The Performance Analysis Method with New Pressure Loss and Leakage Flow Models of Regenerative Blower

For efficient design process of regenerative blower, the present study provides new generalized pressure and leakage flow loss models, which can be used in the performance analysis method of regenerative blower. The present performance analysis on designed blower is made by incorporating momentum exchange theory between impellers and side channel with mean line analysis method, and its pressure loss and leakage flow models are generalized from the related fluid mechanics correlations which can be expressed in terms of blower design variables. The present performance analysis method is applied to four existing models for verifying its prediction accuracy, and the prediction and the test results agreed well within a few percentage of relative error. Furthermore, the present performance analysis method is also applied in developing a new blower used for fuel cell application, and the newly designed blower is manufactured and tested through chamber-type test facility. The performance prediction by the present method agreed well with the test result and also with the CFD simulation results. From the comparison results, the present performance analysis method is shown to be suitable for the actual design practice of regenerative blower.