Use of CFD and Geometry Optimization to Improve the Secondary Oil Separation of an Oil Flooded Rotary Vane Compressor

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and analytical modelling as predictive tools are playing an increasing role in the design and optimization process at Compressors Vacuum Pumps Systems (CVS) Engineering GmbH. To enable an efficient primary and secondary oil separation in a rotary vane oil flooded compressor steady and unsteady CFD is used to mimic the flow in the airend and the primary and secondary oil separators of the compressor. Optimization of flow was done using Design of Experiment (DoE) to improve the secondary separation between the oil and the air by reducing the oil challenge and the oil carry-over volume as reported in this paper.