Wavy plates as impinging oil separating structure at compressor discharge

Abstract

Oil separation is commonly needed in air conditioning and refrigeration systems to reduce the oil circulation rate and keep the oil inside the compressor. For compactness, the oil separation structure integrated into the compressor is more and more popular than traditional external oil separators. This paper presents the impinging separation mechanism, one of the basic mechanisms of droplet separation. As a representative of the impinging separator, wave-plates structures are studied by flow visualization and experimental measurement under realistic compressor discharge conditions. The video of oil mist flowing through the baffles and plates is captured by a high-speed camera and analyzed quantitatively. The effect of the oil flow condition and the effect of separator geometry design are investigated based on the experimental data. With the help of flow visualization, the flow details are analyzed.