Dynamic and Friction Loss Analysis of the Vane in the Revolving Vane Compressor with the External Driving System

The most important and most easily damaged part of a revolving vane (RV) compressor is the vane. The friction loss of the vane determines the service life and maintenance cost of the RV compressor to a certain extent. To improve the efficiency and prolong the service life of the RV compressor, it is of great significance to analyze the dynamics of the vane and reduce the friction loss of the vane. In this article, a scheme is proposed to reduce the friction at the vane’s sides for the RV compressor. In the proposed scheme, the force acting on the vane tip due to the cylinder inertia is eliminated by driving the rotor and cylinder externally and separately; thus the friction loss at the vane’s sides is reduced. Calculations show that eliminating the effect of cylinder inertia can reduce the friction loss at the vane’s sides from 44.9 W to 24.7 W. Further, the results show that adding a driving force at the vane tip can further reduce the friction loss at the vane’s sides to 2.2 W, and this force can be easily implemented using an elastic coupling in the external driving system. Further considering that reducing the friction loss at the vane’s sides can increase the eccentricity between the rotor and the cylinder and increase the gas displacement, it can be widely used in refrigeration and air-conditioning applications.