Effects of leakage and friction on the miniaturization of a Wankel compressor

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical simulation of the performance of a meso-scale Wankel compressor and discusses the factors affecting its miniaturization. The discussion is related to the effect of leakage and friction on the design limit (cooling capacity and dimension) of the meso Wankel compressor. In the simulation, the main leakage comes from the gaps between the rotor and the endplates as well as between the seal apex and the cylinder. The largest friction originates from the clearance among the end face of the eccentric shaft, the end faces of the rotor, and the endplates. The decreasing cooling capacity of the meso Wankel compressor increases the proportion of leakage to displacement and causes the coefficient of performance COP and the mechanical efficiency to decrease. The rational design cooling capacity limit for the meso-scale Wankel compressor is approximately 4 W.

Keywords

meso-scale / Wankel compressor / leakage / friction

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50976067).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg