DESIGN OF WANKEL COMPRESSOR

M. Senthil kumar1, R.Visonth2

1 2

Student, Narasu's Sarathy Institute of Technology,Poosaripatty,Omalur,Salem District,Tamil Nadu, India Student, Narasu's Sarathy Institute of Technology,Poosaripatty,Omalur,Salem District,Tamil Nadu, India E-mail: msenthilkumar@live.in

ABSTRACT
Design of a rotary Wankel compressor is presented here. The compressor is primarily designed for a hand-held power generation system, based on a modified Brayton cycle. The small size of the overall system makes the conventional design rules and concepts inappropriate, thus requiring new design concepts for the compressor and other components. In the current design, the major axis of the epitrochoid is 14 mm. The three-lobed rotor is driven by a drive shaft through an internal gear system such that each revolution of the rotor corresponds to 3 revolutions of the drive shaft and 6 compression strokes. There are two intake ports and two discharge ports. The valves within these ports operate to limit the pressure ratio to 2.5, the target of the design. Rotor has a rotational speed of 2250 rpm, the compressor can provide a flow rate of 0.138 g/s air, as needed by the power generation system. The pressure ratio of the compressor is a function of geometry (not rotor speed), and hence this design is well-suited for load following in a variable load application. The compressor is coupled with an motor or an engine by a vulkan coupling. Its drive shaft can be de-coupled from other system components of the power generation system. This mechanical isolation can lead to thermal isolation, which is essential for miniature power generation devices. INTRODUCTION The design presented here is primarily for a portable power generation system, based on a Brayton cycle. The paper first presents the requirements for the power generation system for which this compressor has been designed. In particular, the rationale behind selecting a Wankel rotary compressor for a Brayton-based cycle is discussed. The differences between the operation of a Wankel engine and a Wankel compressor are also discussed. The paper first presents the requirements for the power generation system for which this compressor has been designed. And it deals with reasons why other compressors fail in miniature design. And followed by its working and operation. Then followed by the design. DESIGN REQUIREMENTS The proposed compressor is for a portable power generation system based on a Brayton cycle. The device will run on desulfurized JP-8 fuel. High efficiency has been possible because of a few novel concepts, which would be discussed in an appropriate future paper. A major problem in any miniature power generation system based on heat engines is the parasitic heat transfer process from the expansion or energy-extraction side of the system to the compression side of the system. In order to illustrate this point, which is crucial to design and make a working, working power generation device, the following example is used.In this new design paradigm, since the compressor is not mechanically coupled to the turbine, the designer is not limited to a centrifugal or an axial compressor that is loadbalanced to the turbine. Rather, the best possible compressor design can be selected, irrespective of the load-torque characteristics of the turbine. Off course, the power needed by the compressor and the power produced by the turbine have to follow what are required by the thermodynamic cycle. REASONS FOR FAILURE OF OTHER COMPRESSORS Five different types of compressors are considered at the beginning of this selection process: centrifugal, reciprocating, screw-type, vane-type and rotary lobed compressors

