DEVELOPMENT OF A NEON CRYOGENIC

TURBO-EXPANDER WITH MAGNETIC BEARINGS

H. Hirai1, M. Hirokawa1, S. Yoshida1, Y. Kamioka1, A. Takaike1

H.Hayashi2, H.Okamoto2, Y.Shiohara3
1
Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation
Tokyo, 142-8558, Japan
2
Kyusyu Electric Power CO., INC
Fukuoka, 815-8520, Japan
3
Superconductivity Research Laboratory, ISTEC
Tokyo, 135-0062, Japan

ABSTRACT

A cryogenic turbo-expander with active magnetic bearings was made and tested in a
reverse-Brayton cycle refrigerator using neon as working fluid. Turbine isentropic
efficiency is a very important factor for the refrigerator since it affects the performance of
the refrigerator significantly. Properties of neon are suitable for the working fluid in a
refrigerator to cool HTS (High Temperature Superconducting) applications. The neon
refrigerator needs a very small and high speed turbo-expander. But there are few studies of
isentropic efficiencies of cryogenic turbo-expander using neon gas. Thus the experiment to
get the design information was carried out. A prototype of neon refrigerator was made for
HTS applications in 2007. Its cooling power was 2 kW at temperature of 70 K and
operated in process pressure between 2 MPa and 1 MPa. To improve the performance of
the neon refrigerator, the process pressure was changed to 1 MPa ~ 0.5 MPa. Under this
process pressure, isentropic efficiencies for two types of turbine impellers were obtained.
The test results were included in to the turbine design program so that we could predict the
isentropic efficiencies of the turbo-expander more accurately. Details of the turbo-expander
design and test results are described in this report.

KEYWORDS: turbo-expander, cryocooler, HTS application, reverse-Brayton cycle,

CREDIT
magnetic LINE
bearing, (BELOW) TO BEneon
turbo-compressor, INSERTED
gas ON THE FIRST PAGE OF EACH
PAPER EXCEPT FOR ARTICLES ON pp. 18–25, 26–33, 68–75,
121–127, 136–142, 207–214, 246–253, 355–362, 388–395, 499– 506, 507–514,
609–614, 780–787, 796–803, 804–811, 905–912, 1291–1300, 1301–1308,
1369–1376, 1581–1592, 1593–1600, and 1647–1651

CP1218, Advances in Cryogenic Engineering: Transactions of the

Cryogenic Engineering Conference - CEC, Vol. 55, edited by J. G. Weisend II
© 2010 American Institute of Physics 0-7354-0761-9/10/$30.00

895
INTRODUCTION

Practical HTS applications such as a power cable, a current limiter, a transformer and
a motor have been studied actively [1-4]. These applications require a cooling system that
has cooling power from 2 kW to 10 kW at the temperature of 70 K and is able to achieve
long maintenance interval [5]. Most of conventional cryocoolers, such as Stirling, Gifford-
McMahon (G-M) and pulse tube cryocoolers, have cooling capacity from several W up to
1 kW, and first two coolers have a reciprocating displacer as well as reciprocating
compressor. Consequently, they need to have frequent maintenance [6].
On the other hand, the refrigerator with a turbo-expander and a turbo-compressor is
able to obtain long maintenance interval because they can employ non-contact bearings
such as gas bearings and magnetic bearings. So, the development of reverse-Brayton cycle
neon refrigerator of 2 kW at 65 K with a turbo-expander and a turbo-compressor is in
progress.
In order to keep the operating condition of turbo-expander stable, the boiling
temperature of working fluid must be lower than the cooling temperature of HTS
applications. Since the cooling temperature of the refrigerator is 65 K, neon, helium and
hydrogen can satisfy the requirement of the refrigerator. Neon gas was chosen as working
fluid for the refrigerator because the rotational speed of the turbo-expander is lower in the
case of the larger molecular weight gas; molecular weight of neon is the largest of these
gases [7].
A prototype neon refrigerator was initially designed and fabricated, which had a
cooling power of 2 kW at the temperature of 70 K in 2007. A conventional reciprocating
compressor was applied in this prototype refrigerator because there was not an adequate
neon turbo-compressor. Therefore, the refrigerator can not obtain long maintenance
interval.
If a turbo-compressor were adopted for the refrigerator, the refrigerator could achieve
high efficiency, maintenance-free and downsizing. Now, the development of a high
performance neon turbo-compressor with magnetic bearings is underway. However, it is
significantly difficult to make the efficiency of the turbo-compressor higher in this process
pressure of 2 MPa ~ 1 MPa, because the calculated blade height of the compressor impeller
becomes extremely small and the clearance leakage loss in the impeller is much larger.
Therefore, the process pressure of the refrigerator was changed from 2 MPa ~ 1 MPa to 1
MPa ~ 0.5 MPa. And a new turbo-expander with active magnetic bearings for new process
pressure was tested for the prototype refrigerator.

