Title: Supercritical carbon dioxide turbomachinery development using scaling methodology, computational fluid dynamics and experimental testing in aeroloop

Authors: Vijayaraj Kunniyoor; Punit Singh

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore-560012, India ' Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER), Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore-560012, India

Abstract: Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO₂) turbomachinery design experience is limited. This paper examines similarity-based scaling strategy to develop a radial inflow turbine and a centrifugal compressor from existing proven designs for a 50 kW_e SCO₂ Brayton cycle. The SCO₂ turbine and compressor are developed from well-established NASA 1730 air turbine and NASA 4613 radial pump, respectively. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations with air and SCO₂ and experimental testing in aeroloop are carried out for the developed turbomachinery. The results are compared with original NASA test data. For the turbine, the CFD simulation and experimental results were in good agreement with NASA data. For the compressor, CFD simulation results with SCO₂ showed good conformance especially the efficiency values, which were much lower for air. The compressor experimental results were well away from the NASA data when head rise coefficient was considered, but the flow coefficient zone coincided with that of simulation.

Keywords: supercritical CO₂; Brayton cycle; scaling; computational fluid dynamic; CFD; turbine; compressor.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2021.112619

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2021 Vol.21 No.1, pp.19 - 37

Received: 17 Oct 2019
Accepted: 21 Jan 2020
Published online: 25 Jan 2021 *

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