CFD Analysis of Turbine of a Turboexpander

Abstract

Cryogenic Turboexpander is a refrigerating device that mostly used in Cryogenic plants for industrial refrigeration. It consists of Turbine, Compressor, Shaft, Diffuser, Nozzle, Bearings etc. In this device turbine and compressor rotates on same shaft. It is also a pressure letting down device by expanding the gas through the turbine from high pressure to low pressure. This project describes the analysis of fluid flow through an expansion turbine at higher speeds. It deals with computational analysis of fluid flow through radial turbine where Nitrogen is taken as working fluid. The analysis has been done on Ansys Workbench using the components like Bladegen, Turbogrid, and CFX Pre and Post. The turbine blade profile, hub and shroud has been designed in bladegen. The meshing of turbine wheel has been done in Turbogrid. CFX Pre and post are used for giving boundary conditions and for further analysis of fluid. Temperature, Pressure, velocity contours have been drawn from CFX post and various graphs like Mach Number, has been plotted.