TURBO-EXPANDER DESIGN

Foil type dynamic gas bearings and a full-shrouded, closed type impeller were
employed for the turbo-expander in the prototype refrigerator. Dynamic gas bearings have
the advantage of keeping the rotating shaft non-contacting except for startup and shutdown
[8].
The closed type impeller has generally higher efficiency than the open type impeller.
The impeller was made by precision casting, but there were many defective impellers in
the casting process, and also the manufacturing cost of complex shaped casting mold for
the closed impeller was relatively expensive.
On the other hand, active magnetic bearings and open type impeller were integrated to
the new turbo-expander. One of the advantages of the magnetic bearings is that there is no
contact between the bearing surface and the shaft even in case of startup and shutdown.

896
TABLE 1. The design specifications of the turbo-expander
Inlet pressure 1.0 MPa
Inlet temperature 68 K
Outlet pressure 0.5 MPa
Outlet temperature 56.6 K
Flow rate 0.15 kg/sec
Rotational speed 1550 rev/sec
Efficiency 65 %
Impeller diameter 25 mm
Brake type Alternator loaded
Bearing type Active magnetic bearings

Our magnetic bearing turbo-expanders have been already applied for several air separation
plants and their reliability has been confirmed sufficiently.
In the case of open type impeller, we can choose the way of 5-axis numerically
controlled milling machine and the manufacturing cost becomes moderate, but the leakage
loss at the impeller shroud clearance should be considered carefully.
The new turbo-expander was tested at the process pressure of 1 MPa ~ 0.5 MPa in the
prototype refrigerator. Though the reciprocating compressor has a flow rate of 0.3 kg/sec at
2 MPa ~ 1 MPa, it has smaller flow rate of 0.15 kg/sec at 1 MPa ~ 0.5 MPa. And also the
flow rate of the turbo-expander decreases to 0.15 kg/sec.
TABLE 1 shows the design specifications of the turbo-expander. FIGURE 1 shows
the cross-sectional drawing of the turbo-expander.
Connectors

Turbine- Upper-
housing radial bearing

Alternator

Water-
cooling jacket
Axial-
bearings

Lower-
radial bearing

Turbine shaft
Inlet
Insulator
Outlet Turbine impeller

FIGURE 1. The cross-sectional drawing of the turbo-expander

897
 An alternator is attached to the middle of the shaft in order to control the rotational
speed of the expander. And to cool the alternator, a water-cooling jacket is equipped. A
pair of axial magnetic bearings is arranged at the lower end of the alternator. The radial
magnetic bearings and auxiliary bearings are located outside of the alternator and axial
bearings. A turbine impeller is mounted on the bottom of the shaft.
All the cables of the alternator and magnetic bearings are connected to a power supply
through three hermetic connectors.
A thermal insulator to reduce heat in-leak is equipped at the back of the impeller. The
turbine housing including the rotor and the impeller can be pulled out from the cold box of
the refrigerator.
Two types of impellers were made in this research and their photographs are shown in
FIGURE 2. Throat area of impeller outlet is extremely small in small impellers. Therefore
their impellers were made to compare the influence of throat area on turbine efficiencies.
The impeller type-B is composed of 8 full blades and 8 splitter blades to extend the throat
area of impeller outlet.
There are certain velocity relations which affect the performance of turbo-expander.
One of them is U/Co, the ratio of peripheral velocity (U) to the theoretical velocity (Co)
calculated from turbine isentropic head. The optimum value of U/Co found in a radial
turbine is the range of 0.65 ~ 0.70 [9]. So, U/C0 was determined to be 0.68 in these
impellers.
U/C0 is defined as below.

U S u Dun
(1)
C0 2 u hin  houtS 

Where U: Peripheral velocity; C0: Spouting velocity

D: Impeller diameter; n: Rotational speed
hin: Turbine inlet enthalpy
houtS: Turbine outlet enthalpy after isentropic expansion

Rotational speed and impeller diameter were determined on the basis of U/C0 = 0.68.
FIGURE 3 shows the relation between rotational speed and impeller diameter at U/C0 =
0.68. For larger impeller, we can choose lower rotational speed in FIGURE 3. But the
larger the impeller diameter is, the lower the blade height is, and also the influence of
leakage loss in the impeller becomes significant. The impeller diameter of 25 mm was
selected and the rotational speed was fixed at 1550 rev/sec based on FIGURE 3. Blade
height at the outer diameter of turbine impeller is 1.5 mm. The clearance between blades

Type-A Type-B

FIGURE 2. The photographs of 25 mm turbine impellers, Type-A: 16 full blades, Type-B: 8 full blades
and 8 splitter blades

898
 2600
2400

Rotational speed (rev/sec)

