A Design Tool for Supercritical CO2 Radial Compressors Based on the Two-Zone Model

In supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) cycles, the compressor inlet conditions are selected near the critical point where compressibility factor reaches values as low as 0.2. Consequently, conventional compressor design approaches formulated for fluids obeying the ideal gas law are not verified. Therefore, this paper proposes a design approach for sCO2 radial compressors that consists of a performance prediction model in addition to a set of geometry parameters suitable for radial compressors. The compressor model is based on the two-zone modeling approach, in which the Span and Wagner equation of state for CO2 is integrated. At first, the compressor model is presented in addition to the required correlations. Afterwards, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the model main parameters. Thereafter, a plausibility check is performed against experimentally obtained data. Finally, an overall design approach is proposed and its capability to deliver new geometries is assessed by comparing the tool predictions against the results from a verified CFD code for several test cases. The Comparison shows a maximum deviation of less than 2 percent for the pressure ratio and less than 3.5 percentage points for the efficiency. The results indicate the ability of the proposed approach to predict the performance of sCO2 compressor from correlations that originate from experience with conventional fluids. Additionally, the adopted geometric relations proved its applicability to sCO2 compressors.