Study on the steady and unsteady aerodynamic performance of a radial inflow turbine with small partial admission in a miniature ORC system

There is a great deal of residual heat under 350°C being released into environment, without being used efficiently. Compared to the Rankine cycle with water as its working substance, it is effective to utilize Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) to recover these waste heats. In the threshold of this paper, a miniature ORC system is proposed, and maximum efficiency of the system is achieved by means of optimal working substance. Moreover, numerical simulation of the partial admission (ε=0.267) high rotational speed radial inflow turbine, which is the key unit in the system, is fulfilled. At the operating rotational speed of 60000 rpm and the proposed thermodynamic parameters, steady and unsteady flow field in the turbine are investigated with R11 as working fluid. The detailed parameters, such as axial force of rotor, power generated and thermal efficiency of the radial turbine, are analyzed. In addition, the unsteady flow pressure is integrated around the rotor blade profile to provide the unsteady aerodynamic blade force. And subsequently frequencies of unsteady disturbances and excitation force factors are obtained by spectrum analysis, which are of key importance for blade response analysis. The generation, development and dissipation process of the secondary flows, passage vortex and leakage vortex are observed in the flow channel. The results reveal that the partial admission greatly influences the parameters distributions in the flow field and the losses of radial turbine mainly occur at the frontier of the passage in the vicinity of blade root. As is discussed in the analysis of excitation force factor, the radial turbine is safe in the operation. The results discussed in this paper are beneficial for the sequent optimization and manufacture of the miniature turbine.