Centrifugal compressors are one of the best choices among compressors in supercritical Brayton cycles. A supercritical CO2 centrifugal compressor increases the pressure of the fluid which state is initially very close to the critical point. When the supercritical fluid is compressed near the critical point, wide variations of fluid properties occur. The density of carbon dioxide at its critical point is close to the liquid density which leads to reduction in the compression work. This paper explains a method to overcome the simulation instabilities and challenges near the critical point in which the thermophysical properties change sharply. The investigated compressor is a centrifugal compressor tested in the Sandia supercritical CO2 test loop. In order to get results with the high accuracy and take into account the nonlinear variation of the properties near the critical point, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow solver is coupled with a look-up table of properties of fluid. Behavior of real gas close to its critical point and the effect of the accuracy of the real gas model on the compressor performance are studied in this paper, and the results are compared with the experimental data from the Sandia compression facility.

Rankine and Brayton cycles are common energy conversion cycles and constitute the basis of a significant proportion of global electricity production. Even a seemingly marginal improvement in the efficiency of these cycles can considerably decrease the annual use of primary energy sources and bring a significant gain in power plant output. Recently, supercritical Brayton cycles using CO2 as the working fluid have attracted much attention, chiefly due to their high efficiency. As with conventional cycles, improving the compressor performance in supercritical cycles is major route to increasing the efficiency of the whole process. This paper numerically investigates the flow field and performance of a supercritical CO2 centrifugal compressor. A thermodynamic look-up table is coupled with the flow solver, and the look-up table is systematically refined to take into account the large variation of thermodynamic properties in the vicinity of the critical point. Effects of different boundary and operating conditions are also discussed. It is shown that the compressor performance is highly sensitive to the look-up table resolution as well as the operating and boundary conditions near the critical point. Additionally, a method to overcome the difficulties of simulation close to the critical point is explained.

The supercritical CO2 (sCO2) Brayton cycle has been attracting much attention to produce the electricity power, chiefly due to its higher thermal efficiency with the relatively lower temperature at the turbine inlet compared to other common energy conversion cycles. Centrifugal compressor operating conditions in the supercritical Brayton cycle are commonly set in vicinity of the critical point, owing to smaller compressibility factor and eventually lower compressor work. This paper investigates and compares different centrifugal compressor design methodologies in close proximity to the critical point and suggests the most accurate design procedure based on the findings. An in-house mean-line design code, which is based on the individual enthalpy loss models, is compared to stage efficiency correlation design methods. Moreover, modifications are introduced to the skin friction loss calculation to establish an accurate one-dimensional design methodology. Moreover, compressor performance is compared to the experimental measurements.

Rankine and Brayton cycles are common energy conversion cycles and constitute the basis of a significant proportion of global electricity production. Even a seemingly marginal improvement in the efficiency of these cycles can considerably decrease the annual use of primary energy sources and bring a significant gain in power plant output. Recently, supercritical Brayton cycles using CO₂ as the working fluid have attracted much attention, chiefly due to their high efficiency. As with conventional cycles, improving the compressor performance in supercritical cycles is major route to increasing the efficiency of the whole process. This paper numerically investigates the flow field and performance of a supercritical CO₂ centrifugal compressor. A thermodynamic look-up table is coupled with the flow solver and the look-up table is systematically refined to take into account the large variation of thermodynamic properties in the vicinity of the critical point. Effects of different boundary and operating conditions are also discussed. It is shown that the compressor performance is highly sensitive to the look-up table resolution as well as the operating and boundary conditions near the critical point. Additionally, a method to overcome the difficulties of simulation close to the critical point is explained.