Experimental Study on a Supercritical CO2 Centrifugal Compressor Used in a MWe Scale Power Cycle

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 385
• Main Authors: Zhu, Yuming, Liang, Shiqiang, Guo, Chaohong, Guo, Yongxian, Li, Zhigang, Gong, Xinyu, Jiang, Yuyan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Accuracy; Carbon dioxide; centrifugal compressor; Centrifugal compressors; Design; Efficiency; experiment; Flow coefficients; Mass flow; MWe scale; Physical properties; Pressure ratio; Resistance thermometers; Simulation; supercritical CO2; Test systems
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app13010385

The centrifugal compressor is the core component of supercritical CO2 power cycle, and its performance and operation stability are research hotspots. However, there are few experimental studies, especially for compressors used in Mwe-scale power cycles. In this paper, based on a 1 MWe supercritical CO2 power cycle, a single-stage centrifugal supercritical CO2 compressor is designed with speed of 40,000 RPM, a pressure ratio of 2.5 and a mass flow of 16.3 kg/s. In order to carry out the compressor test, a general experimental platform for MWe sCO2 compressors is built. In the test, the mass flow range is 13.5~18 kg/s and the maximum experimental pressure ratio is close to 2.0. The performance curve of the compressor of 31,000 ± 1000 RPM is obtained, and the historical curve of the experiment is given. Then, the experimental curve is compared with the design curve using a dimensionless method. The isentropic head coefficient of the experimental curve is lower than the design value, and the experimental curves shift towards the boundary of small flow coefficient. Finally, the influence of compressor inlet condensation on compressor performance and the change of operating boundary is preliminarily explained.