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On the lubricant pathway in rotary compressors.

Number: 2455

Author(s) : WU P., CHEN J., SOJKA P. E., LI Y., CAO H.

Summary

Rotary compressors have been massively used in small split Air Conditioning (AC) systems. The lubricant in the compressor lubricates the moving parts and seals the clearances in the cylinders. However, it can atomize into small droplets during the discharge process of the cylinder. The droplets following the refrigerant vapor and entering the condenser and evaporator of the AC unit will reduce the compressor’s reliability and deteriorate the heat transfer performance of the system. Thus, understanding and controlling the lubricant droplets’ pathway and preventing them from entering the condenser and evaporator are key challenges for optimizing future models. In this research, the lubricant pathway is studied experimentally by adding observation windows on the compressor. A lubricant pathway model in the rotary compressor is proposed by characterizing the lubricant droplets’ behavior, e.g., size and velocity, at different radial and vertical positions in the compressor quantitatively and qualitatively. The lubricant droplets generated in the lower cavity enter the upper cavity mainly through the rotor/stator clearance and stator winding. Their movement in the upper cavity is mainly driven by two mechanisms, the swirling jet effect and the rotating disk effect, besides the cylinder’s discharging effect and the discharge tube’s suction effect. The pathway model unveils possible methods to sustain more lubricant droplets inside the compressor by utilizing the vertical recirculation induced by the
swirling jet and rotating disk effect.

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Pages: 9 p.

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  • Original title: On the lubricant pathway in rotary compressors.
  • Record ID : 30030734
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Technology
  • Source: 2022 Purdue Conferences. 19th International Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2022

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