A Review of Recent Research and Application Progress in Screw Machines

Screw machines, mainly including single-screw type and twin-screw type, have gone through significant development and improvement during the past decade. This paper reviews the relevant studies available in the open literature for acquiring insight into and to establish the state of the art of the research and application status of screw machines. The related research on different aspects, which would affect the performance and reliability of screw machines includes rotor profile and geometric characteristics, thermodynamic modelling, vibration and noise, lubrication and wear, control of capacity and built-in volume ratio, and liquid injection technology. In the aspect of thermodynamic modelling, the available methods, i.e., empirical or semi-empirical model, lump model, and 3D CFD model, adopted for the performance prediction and optimal design of screw machines are summarized. Then, the review covers the application status of screw machines in the fields of air compression and expansion, refrigeration and heat pump, organic Rankine cycle (ORC), and other popular applications, with an emphasis on the reported performance and progress in technologies of screw machines. Finally, conclusions and perspectives for future research in the area of screw machines are presented. The review provides readers with a good understanding of the research focus and progress in the field of screw machines.

A novel design on smooth rotor profile with meshing clearance for screw vacuum pump

Cross-section profile of rotor takes a great effect on the performance of dry-screw vacuum pump. A novel smooth rotor profile consisting of eight segments of curves, including arcs and conjugate correction curves is proposed. Advantages are that it can be used to solve the unsmooth connection and no meshing clearance in traditional profile. The meshing model for new profile can directly generate stable addendum clearance, tooth clearance, tooth side clearance, and radial clearance. The influences of the epicycloid rotation angle, arc radius and involute offset distance of the conjugate correction curve on the clearances are studied according to established theoretical model. And transient flow field of vacuum pump is analyzed by using the commercial software Ansys-Fluent®. Compared to traditional screw vacuum pump, the results shows that pressure in inlet and pump cavity is lower, and maximum pumping speed is higher, indicating that the proposed design is superior.

A geometric study of different curves for the rotor profiles of a twin-screw compressor

This paper presents the results of comparisons among some patented solutions for profiling the contours of the rotors in twin-screw compressors. Referring to a base case where all the generating curves are circumferences, patents suggesting to replace arcs of circumference with arcs of conic sections, i.e. parabola, ellipse and hyperbola, but even a straight line segment, are presented and guidelines for rotor profile construction are reported. After setting the size of the compressor, attention is paid to the inter-lobe area, as the sum of the area between two consecutive lobes in the male rotor and of the area of the groove in the female rotor. Actually, this area is strictly related to the volume displacement. Limited to the current case study, the profile including an elliptic segment seems to be the preferable solution for higher inter-lobe area, then for higher displacement, though a number of considerations should be necessary for a broader context.

Development and Testing of a Roots Pump for Hydrogen Recirculation in Fuel Cell System

In this paper, the development and testing of a Roots pump with a new rotor profile for hydrogen recirculation in the fuel cell system are presented. The design method of the rotor profile, port position, and structure of the pump is presented. A prototype of a three-lobe Roots pump with helical rotors was fabricated, and its performance was experimentally tested. The measured data show that the effect of the pressure difference on the flow rate and volumetric efficiency of the Roots pump is the most significant, while the effect of suction pressure is limited. It is concluded that the leakage rather than flow resistance is the key factor, which has a major influence on volumetric and isentropic efficiency. The comparison of the performance is also given by the measured results of the same Roots pump working with air, helium, and hydrogen. Finally, the successful integration of the Roots pumps into three PEM fuel cell systems is reported and the optimal operating parameters of the Roots pump in the systems under various loads are also presented. It is found that the performance of the Roots pump integrated into the fuel cell system is better than that measured with pure hydrogen on the test rig. The performance maps composed of all the measured data of the Roots pump are very helpful for the optimal design and operation of the fuel cell system.