IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering

PAPER • OPEN ACCESS Related content

- R744 ejector technology future
Investigation of three lobes roots blower with perspectives
Armin Hafner and Krzysztof Banasiak
special ejector - Applications of Jet Ejectors for efficient
refrigeration and modelling of Multi Phase
Multi Fluid flow in Ejectors
To cite this article: S V Vizgalov et al 2015 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 90 012082 D Konar

- Investigation of the effect of the ejector on

the performance of the pulse detonation
engine nozzle extension
A E Korobov and S V Golovastov
View the article online for updates and enhancements.

This content was downloaded from IP address 140.213.182.205 on 23/08/2021 at 03:54

9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

Investigation of three lobes roots blower with special ejector

S.V. Vizgalov, G.N. Chekushkin, and M.V. Volkov

Kazan National Research Technological University, 68, K. Marx Str., Kazan, Russian
Federation

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. A volumetric Roots type blower with spur three or two lobes rotors has a
high performance at a small unit size and is used mainly at the pressure ratio in the
range of 1,4  1,6. A significant limitation of this parameter is due to the nature of the
compressor working process, in particular a rapid, almost instantaneous increase in the
pressure in the working chamber because of back flow. This leads to a decrease in
performance and efficiency, and increase of the compressor noise level. One of the
ways to overcome this drawback is the use of bypassing of part of compressed and
cooled gas at injection through the ejector into the working chamber that is
simultaneously disconnected from both discharge and suction. Due to this, the
pressure increase process becomes more gradual as related to the rotor angle of
rotation, and additional suction of portions of gas from the suction line by ejection
effect becomes possible, which increases the efficiency and performance of the
compressor. Experimental data confirm the efficacy of this method. Research of the
Roots blower combined action with an ejector attachments based on the developed
mathematical model has been presented.

1. Introduction
The Roots blower belongs to positive displacement machines and has a feature of gas
compression workflow associated with the working chamber volume stability transferred from the gas
suction side to the gas discharge side of gas and great influence of gas backflow. As a result of this the
compression process is almost isochoric, which leads to a drastic reduction in performance, volumetric
and adiabatic efficiencies, pressure pulsation and noise level increase with increasing rotors speed and
pressure in the discharge line. There are several well-known methods, which were adapted to the
Roots blower with three or more lobes rotors. In keeping with those methods the high pressure gas is
bypassed to the working chamber with the aim of the gas pulsation decrease in the discharge line.This
method is not based on physical chamber volume reduction, but it helps to reduce the gas discharge
pressure pulsation. It is implemented in the simplest way by executing the channels [1] on the internal
surface of the housing and by gas bypassing without cooling it. Other studies provide compressed gas
cooling in an integrated heat exchanger before the gas is bypassed through external piping connected
to the compressor housing [2, 3]. In this case, the blower can be operated at higher pressure ratio of up
to 1,8.
The more appropriate method is bypassing the compressed gas into the working camber of the
blower through the ejector. This design of Roots blower with a discharge heat exchanger for cooling

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

gas and two ejectors is shown in Fig. 1. A part of gas in the amount of mbyps is taken off through the
pipelines 5 from the flow of gas compressed and cooled in the heat exchanger 4 and fed into the active
ejector nozzle 6 wherein the expansion and acceleration of the gas flow and an additional fresh low
pressure gas portion leak-in through the passive nozzle 8 into the mixing chamber 7 in the amount of
madd take place. The total flow is supplied through the diffuser 9 and the rotary union 10 via the
additional slit ports 3 located on the housing into the working cavity. The ports 3 are arranged along
the entire length of the housing such that they are overlapped by the rotor when connecting the
working cavity with the discharge port. Thus, we achieve both additional suction of fresh gas through
the ejector and a more gradual increase in pressure within the cavity during the transfer thereof from
suction to discharge during rotate of rotor. Adiabatic and volumetric efficiency of this supercharger
layout depends on several factors: the location of the slit ports and the ejector nozzle geometric
dimensions, depending on the pressure ratio of the supercharger.
The main objective of the study is to determine the effectiveness of this blower layout when
operated at different discharge pressure conditions and a fixed position slit ports located on the
housing blower. Besides, since the pressure ratio in the supercharger does not exceed 1,9 and the
working gas is air, the ejector operating condition is subcritical and the nozzle has a conical shape with
a decreasing cross section.

