Compressible flow in a novel radial turbo compressor: simulation and experimental validation

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Lockhart Industries Inc. have developed an extremely versatile radial compressor based on the shear flow turbomachine concept proposed by Nicola Tesla in the early 1900s. The compressor pushes a gas between multiple closely-spaced disks rotating on a shaft. Whereas in traditional designs frictional viscous forces between the gas and the moving components tend to decrease the efficiency of the device, the viscous forces in the proposed device is the main driving force for the flow compressing the gas. Theoretically, the design should achieve very high compression ratios at large component efficiencies within a much smaller size than existing compressors-ideal for compact refrigeration systems, residential thermal management systems, and other applications in the energy and heating/ventilation sector. To verify the theoretical basis of the design and assist its commercial development, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations will be conducted for compressible conditions involving carbon dioxide. The simulations will employ OpenFOAM-an open-source CFD software-and will be validated through a complementary experimental campaign involving a scaled physical prototype. Gas compression is a major cause of the energy required for refrigeration, air conditioning, and indoor climate control systems. Moreover, the technology could be used in advanced heat-recovery systems to recover waste heat from industrial processes, where 20-50% of the energy consumed by Canadian manufacturing processes is lost as waste heat in exhaust streams. As such, the technology has potential to reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of the energy, residential, and commercial building sectors in Canada.