Development of a generalized steady-state simulation framework for positive displacement compressors and expanders

peer reviewedIn this paper, a generalized framework is presented that can be used to simulate the steady-state performance of a wide range of positive displacement compressors and expanders (scroll, piston, screw, rotary, spool, etc.). The complete simulation algorithm is described, and an emphasis is placed on the numerical methods required to obtain robust behavior of the simulation. This formulation has been implemented into an open-source software package entitled PDSim written in the Python language. PDSim is the first open-source generalized compressor and expander simulation package. The source code can be freely obtained from http://pdsim.sf.ne