Effect of Compressor Inlet Condition on Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Compressor Performance

Abstract

Supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton power cycle has attracted a lot of attention around the world in energy conversion field. It takes advantage of the high density of CO2 near the critical point while maintaining low viscosity to reduce compressor power and achieve high cycle efficiency. However, as CO2 approaches to its critical point, the thermodynamic properties of CO2 vary dramatically with small changes in temperature or pressure. As a result, the density of the working fluid varies significantly at the compressor inlet in the practical cycle if operating near the critical point, especially for small-scale cycles and air-cooled cycles, which leads to compressors operating out of the flow range, even being damaged. Concerns of large density variations at the inlet of the compressor result in S-CO2 compressor designers selecting compressor inlet conditions away from the critical point, thereby increasing compressor power. In this paper, a criterion to choose inlet pressure and inlet temperature of compressors as the design inlet condition is proposed, which is guaranteeing ±50% change in inlet specific volume within ±3 °C variation in inlet temperature. By the criterion, 8 MPa and 34.7 °C is selected as the design inlet condition. According to design requirements of the cycle, a S-CO2 centrifugal compressor is designed through 1-D design methodology. Based on the two-zone model, the effects of compressor inlet condition including inlet pressure and inlet temperature on the compressor performance are analyzed in detail. In practical operation, the compressor inlet condition is varied. Thus, an accurate prediction of compressor performance under different inlet conditions is necessary. The traditional correction method is not suitable for S-CO2 compressor. Dimensionless specific enthalpy rise is used to correct pressure ratio by the real gas table. And the S-CO2 compressor performance can be predicted correctly under different inlet conditions.