Application of CFD Method to Investigate the Evolution of the Thermodynamic Parameters of a Hyper Compressor and Its Pipelines

Bin Zhao, Huan Wei, Yifeng Zhai, Jianmei Feng and Xueyuan Peng
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Bin Zhao: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Huan Wei: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Yifeng Zhai: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Jianmei Feng: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Xueyuan Peng: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: Hyper compressors are key facilities for producing the low-density polyethylene with discharge pressure up to 350 MPa. Such high pressure brings great challenges to the design of the hyper compressor in many aspects. In this paper, a 3D transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with inlet and outlet pipelines is built to investigate the thermodynamic performance of a hyper compressor. To realize the interaction between the thermodynamic processes and the pressure pulsation through valve dynamics, the pressures across the valve surfaces were monitored to the dynamic equation of the poppet valve. Then, structured grids were generated for the flow domain inside the valve, and the entire numerical model was solved by a commercial code: ANSYS Fluent. Consequently, the p-V diagram, the valve motion and pressure pulsation could be acquired simultaneously. The results of the numerical model showed that the exponents of the expansion and compression processes were 5.12 and 13.22, which were much larger than the common compressor. The maximal pressure pulsations were 13.25% and 22.07%, which occurred in the suction and discharge chambers, respectively. Severe flutter happened during the opening process of the suction valve due to the high incompressibility of the ethylene.

Keywords: CFD; hyper compressor; valve dynamics; thermodynamic process; pressure pulsation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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