USING NUMERICAL MODELING TO DETERMINE VISCOUS LOSSES WITHIN HELIUM TURBOMACHINERY
Abstract
As the consumption of energy has increased relentlessly over the last few
decades, the need for reliable clean energy generation has increased as well. Currently,
nuclear power is the only method capable of providing a stable supply of clean energy,
although the nuclear energy generation process still requires improvement. Specifically,
there is a need to increase efficiencies while reducing the risks of radioactive
contamination. It is possible that both these issues may be mitigated using helium as the
working fluid.
However, the performance of turbomachinery using helium must be evaluated
before its use can be implemented. To do this, Balaji and Wilson [Analytical Modeling of
Helium Compressor Performance,” AIAA Paper 2016-4958, July 2016,
https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2016-4958] developed a code, “HeComp”, to estimate the
performance of a helium compressor. In this code, the flow is treated as inviscid and
analytic models are used to estimate the compressor pressure losses.
The present study utilized a Navier-Stokes solver, FUN3D, to predict the viscous
pressure losses more accurately and compare the results to those of the “HeComp”
code. The findings show that the pressure losses presented by the “HeComp” code are
marginally larger than those calculated in this study.