Numerical analysis of the transient leakage flow in axial clearance of a scroll refrigeration compressor

The transient flow model of a scroll refrigeration compressor which included axial clearance was established in the paper using PUMPLINX based on the computational fluid dynamics and the dynamic grid methodology. According to the actual size in the physical compressor, the flank and the axial clearances were set equal to 0.030 mm and 0.015 mm, respectively. As the fluid domain of the axial clearance was too small to generate enough layers of grids in PUMPLINX, it was first magnified 100 times to generate grids of high quality, and then the fluid domain and grids were recompressed to the original size. The simulation results were verified experimentally. The influence of the radial leakage on the downstream flow field was investigated. Moreover, the characteristics of radial and tangential leakage flows were analyzed. It was concluded that the predictions of the compressor performance, except the discharge temperature, are improved after the axial clearance was included in the model. The radial leakage is dominant while a portion of involute leakage flow exists near the flank clearance. The influence of radial leakage on the downstream temperature is lower than that of the tangential leakage in flank clearance. The tangential leakage flow is turbulent basically while the radial leakage flow is laminar. The tangential leakage is severer at the beginning of the discharge process, and the radial leakage is more remarkable at the end of the compression process. When the pressure ratio across the leakage path is higher than the critical pressure ratio, the tangential leakage flow becomes supersonic for the converging–diverging clearance structure, while the radial leakage flow remains subsonic due to the larger flow losses. The results obtained through this research could be applied to modify the current leakage models and optimize the clearances of scroll compressors.