Numerical analysis of the rotor of a 30 kw ORC microturbine considering properties of aerodynamic gas bearings

The paper focuses on the analysis of a 30 kW microturbine operating in the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) with a low-boiling working medium. The nominal speed of the rotor is 40,000 rpm. The investigated microturbine is an oil-free machine, which means that its bearings use the ORC working medium as a lubricant. We created a numerical model, which was used to assess the dynamic properties of the newly designed microturbine. The conducted analyses covered, inter alia, the optimization of some geometrical parameters of each bearing in order to cause the lubricating film to be created at a correspondingly low rotational speed as well as to obtain optimal dynamic properties of the system. The article provides a full dynamic picture of the rotor supported by two aerodynamic gas bearings. The included graphs demonstrate the vibration amplitude of the shaft as a function of the rotational speed as well as the results of the modal analysis in the form of natural vibration modes of the system and their corresponding natural frequencies.

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Opracowanie rekordu w ramach umowy 509/P-DUN/2018 ze środków MNiSW przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę (2018).