The over-arching aim of this project is to improve the understanding of ORC expander design and off-design performance through developing, and validating, suitable tools to accurately predict design point and off-design performance of ORC systems. This will be achieved by targeting research towards five objectives:
- Improve the fundamental understanding of design point scaling and off-design performance of supersonic turbines operating with non-ideal gases, and develop improved performance models
- Improve the fundamental understanding of the performance of screw expanders during two-phase expansion and to develop improved screw expander performance models
- To upgrade an existing experimental test facility to enable the characterisation of loss mechanisms present within ORC expanders and provide validation of performance models and CFD codes
- To understand how single and cascaded systems, comprising of both turbine and screw expanders, operate under different heat source conditions and with different working fluids
- To identify system configurations that can operate over a range of operating conditions and provide the best compromise between design and off-design performance, and system cost