Experimental investigation on a two-stage CO2compressor with high back pressure

In this article, two samples of two-stage rolling piston CO2compressors with and without intercooler are developed and experimentally studied. These CO2compressors are high back-pressure compressors, which mean the pressure inside compressor shell is the discharge pressure of the second stage. A test rig was designed to measure the performance and efficiency of this compressor. The test results show that the suction vapor temperature at the second stage inlet pipe has few influences on the performance and efficiency of the first compressor sample with intercooler. The volumetric efficiency linearly decreases with the increase of compression ratio of the suction and discharge pressure, and the volumetric efficiency can maintain in a relative constant range during a wide compression ratio changes in this high back-pressure design. There exists an optimum compression ratio for each suction pressure at the first stage, where the compressor isentropic efficiency is maximum. A generalized volumetric efficiency correlation for two-stage CO2rolling piston compressor as a function of compression ratio is proposed and it can describe 100% of the test data within ±5.0% with a mean deviation of 1.7%. This would be helpful as a guide for designing such type compressor.