Use of a Low-Mach Model on a CFDHT Solver for the Elements of an Object Oriented Program to Numerically Simulate Hermetic Refrigeration Compressors

摘要

A powerful object oriented approach for the simulation of generic thermal systems (Damle et al., 2008) is used as a framework to numerically simulate the thermal and fluid behavior of hermetic reciprocating compressors. A physical abstraction of the compressor system provides a vertex-edge graph, defining the elements and the neighborhood relations of the system to be solved. Each one of these resulting elements is modeled in order to be solved by itself by giving their respective boundary conditions. Since each element provides its own solver tool, the coupled system can be solved in an integrated form. Into previous works, an unstructured and parallel object oriented Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer code (from now on CFD&HT) for accurate and reliable solving of turbulent industrial flow, called TermoFluids (Lehmkuhl et al., 2007), was used to provide with CFD&HT capability the system elements (Lopez et al., 2010). In this work, a Low-Mach based CFD&HT module (Chiva et al., 2011) implemented within the TermoFluids software has been used solve the fluid domain existing inside the shell of a reciprocating compressor, which is identified as one of the compressor elements in the abstraction stage. This improvement allows us to numerically simulate the recirculation flow inside the shell of a reciprocating compressor, providing detailed information about suction area of the compressor and allowing study of new geometric configurations of such part. Furthermore, in comparison with previously tested CFD&HT modules, the Low-Mach model allows better treatment of the compressibility effects generated at the inner elements of the compressor such as chambers, tubes and undoubtedly the compression chamber.