeller and nozzle to verify the efficiency and the design performance.

• 한국가스학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.74-81
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• 2019

천연가스 운송기지에서 전기에너지를 회수하기위하여 팽창 터빈시스템을 사용하는 것은 잘 알려진 기술이다. 터보팽창기의 효율은 천연가스의 유량과 터보팽창기 설계유량의 비에 따라 달라진다. 그러나 감압기지에서 계절적 공급패턴, 즉 여름에는 낮은 유량으로 반면에 겨울에는 높은 유량으로 공급되기 때문에, 단일 터보팽창기로는 낮은 유량의 천연가스로부터 감압에너지를 충분히 회수하기가 비효율적이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 대용량과 소용량의 이중 터보팽창기의 새로운 개념을 제안하게 되었다. 본 연구에서는 저압 정압기지에서 팽창밸브의 평균 입구, 출구 압력조건인 18.5 bar에서 7.5 bar로 감압될 때 입구의 온도, 유량조건에 따라서 생산 가능한 전력을 이론적 배경을 통해 계산하였다. 최저 설계 효율 0.72에서 회수 가능한 전력생산량은 단일 터보팽창기로 운전될 때에는 12.4 MW이었으나, 여기서 제안한 이중터보팽창기에서는 16.1 MW로 약 30% 증가한 결과를 얻게 되었다.

• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.129-135
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• 2016

There have been many types of development and commercialization efforts for superconducting power applications with the continuous development of High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) conductors. In particular, HTS power cables are going to be commercialized in real power grids. A cryogenic refrigeration system should be used to keep it below 77 K, and its required cooling capacity continuously increases as the unit length of the HTS power cable increases. Among the many kinds of cryogenic refrigerator, a reverse Brayton refrigerator that uses turbo expanders is a promising refrigerator due to its efficiency and reliability. Among the various components in refrigerators, the cryogenic turbo-expander is the most important part for increasing efficiency and assuring reliability. The design of a 300 W class turbo-expander is described in this paper prior to the development of a 10 kW class turbo expander, which is the required capability for the commercialization of a HTS power cable. The impeller shape and rotation speed are determined based on the cycle analysis. The Eigen frequency and harmonic analysis are conducted with gas bearings at cryogenic temperatures to determine the operational stability.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제37권3호
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• pp.91-98
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• 2021

This paper presents a hydrostatic bearing design and rotordynamic analysis of a turbo expander for a hydrogen liquefaction plant. Th~e turbo expander includes the turbine and compressor wheel assembled to a shaft supported by two hydrostatic radial and thrust bearings. The rated speed is 75,000 rpm and the rated power is 6 kW. For the bearing operation, we use pressurized air at 8.5 bar as the lubricant that is supplied to the bearing through the orifice restrictor. We calculate the bearing stiffness and flow rate for various gauge pressure ratios and select the orifice diameter providing the maximum bearing stiffness. Additionally, we conduct a rotordynamic analysis based on the calculated bearing stiffness and damping considering design parameters of the turbo expander. The predicted Cambell diagram indicates that there are two critical speeds under the rated speed and there exists a sufficient separation margin for the rated speed. In addition, the predicted rotor vibration is under 1 ㎛ at the rated speed. We conduct the operating test of the turbo expander in the test rig. For the operation, we supply pressurized air to the turbine and monitor the shaft vibration during the test. The test results show that there are two critical speeds under the rated speed, and the shaft vibration is controlled under 2.5 ㎛.

• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.141-148
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• 2015

The cryogenic cooling system should maintain the HTS power cable below 77 K. As the length of HTS power cables has increased, there have been many efforts to develop large capacity cryocoolers. Brayton, Joule-Thomson, and Claude refrigerators were considered for the large capacity cryocooler. Among the various cryocoolers, the Brayton refrigerator is the most competitive in terms of the HTS power cable. At present, it is thought that a 10-kW class refrigerator will be able to be used as a unit cooling system for the commercialization of HTS power cables in the near future. The Brayton refrigerator is composed of recuperative heat exchangers, a compressor, and a cryogenic turbo expander. Among the various components, the cryogenic turbo expander is the part that decreases the temperature, and it is the most significant component that is closely related with overall system efficiency. It rotates at high speed using high-pressure helium or neon gas at cryogenic temperatures. This paper describes the design of a 300-W class Brayton refrigeration cycle and the cryogenic turbo expander as a downscale model for the practical 10-kW class cycle. Flow and structural analyses are performed on the rotating impeller and nozzle to verify the efficiency and the design performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.33-40
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• 2022

In this study, we present rotor dynamic analysis and operation test of a turbo expander for a hydrogen liquefaction plant. The turbo expander consists of a turbine and compressor wheel connected to a shaft supported by two hydrostatic radial and thrust bearings. In rotor dynamic analysis, the shaft is modeled as a rigid body, and the equations of motion for the shaft are solved using the unsteady Reynolds equation. Additionally, the operating test of the turbo expander has been performed in the test rig. Pressurized helium is supplied to the bearings at 8.5 bar. Furthermore, we monitor the shaft vibration and flow rate of the helium supplied to the bearings. The rotor dynamic analysis result shows that there are two critical speeds related with the rigid body mode under 40,000 rpm. At the first critical speed of 36,000 rpm, the vibration at the compressor side is maximum, whereas that of the turbine is maximum at the second critical speed of 40,000 rpm. The predicted maximum shaft vibration is 3 ㎛, whereas sub-synchronous vibration is not presented. The operation test results show that there are two critical speeds under the rated speed, and the measured vibration value agrees well with predicted value. The measured flow rate of the helium supplied to the bearing is 2.0 g/s, which also agrees well with the predicted data.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.299-305
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• 2016

초전도 전력 케이블의 상용화 노력에 따라 점차 장선화 되면서, 단위 냉각 시스템당 냉각용량이 큰 대용량 냉동기의 필요성이 증가하고 있다. 국내에서는 극저온 냉동기에 대한 기술 부족으로 인해 현재 극저온 냉동기는 해외 선진사로부터 고가의 비용으로 수입되고 있다. 초전도 전력 케이블의 상용화를 위해서는 대용량 브레이튼 냉동기의 국내 개발이 시급하다. 대용량 브레이튼 냉동기의 구성은 복열식 열교환기, 압축기, 극저온 터보 팽창기로 구성되어 있으며, 냉동기 효율과 가장 직접적인 연관이 있는 것은 극저온 터보 팽창기이다. 극저온 터보 팽창기는 극저온에서 고속으로 회전하면서 고압의 헬륨 혹은 네온 가스를 팽창시켜 온도를 낮추는 역할을 한다. 본 논문에서는 역브레이튼 냉동 사이클을 설계하고, 이에 적합한 극저온 터보 팽창기를 설계하였다.