Summary

The work is an experimentally validated numerical analysis of the turbulent flow in reed type valves. Most reciprocating compressors used in domestic refrigerators employ automatic valves that open and close depending on the pressure difference across them. Despite being idealized the radial diffuser flow geometry considered here possesses a number of important features that are present in production valves. The finite volume methodology is adopted to solve the three dimensional transport equations, with the RNG k-s model of Yakhot and Orzag (1986) and the Low Reynolds Number k-s model of Launder and Sharma (1974) being employed for the turbulence modeling. The numerical solution was validated by means of sensitivity tests of the results with respect to grid refinement and boundary conditions. After this, an assessment of the turbulence models was conducted with reference to experimental data of pressure distribution on the reed surface. The results show that only the RNG k-s model can predict this class of flow. The poor predictions returned by the k-s version of Launder and Sharma (1974) is related to overpredicted turbulence levels. [...]

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