Abstract
In addition to the adequate lubrication of the moving parts, the oil flow in a hermetic reciprocating compressor has a significant influence on the thermal characteristics of a compressor. The present work is concerned with the investigation of the oil pump system of a reciprocating hermetic compressor used in household refrigeration appliances. The considered oil pump system consists of a centrifugal pump immersed in the oil sump of the hermetic compressor and a helical groove machined on the crankshaft. The focus of this work lies on the immersed part of the centrifugal oil pump and its interaction with the oil in the oil sump. To analyse the flow in the immersed area of the oil pump, the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS Fluent is used. The free surface of the oil flow is modelled with the volume of fluid (VOF) method. A numerical investigation is used to study the influence of the immersion depth and the oil pump design on oil mass flow rate and flow field at the oil pump intake. To evaluate the oil pump regarding the applicability in variable speed compressors, the influence of the rotational speed on the oil mass flow is also explored.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | 16th International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue |
| Pages | x-x |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |