Surge Onset in Turbo Heat Pumps

A typical turbo heat pump system consists of a centrifugal compressor, expansion valve, and two heat exchangers-a condenser and evaporator. Compared to a gas turbine, a turbo heat pump introduces additional complexities because it is a two-phase closed-loop system with heat exchange using a real gas/liquid (refrigerant) as the working fluid. For the first time, surge onset in such systems has been physically, analytically, and experimentally investigated. This study analytically investigates the physical mechanisms of surge onset in turbo heat pumps. From an existing nonlinear turbo heat pump surge model, the turbo heat pump is viewed as a mass-spring-damper system with two inertias, two dampers, and four springs which is then further simplified to a single degree-of-freedom system. Surge onset occurs when the system damping becomes zero and depends not only the compressor but also on the ducts, heat exchangers, and expansion valve. Alternatively, a new stability model has been developed by applying a linearized small perturbation method to the nonlinear turbo heat pump surge model. When the new linear stability model is applied to a conventional open loop compression system (e.g., a turbocharger), predictions identical to those of Greitzer's model are obtained. In addition, surge onset has been experimentally measured in two turbo heat pumps. A comparison of the predictions and measurements shows that the mass-spring-damper model and the linearized stability model can accurately predict the turbo heat pump surge onset and the mass-spring-damper model can explain the turbo heat pump surge onset mechanisms and parametric trends in turbo heat pumps.