Figure 1: Roots blower with ejectors

2
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

2. Mathematical model
The simulated Roots blower has three lobes rotors, with a cycloid-circular rotor profile,
theoretical capacity of 4,85 m3/min, the rotor diameter of 113,7 mm, length of 150 mm, center distance
between rotors is 75 mm. The working gas is air.
Design scheme of the supercharger is shown in Fig. 2. There are simultaneously 5 chambers in
the machine at different stages of the working process designated as:
I – gas suction process into the working cavity of expanding volume V=f(), where the rotor
rotation angle is = -inlet - /3-inlet (Fig. 2);
II, III – transfer of the constant volume cavity to the discharge side V=const; the cavity transfer
angle is =/3+inlet +out ;
IV – reverse gas leakage process (back flow) that starts at an angle of =2/3+inlet +out and
ends at an angle of bf_end provided pressure equalization in the adjacent cavities IV and V;
V – process discharge of gas from the decreasing volume cavity from the IV and V cavities
unification movement until the rotation angle of =/3+bf_end.

Figure 2: Roots blower design diagram

The dependence of the volume of each of the cavities on the angle of rotor rotation was
determined by numerical integration, and are not given here.
At any position of the rotors determined by the angle , the cavities are displaced relative to
each other to an angle of /3. Gas leakage through the gaps occur between the chambers. Also, the
chambers intercommunicate for some time with the inlet port - chamber I, gas discharge port -
chamber V, as well as through the special slit ports with an ejector attachment - chambers II and III,
through which the additional leakage of both fresh gas mass of madd and discharge line bypassed flow
mass of mbyps into the chamber takes place; the chamber IV is connected to the discharge line through
the port a-b, the size of which is determined by the normal drawn from point ‘a‘ onto the rotor profile;
reverse gas leakage occurs through this port; this flow rate is determined by the pressure difference

3
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

upstream and downstream of the port. Location of additional ports on the cylindrical part of the
housing for ejector connection is symmetric and determined by the angle of eject. The condition of
absence of gas ejection through these ports is overlapping thereof by the rotor blade apex before the
sharp rise in pressure in the reverse flow process; thus, the angle of eject  /3 + out. The length of the
port with respect to the angular coordinate is given by the value of eject.
Simulated blower has the following design parameters:
inlet = 18,093 deg, out = 26,058 deg;
eject = 85 deg; eject = 4,5 deg.
The mathematical model of the Roots type compressor was developed on the basis of energy
equilibrium equations in the working chamber and the ideal gas law. It takes into account the chamber
volume change according to the rotor rotation angle V=f(), the gas leak-in during the suction period,
the gas mass transfer through the clearances between the adjacent chambers having various pressures,
the gas heat exchange with the chamber walls, and the gas back-streaming into the working chamber
at the discharge side. In this case the gas thermodynamic parameters in the volume of the working
chamber are homogeneous at any period of time. The pressure and temperature gradients are zero in
the chamber.
The equations of the model in the form of differential pressure and temperature dependences on
the rotor rotation angle  are presented in the research works by authors Ibraev, Vizgalov [4, 5, 6]:

 dp k  1    dQ   k dV 
     minf  hinf   mlks h    p 
 d    V  d  k  1 d 
 (1)
 dT   k  1  T     dQ  k  1   m  m   h  m  h  m  h  p   dV 
 d    inf  lks   inf inf  inf 
 P  V    d k   d 

