Experimental investigations of the revolving vane (RV-I) expander

A novel revolving vane (RV-I) expander prototype, where the vane is rigidly attached to the rotor and the cylinder is allowed to move together with the rotor, has been built and studied experimentally. The prototype is found to operate successfully in the range of operating conditions tested: speed of up to 600 rpm and suction pressure of up to 5 barg. At the designed suction pressure of 3 barg, the isentropic and volumetric efficiency of the prototype is found to be up to 32% and 25% respectively. The data are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions with standard deviations of less than 10% for most of the average torque and flow rate data points. The theoretical model is also found to be able to accurately predict the instantaneous torque of the expander.

► A novel RV-I expander prototype was built and tested.
► It can successfully operate in the range of the operational conditions tested.
► The isentropic efficiency is up to 32%.
► The volumetric efficiency is up to 13%.
► The experimental data are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.