Numerical and Experimental Stress Analysis of a High Pressure Compressor Using Finite Element Analysis Based on Design by Analysis Criteria

Designing a compressor to withstand the high pressure inherited from the CO2 transcritical cycle requires special dealing with structural strength and reliability issues mandatory for safety aspects. Moreover, when dealing with high pressure levels, compressor components have their original design adapted to withstand such a high pressures, particularly acoustical mufflers, external housing, and compression mechanism. In order to safety enclose the compression mechanism, the application of a proper design methodology is mandatory to safeguard the structural integrity of both the compressor external housing and the whole refrigerating system. In this application the compressor shall be dealt as a pressure vessel in which there is no analytical way to evaluate the actual stress acting on it unless advanced numerical tool been applied. Looking for acceptable, cost effective safety factors, a simultaneous design approach including advanced structural mechanics techniques, experimentation, safety Codes revision, and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools application is mandatory. The aim of this work is to present an hybrid numerical and experimental approach aiming to optimize the mass keeping the safe aspects in a compressor vessel used in high pressure refrigeration system. Numerical and experimental results will be compared among each other aiming to evaluate some ASME Codes criteria and design procedures.