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Impact of the Lubricant on a Modified Revolving Vane Expander (M-RVE) in an Organic Rankine Cycle System
oleh: Ali Naseri, Ramin Moradi, Luca Cioccolanti, Alison Subiantoro
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2023-07-01 |
Deskripsi
The expansion device is the critical component of micro-to-small scale organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems, substantially affecting system efficiency and cost. Low isentropic efficiency and lubrication requirements are the main issues associated with using volumetric expanders in ORC systems. Despite lubrication contributing to reducing internal leakages in an expander, it may compromise the performance of the ORC system by adversely affecting the evaporator’s thermal capacity. This study tests a recently developed and modified revolving vane expander (M-RVE) in a micro-scale ORC test rig by implementing an adjustable oil mass flow rate. The impact of the lubricant oil on the performance of the M-RVE prototype is investigated within a wide range of oil circulation rates (<i>OCR</i>). The results demonstrate a negligible improvement in the filling factor for <i>OCR</i>s higher than 1%. Moreover, the shaft power is not considerably sensitive to <i>OCR</i>, while the calculated isentropic efficiency of the expander improves with <i>OCR</i>. Furthermore, the impact of the lubricant oil on the performance of the evaporator is studied, assuming the exact <i>OCR</i> as the expander and measured temperature and pressure similar to the pure refrigerant for the lubricant-refrigerant mixture in the evaporator. The study shows that the evaporator capacity is penalized with <i>OCR</i>, especially for values higher than 1%. Hence, an <i>OCR</i> of about 1% is a good compromise, and it can be used as a guideline for designing revolving vane expanders for micro-scale ORC systems without a dedicated lubricant oil circuit.