Influence of liquid in clearances on the operational behaviour of twin screw expanders

A lot of effort has been expended on understanding the influences of an injected auxiliary liquid on a twin screw expander's performance. Sealed clearances improve performance on the one hand, but involve considerable frictional losses on the other hand. This paper contributes to an evaluation of these opposing effects with regard to the efficiency of screw expanders. First, thermodynamic analyses using the multi-chamber model-based simulation tool KaSim, developed at the Chair of Fluidics, are presented for a test screw expander in order to show the maximum potential of clearance sealing. This analysis involves thermodynamic simulations for sealed and unsealed clearances and leads to an order of priorities for different clearance types. Second, hydraulic losses within front and housing clearances are calculated, applying an analytical model of incompressible one-phase clearance flow. Subsequently dry and wet screw expanders are evaluated while both clearance sealing and frictional losses are considered for the simulation of a liquid-injected machine.