Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics of a Closed Blade Cascade Wind Tunnel for Organic Vapors

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) offers great potential for waste heat recovery and use of low-temperature sources for power generation. However, the ORC thermal efficiency is limited by the relatively low-temperature level, and it is, therefore, of major importance to design ORC components with high efficiencies and minimized losses. The use of organic fluids creates new challenges for turbine design, due to dense gas behavior and the low speed of sound. The design and performance predictions for steam and gas turbines have been initially based on measurements and numerical simulations of flow through two-dimensional cascades of blades. In case of ORC turbines and related fluids, such an approach requires the use of a specially designed closed cascade wind tunnel. In this contribution the design and process engineering of a continuous running wind tunnel for organic vapors is presented. The wind tunnel can be operated with heavy weight organic working fluids within a broad range of pressure and temperature levels. For this reason, the use of classical design rules for atmospheric wind tunnels is limited. The thermodynamic cycle process in the closed wind tunnel is modeled, and simulated by means of a professional power plant analysis tool, including a database for the ORC fluid properties under consideration. The wind tunnel is designed as a pressure vessel system and this leads to significant challenges particular for the employed wide angle diffuser, settling chamber, and nozzle. Detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was performed in order to optimize the important wind tunnel sections.