ASME Turbo Expo from 13.06.-17.06.2022
At TurboExpo 2022, Robert Schaffrath presented his results on optimized centrifugal compressor geometries for steam with application in high temperature heat pumps. The goals of the optimization were efficiency as well as pressure ratio. These aerodynamically characteristic key figures were to be evaluated and maximized at several operating points. For this purpose, complex process chains are used, which generate parametric geometries and are subsequently evaluated by means of 3D flow computation. Embedded in a genetic optimization process, iteratively better and better compressors are generated. Due to the complex calculations involved, such a process can only be carried out efficiently on a cluster computer.
Johannes Oehler also explained the results of his work to his audience at the TurboExpo conference of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) in Rotterdam. Together with colleagues, he modeled and simulated the startup of the CoBra (Cottbus Brayton-cycle heat pump) high-temperature heat pump, which is still under construction, and developed a strategy for a safe startup maneuver. The aim is to avoid compressor pumps, resonance speeds and excessive thermal transients in the heat exchangers. Conclusion: It works with the current hardware, but we have to precisely set and control all control variables, such as turbine bypass, secondary mass flows and compressor speed.