A centrifugal compressor uses a high speed rotating bladed impeller and fixed diffuser with exit guide vanes to provide compression to a fluid flowing steadily. This option has many beneficial features (such as rotary motion leading to lower maintenance requirement and higher reliability), but is adversely affected at small scales (i.e. at small impeller outer diameters) by a low compression ratio, even at speeds approaching 400,000 RPM. Reciprocating ones produce higher compression ratio at a lower shaft speed. Moreover, shaft speed and pressure ratio are not connected in this type of compressors, whereas flow rate is linearly proportional to the shaft speed. As a result, reciprocating compressors are more suited for load following (that is, part load operation) and for operations with low flow rate and high pressure ratio. However, mass flow-rate in this design is too small to be useful for meso-scale power generation. The main component of a screw-type compressor is a cylindrical element with multiple helical grooves that run around the curved cylindrical surface for the full length of the cylinder. This design is very difficult to fabricate at small scale. In a fixed vane compressor, a spring-loaded vane is mounted to the casing and slides in and out while contacting an eccentric rotor. In , the vanes are springloaded so that one tip of the vanes slides against a wear surface. Although fixed vane compressors are typically easier to fabricate (especially by micro-fabrication) and have fewer moving parts, both designs suffer from poor reliability and high maintenance because of the sliding wear surface. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to implement a spring-loaded vane in a small compressor for either design. OPERATING PRINCIPLE OF A WANKEL COMPRESSOR A Wankel compressor consists of a lobed rotor, an epitrochoid chamber and a gear arrangement to rotate the rotor as an eccentric around the drive shaft. An exploded view of the compressor, as adapted in this design, is presented in Figure 1. Here, the stationary epitrochoid chamber (on the second layer from top in Figure 1) is concentric with respect to the drive shaft. However, the rotor rotates eccentrically around this common axis, where the rotation timing is maintained through a gear arrangement and the eccentric location is maintained through the use of a driver cam (at the top of the bottommost layer in Figure 1). A cross-sectional view of the eccentric rotor and the epitrochoid can be seen in top of the bottommost layer in Figure 1). A cross-sectional view of the eccentric rotor and the epitrochoid can be seen in fig 2 A Wankel compressor operates on a two-stroke cycle. In a single rotation of the rotor, each of its three faces undergoes intake, compression and exhaust twice. Because of the gear arrangement, three rotations of the drive shaft cause one rotation of the rotor and hence a total of six compressions.

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows the movement of the rotor during a complete rotation of the drive shaft. The eccentric on the drive shaft moves the rotor around the center of rotation. In Figure 1, the center of rotation is marked by + and the rotor center is marked by o that rotates around the center of rotation. The distance between the two centers is the amount of eccentricity, hec. For every rotation of the drive shaft, the rotor rotates through 120 degrees. For easy identification, the three rotor faces, each of which corresponds to one compression chamber, are marked with 1 or 2 or 3. As the drive shaft rotation continues beyond what is shown in Figure 2h, rotor faces 1, 2 and 3 will assume the positions of rotor faces 2, 3, and 1 as shown in Figure 2a and the process will continue. The whole process gets repeated over and over again. In the process explanation provided below, we follow what happens to the chamber 1 starting from Figure 2a, where this chamber reaches the minimum volume. At this point, the exhaust valve is moved to the closed position (the open circle in 2a becomes closed in 2b). As the rotor rotates from 2a to 2b and onwards, both inlet and exhaust valves are closed, and the pressure inside the chamber drops. When the pressure in this chamber (1) drops below the inlet pressure (somewhere between 2a and 2g), the inlet valve (not shown in Figure 1) opens. As the rotor continues to rotate, fresh charge gets into the chamber through the open inlet valve. At the position shown by Figure 2g, this chamber (1) reaches the maximum volume, and the inlet valve is moved to the closed position. As the rotor continues to rotate with both valves closed, the trapped gas gets compressed and the pressure inside increases. When the chamber pressure reaches the delivery pressure (somewhere between Figure 2g and position 2 in Figure 2e), the exhaust valve opens. [It should be noted that beyond Figure 2h, chamber 1 behaves as chamber 2 as in Figures 2a through 2e.] As the rotor continues to rotate, the compressed gas exhausts out until the chamber reaches the minimum volume as indicated by position 2 in Figure 2e. Thus in 1.5 complete rotation of the drive shaft (that is one-half rotation of the rotor, this chamber goes through one complete intake- compression-exhaust cycle.

Figure 2

It should be noted that a Wankel engine operates on a four stoke cycle. In a single rotation of the rotor, each rotor face undergoes intake, compression, fuel introduction and combustion, expansion and exhaust. Thus hot and cold components of the cycle coexist as different rotor faces are at different stages of the cycle. This coexistence of hot and cold ends can increase parasitic heat transfer, potentially for a miniature system. Moreover, any tip seal that maybe considered will be more difficult to maintain

because of the high temperatures of the engine. The assembled view of wankel compressor is shown below

