Energy loss of radial inflow turbine for organic Rankine cycle using mixture based on entropy production method

Abstract

The radial inflow turbine is the core component of the organic Rankine cycle(ORC) system. Based on the internal flow field of the turbine analyzed by computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the energy dissipation of a radial inflow turbine with variable guide vane is determined by the entropy production analysis method. In the presented work, the mixture of R245fa/R134a is selected as the working fluid, and the effects of tip clearance and mixing ratio on the flow loss characteristics are investigated. The results show that the high entropy production region in the stator is caused by leakage vortex and shock phenomenon, while the passage vortex and leakage vortex are the reasons for the high loss area in the rotor. The total volume entropy production of rotor is mainly composed of the passage zone, which is significantly higher than that of the stator. As the tip clearance increases from 3% to 10%, the total entropy production of stator and rotor increases by 54.5 and 161.7% respectively, and the output power and isentropic efficiency of the turbine decrease by 14.7% and 14.6% respectively. With the increase of R245fa mass fraction, the total volume entropy production of the stator and rotor decreases linearly. Compared with R134a, the turbine isentropic efficiency of R245fa increases by 3.1%.