Performance evaluation of a rotating sleeve vane compressor

Abstract

This paper presents the performance study of a new designed rotating sleeve vane (RSV) compressor. The aim of this study was to develop a more compact semi-hermetic refrigerant compressor for refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, which will improve the conventional design in terms of sizing and operating mechanism. Experimental study was carried out on the prototype of a single and multi-vane (three and five-vane) RSV compressor prototypes with identical size of rotor and sleeve and tested the in a test bench of R134a refrigeration system. Each test was carried out in a steady state of refrigeration thermodynamic cycle at operating speed varied between 1000 rpm to 1500 rpm to obtain the mechanical and volumetric efficiencies. The experimental results on the three of the new prototypes were analyzed and found that that the single vane compressor prototype has a similar volumetric efficiency of about 90% with that of rolling piston compressor of equivalent capacity. A double increment in capacity to about 48 cc was observed in the five vane prototype models with the same overall dimension and configuration of the rotating components to that of the single vane. The volumetric efficiency was also comparable of about 70% to an existing multi vane rotary compressor.