where р, T are pressure and temperature of gas in the working chamber respectively, V- volume of
chamber; dQ is the elementary heat flux on the working chamber; k is the adiabatic index (k=1,4 for
air);  is the rotor angular velocity, rads-1; m is the mass flow through the ports and gaps. Indices:
“inf” relates to the gas inflows into the chamber, “lks” relates to the leaks of gas from the chamber.
The gas enthalpy in this case can be defined as for the ideal gas h=CpT, where Cp is the isobaric heat
capacity of gas.
The elementary heat flux in the equation (1), taking into account the convective heat transfer
between the gas and the walls of the chamber was determined by the equation

dQ dQ
   ( )  fw  (Tw  T )
d d , (2)

where the heat transfer coefficient  averaged over the surface of the walls fw was determined
according to [7], where the experimental data were summarized by the equation of Nusselt for the
periods of suction, transfer of the isolated chamber, and discharge; Tw – temperature of wall
(experimental).
Gas flow through the narrow clearances between the rotors and the housing compressor,
between profiles of rotors were determined by the method proposed S.E. Zakharenko [8] by the
following equation:
 p  2 
1  p1   2  1   1
2

  p2  
m   , kg/s (3)
ln(p1 / p2 )      

where ,  - clearance sizes, the front length and the minimum height of clearance;  - coefficient of
local resistances at the inlet and the outlet of the clearance due to a sudden contraction and expansion;

4
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

 - friction coefficient of the gas in the clearance as a function of the Reynolds number,  - shape
factor of the clearance, were determined by work [8].
The blower operating area with respect to the pressure ratio value of П=pdisch/psuc is that the
expansion ratio in the ejector nozzle is below the critical pressure ratio by using part of the
compressed and cooled gas as the motive stream
k
p  2  k 1
  0, 529 ,
pdisch  k  1 
(4)

where p is air pressure in the suction line, р= psuc = 98,066 кРа; pdisch - pressure in discharge line (the
maximum value is 187,0 kPa).

Figure 3: Ejector design schematic

The design schematic of the proposed injector is shown in Fig. 3. To determine the additional
gas mass madd fed into the working cavity, it is necessary to know the characteristic of the ejector in
the form of the dependence of the ejection coefficient u depending on the ratio of pchamb/psuc, as well
as active flow rate in the nozzle of mbyps.
This characteristic was determined by calculation based on the law of conservation of
momentum in the flow in the ejector and the equations obtained in the research work [9]. The value of
the ejection coefficient u was set in the range of 0,01 to 15,0. The basic equation of the characteristic
of the ejector is as follows
pchamb k 1  12 22 a2. p
 , (5)
psuc 2( k  1)  a. p  1  vm vn 
  0, 5  (1  u )  ( 2 4  0, 5) n  u 
2 2

  3  va va 
where pchamb= p()-psuc – is the difference of working chamber pressure and suction pressure; 1, 2,
3, 4, are the velocity coefficients, recommended values based on the experimental results are
1=0,95, 2=0,975, 3=0,9, 4=0,925 [9]; the parameter Пa.p. is a gas-dynamic pressure function and
is defined as
p 1
 a. p  suc  . (6)
pdisch 

The gas-dynamic velocity function of

5
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

k 1
k 1
a. p  (1   a.kp ) , (7)
k 1
where (=wisentr/wsound) is determined by the value Па.p; the specific volume ratio is equal to
vm p T v p T
 disch m , n  disch suc ; (8), (9)
va p( ) Ta va psucTa
mixture temperature in the ejector is
Ta  u  Tsuc
Tm  ; (10)
1 u
temperature of the motive stream fed to the nozzle is Та=Tsuc+T; T is undercooling of gas in the
heat exchanger.
The n parameter in the equation (5) is defined as
 f3 
 
 f a* opt
n , (11)
 f3  1
  
 f a* opt qa. p
where the gas-dynamic function qa. p (q=wisentr/s1ws1) is defined as
1 1

 k 1  k 1  a. p 2 (k  1)  k 1
qa. p    a. p 1   . (12)
 2   k  1 
The parameter equal to the optimal ratio of the ejector mixing chamber area to the nozzle area is
defined by the following equations

