Development and Application of a Software Package for the Design of Twin Screw Compressors

The development and application of a software package for the design of twin screw compressors is presented in this paper. The package can be used to calculate the rotor profile, geometrical characteristics, thermodynamic performance, forces on rotor, rotor deflection and cutter shape. A user-friendly interface and some powerful post-processing programs are also included in the package. The application of the package is demonstrated by the successful development of several types of new compressor and the generation of various new rotor profiles. The package has also been used to improve the performance of a number of existing machines, and very satisfactory results are obtained. It is also shown that a modified version of the software package can be provided easily to calculate the patent profiles of specific companies. INTRODUCTION Twin screw compressor is widely used as air, refrigeration and process compressor because of its advantages such as compact construction, reliable operation and free of vibration[IJ. During the past years, most of the companies which manufacture twin screw compressor have developed some computer programs based on the working process simulation, and applied them in the development of new rotor profiles and in the design of new series of twin screw compressor [2,3,4,51. The program can be also integrated into a software package to make it be accessed by more designers and engineers[6J. Based on systematic theoretical modeling and extensive experimental investigation on the working process, a software package for the design of twin screw compressors called SCCAD has been developed. A number of new rotor profiles have been generated and several types of new twin screw compressor are developed by making use of this package. The package has also been used to improve the performance of some existing compressors. MAIN PROGRAMS OF THE SOFTWARE PACKAGE The computer programs in the software package SCCAD were first developed several years ago[7,8,9], and have been updating in recent years[lOJ. Its most recent version is SCCAD 3.0 for Windows. The SCCAD package includes six main programs, i.e. profile generation, geometrical characteristics calculation, performance simulation, rotor forces analysis, rotor deflection calculation and cutter shape calculation. Besides the six main programs, a lot of efforts are also made on developing a user-friendly interface and powerful post-processing programs. Fifteenth International Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USAJuly 25-28, 200