Figure 3

EPITROCHOID SIZING An epitrochoid is formed as the locus of a point inside a circle that is rolled around another circle. Thus the geometry is defined by Rep: the radius of the base circle, rep: the radius of the external rolling circle, and hec: the eccentric distance, that is the distance of the generating point from the center of the external rolling circle. For practical Wankel operations, Rep = 2rep = 4hec, which have been adopted here. The formula for the Epitrochoid coordinates as a function of angle, t, are then:

The radial distance (g) of the points on the epitrichoid as a function of angle t is given by:

A major axis of 14 mm (which corresponds to a value of 7 mm for the maximum value of g(t) in the above equation) requires the following parameters: Rep (Radius of Base Circle) = 4 mm rep (Radius of external circle) = 2 mm hec (distance to point, "Eccentricity") = 1 mm Using these values, the area of the complete epitrochoid is then given by

ROTOR SIZING In a Wankel design, the distance from the center of the Rotor to each of its three tips is the sum of the base circle radius and the external circle radius. For the above listed values, this is 6 mm, which makes the chord distance between any two tips to be Rotor C=10.392mm The three tips are connected by three identical circular arcs. The choice of the radius of these arcs is important. If the tips were connected by straight lines, the chamber volume would bequite large at peak compression (corresponding to a large area in the right side chamber in Figure 2a), reducing throughput. If too small a radius is chosen, the arc and hence the rotor would physically interfere with the epitrochoid. The maximum allowable value of the height of the arc is obtained from the condition of no interference during maximum compression (right chanber in Figure 2a), and this value is equal to the amount of eccentricity. Thus, Rotor H=hec=1mm From the above two relations, the minimum allowable arc radius is given by,

As long as the radius of the arc segments used to connect the rotor tips is greater than or equal to RotorR, interference with the epitrochoid will be avoided. In this design, the arc radius is set at this value so as to obtain the maximum possible throughput for the given volume.

GEAR DESIGN The gears for a Wankel compressor consist of a ring gear, with internal teeth (located in the rotor) and a spur gear (located on the housing cover). The gears assist by timing the rotor rotation as the eccentric moves it in an orbital motion. The center distance of the gears is the same value as the eccentricity (hec) of the epitrochoid. In order to attain the proper rotor movement, the tooth ratio among the gears is 3:2. Using a tooth module of 0.1, the resulting pitch diameters are 6 mm (60 teeth) for the ring rear with internal teeth and 4 mm (40 teeth) for the spur gear.

MASS FLOW RATE CALCULATIONS Here, T1=300k, P1=1.013bar, P2=2.5bar The outlet temperature, T2= 300* (2.5/1.013)
2

Therefore T2=388.34K Mass flow rate, =AC A=(/4)d =31.66cm = p/RT= 1.17kg/m =0.138g/s
3 2 2

CALCULATION OF EFFICIENCY Actual work done, Wactual= (p2-p1)*V Wactual= 11896Nm Ideal work done per revolution, Wideal= / -1*p1*V1 ((p2//p1) / -1-1) W ideal=8352.55Nm Efficiency of the compressor, Compressor= Wideal/Wactual Compressor=70.21% NOMENCLATURE g (t)- radial position function for points on epitrichoid rep-radius of external rolling circle hec-epitrochoid to rotor eccentricity RotorC-rotor chord length between tips RotorH-maximum height of rotor arc above chord RotorR-minimum allowable rotor arc radius t-geometric parameter to generate epitrochoid

REFERENCES 1. A. Laveau, J. S. kapat, L. C. Chow, E. Enikov, and K. B. Sundaram, 2000, "Design, Analysis and Fabrication of a Meso Scale Centrifugal Compressor, ASME Proceedings, AES Vol. 40, pp. 129 137. 2. Z. Hao, J. S. Kapat, L. C. Chow, K. B. Sundaram, 2000, "Design, and Analysis of a Miniature Reciprocating Compressor Driven by a Comb Drive, ASME Proceedings, AES Vol. 40, pp. 111 118. 3. H. Herkimer, 1952, "Engineers' Illustrated Thesaurus", Penn Publishing Corp, NY. 4. J. P. Norbye, 1971, "The Wankel Engine, Design Development Applications," Chilton Book Company.