 f3  b 2  4a  c b
    , (13)
f
 a opt
* 2 a 2a
where coefficients are a=12qa.p,
  1 v v 
b    1 2  2 a. p  (  0, 5) m (1  u )2  ( 2 4  0, 5) n u 2   ,
  3 va va  
2 a. p 1 v
c (  0, 5) m (1  u )2 ,
qa. p  3 va
1
k 1

 k 1 
 a. p   1  a2. p  ,
 k 1 
where  a. p is the gas relative density (=isentr/*).
The discharge bypass active flow consumption was defined as
k  Пa* pdisch  q a. p
mbyps  Fs1 , (14)
aa
where Fs1 is the nozzle exit area (ds1 is the determining size), aa is the motive flow critical speed in the
nozzle defined as
k
2k  2  k 1
aa  RTa , a    , (15), (16)
k 1  k  1

6
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

where R is a gas constant.

Consumption of the additional passive nozzle inflow

madd  u  mbyps . (17)

Thus, having the dependence
pchamb
 f (u, d s1 ) (18)
psuc
and knowing the current pressure in the chamber p(), the ejection coefficient value and the flow madd
are defined.
The system of equations of the mathematical model was solved numerically using the method
of Runge - Kutt - Feldberg [10]. Diagrams of pressure and temperature according to the angle of the
rotor rotation resulted from solving the equations of mathematical model. Indicated power and
indicated adiabatic efficiency of the blower were determined by integrating the curve p = f()
к

Nind  6  p()d , ad  Nad Nind , (19), (20)
2 0

where Nad is the adiabatic compressor power.

Volumetric efficiency was determined as:

  ( mdisch ( )  mbyps )
v  , (21)
3  mis.cham
where  mdisch() is the total value of the mass flow rate of gas through the outlet port to discharge line
in during one revolution of the rotor, mis.cham is the mass of gas in isolated working chamber separated
from the suction chamber at the angle =(60°-inlet).

3. Result and conclusions

Calculations of integral characteristics of Roots blowers was based on integration of
mathematical model differential equations and finally are presented as dependence of volumetric
efficiency v, adiabatic efficiency ad and temperature increasing on pressure ratio  (The range of
pressure ratio of 1,25 to 1,87). The points of gas injection on the housing (one of each side of the
housing) of the Root's blower (angle eject) and geometric parameters of the ejector were fixed during
the all calculations (ejector’s nozzle outlet diameter ds1=5 mm).
Calculated pressure-shaft angle and temperature-shaft angle diagrams of Roots blower were
obtained using the developed mathematical model. The calculation results in the case of a pressure
ratio of 1,6 and a rotating speed of 3000 rpm are presented in Figure 4. They include the Roots blower
characteristics without the ejector (solid line), with the ejector and without bypass cooling (dashed
line) and with the ejector and bypass cooling (dash-dotted line). In other working conditions the
calculated characteristic curves have similar evolutions. The specific zones depending on the shaft
angle and according to the schematic, which is presented in Figure 2, were denoted as I-V. There were
two variants using the ejector: with and without cooling of the motive stream. In the case of the motive
stream cooling its temperature was assumed 5 degree Celsius above the suction gas temperature
(undercooling T=5K). It can be seen from the graph that in the case of using ejector the gas pressure
starts increasing before the disconnection of the working chamber from the blower suction port (shaft
angle of 20,8 deg.). It occurs due to the stream starting flowing through the ejector. For the following
transporting process (zones II and III) there is the significant increase in the gas pressure, but at the
same time the stream of the induced air falls rapidly. The rates of the temperature curves changes are
similar to the rates of the pressure curves changes. However, influence of the motive stream cooling

7
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

on the temperature curves is more obvious. On the whole it should be noted that the motive stream
cooling has a marginally impact on the pressure and temperature curves.

a)

b)
Figure 4: Influence of ejector and cooling bypass on P- and T- diagrams (=1,6)

