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.