Obtained integral parameters are presented in Fig. 5 (a, b), 6 where the curve 1 shows the
characteristics of Root’s blower without ejector. In this case it should be noted that the volumetric
efficiency and adiabatic efficiency decrease smoothly, but at the same time the discharge temperature
increases significant. The volumetric efficiency has a parabolic behavior. The adiabatic efficiency has
a quasi-linear behavior. The results of calculation of Root’s blower characteristics with ejector and

8
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

without a cooling heat exchanger are presented by the curve 2. In this case the discharge temperature
are reduced, which can be explained by an injection of low temperature gas from suction. At the same
time the v and ad are increased and their decreasing rate depending on pressure ratio are reduced. It
should be noted that the v depending on pressure ratio has been increasing since  ≈1,75. In this case
ejectors parameters are approaching to optimal and, hence, mass flow of injected gas from a suction
are increased.

(a) (b)
Figure 5: Roots blower efficiency at pressure ratio
(1- Roots blower without ejector, 2- with ejector and without cooling,
3 - with cooling T=20K, 4- with cooling T=5K )

Figure 6: The temperature difference Tblow=Tdisch-Tsuc at pressure ratio

(1- Roots blower without ejector, 2- with ejector and without cooling,
3 - with cooling T=20K, 4- with cooling T=5K )

Influences of motive stream temperature are presented by curves 3 and 4. The temperatures of
motive stream have been taken as a function of suction temperature Та=Tsuc+T, where T has been

9
9th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 90 (2015) 012082 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/90/1/012082

taken 20K for the curve 3 and 5K for the curve 4 respectively. In this case the v are increased by
0,5% on low pressure ratio side and by 1,65% on pressure ratio of =1,8 respectively. At the same
time the increasing of ad is absolutely insignificantly. It can be explained by increasing density of
motive stream’s gas. Hence, there are no reasons to significant cooling motive stream.
The presented investigation shows advisability of using ejector for the Root blowers. But this
investigation should be continued to determine the optimal ejector parameters depending on
construction of Root’s blower and its nominal mode.

References
[1] US Pat. 4,215,977 Pulse-Free blower, 1980.
[2] PST/US88/04066 Hi-ratio reciprocation gas compressor, 1989.
[3] US Pat. 5,439,358 Recirculating rotary gas compressor, 1995.
[4] Ibraev A M, Vizgalov S V, Khisameev I G. 2013 Analysis of the basic geometrical parameters
influence on the efficiency of the Roots-type compressor on the basis of thermodynamic proce-
sses simulation. 8th Int. Conf. on Compressors and their Systems (London: City University) 739.
[5] Vizgalov, S V, 2004, Vliyanie vnutrennego okhlazhdeniya na effektivnost rabochego protsessa
shesterenchatogo kompressora (Influence of internal cooling to efficiency of working process of
Root's compressor(in Russian)). Dissertation, Kazan national research technology university.
212p.
[6] Ibraev, A.M., 1987. Povyshenie effektivnosti raboty rotornykh nagnetatelei vneshnego szhatiya
na osnove analiza vliyaniya geometricheskikh parametrov na ikh kharakteristiki (Higher
efficiency of rotary blower by analysis of geometry parameters to them characteristics (in
Russian)). Dissertation, St.Petersburg State Polytechnical University. 208 p.
[7] Sharapov I I, Saifetdinov A G, Ibraev A M, Khamidullin M S, Khisameev I G 2013 Investigation
of heat exchange in the working chamber of rotary compressor. 8th Int. Conf. on Compressors and
their Systems (London: City University) 227.
[8] Zakharenko S. E. K voprosu o protechkakh gaza cherez shcheli (On the question of gas leakages
through the gaps ((in Russian)) Trudy LPI. - №2. - M.-L., Mashgiz, 1953. - 144-160 p.
[9] Sokolov, E., Zinger, N.M. Struinie apparati (Jet device (in Russian)), 1989. Moscow.:
Energoatomizdat, 1989. – 352 p.
[10] Forsythe G., Malcolm, M., Moler C., 1977. Computer methods for mathematical computations.
Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood cliffs, 1977.

10