2200
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
Impeller diameter (mm)

FIGURE 3. The relation between rotational speed and diameter at U/C0 = 0.68

and stationary shroud wall is adjusted between 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm at the time of
assembling.
The performance of a turbo-expander can be described by turbine isentropic
efficiency Ș, which is defined as below.

hin  hout
K (2)
hin  houtS

Where hout: Actual turbine outlet enthalpy

TEST RESULTS

Thermodynamic performance tests of the turbo-expander were conducted with the

prototype refrigerator. FIGURE 4 is the flow diagram and photograph of the cold box.
The cold box contains a heat-exchanger unit, a turbo-expander and an electric heater,
piping and valves. Neon gas is compressed by the reciprocating compressor from 0.5 MPa
to 1 MPa and the flow rate is 0.15 kg/sec. The high pressure line is controlled by the
bypass valve V1. The heat-exchanger unit is a plate-fin type. The high pressure gas is
cooled by the low pressure return gas. In the turbo-expander, the neon is expanded from 1
MPa to 0.5 MPa and the turbine outlet temperature is finally cooled down to about 57 K.
The heater after the turbine warms the cold gas from the turbine outlet in order to obtain
the specified refrigeration temperature.
FIGURE 5 shows the cool-down data curve of the turbo-expander. The time at 0 min
indicates the startup of the reciprocating compressor. By adjusting the compressor bypass
flow, the turbine outlet temperature decreases due to isentropic expansion at about 30 min.
The turbine inlet temperature is cooled down to about 70 K in 360 min.
TABLE 2 shows the measured values of the turbine operating condition at the
maximum turbine efficiency. Synchronous speed of the alternator is set at 1400 Hz with a
variable frequency drive. Since the turbine pressure ratio increases during the cool down
operation, the turbine load increases also. This means that the rotational speed rises up
slightly from 1400 to 1414 rev/sec because the alternator is driven at a higher speed than
the synchronous speed.

899
 Turbo-expander
Alternator

1MPa to HTS

Cooler V3

Heater

Compressor V1

V2
from HTS

0.5MPa V4
300K
Heat exchanger unit Cold box

FIGURE 4. The flow diagram and photograph of the cold box

300
280
260
240
Temperature (K)

220 Inlet temperature

200
180 Outlet temperature
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600

Time (min)

FIGURE 5. The cool-down data curve

The inlet pressure of the compressor is kept constant at 0.5 MPa and its discharge
pressure is adjusted at 1 MPa by means of the bypass valve. In this performance test, the
measured pressure of the turbine inlet is lower than the design value due to the pressure
drop of the components such as heat-exchanger unit, filter, piping and valves. Then, the
turbine outlet pressure is higher than the design value due to the similar pressure drop and
the turbine pressure ratio in TABLE 2 is 1.8. However, U/C0 was in the range of optimum
speed ratio, namely 0.65 ~ 0.7, though the rotational speed is lower than design speed.
Therefore, we can obtain higher efficiency at the pressure ratio of 1.8.
FIGURE 6 shows the measured and predicted turbine efficiencies for two impellers in
FIGURE 2. In type-A, the measured maximum efficiency is approximately 70 % at U/C0 =
0.645. In type-B, the measured maximum efficiency is 67 % at U/C0 = 0.645. Deterioration
of turbine efficiencies in type-A due to the negative effect of a small throat area was a
concern during the design. However, the measured efficiencies of type-A is higher than

900
TABLE 2. The test data of type-A at maximum efficiency

Inlet pressure 0.923 MPa

Inlet temperature 71.5 K
Outlet pressure 0.515 MPa
Outlet temperature 60.7 K
Flow rate 0.128 kg/sec
Rotational speed 1414 rev/sec
Efficiency 69.7 %

80

70
Turbine efficiency (%)

60

Target efficiency
Type-A measured
50 Type-B measured
Type-A predicted
Type-B predicted

40
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
U/C0 (-)

FIGURE 6. The comparison of measured and predicted turbine efficiencies for two turbine impellers

type-B. It was confirmed that the throat area of type-A had enough area for higher turbine
efficiency.
On the other hand, the solid and broken lines show the predicted efficiency curve
calculated by the simulation program. As for U/C0, only U is changed, but the same C0 as
turbine design value in TABLE 1 is used. Both of predicted efficiencies are in good
agreement with the measured efficiencies. But some measured efficiencies in type-B are
lower than predicted curve, because the pressure ratios and inlet temperatures of the
turbine are rather different from the design values. We demonstrated the effectiveness of
the neon turbine efficiency prediction in this performance test.

CONCLUSION

A cryogenic turbo-expander was made and tested in reverse-Brayton cycle

refrigerator using neon as working fluid. We adopted active magnetic bearings and
alternator for the turbine. Two types of turbine impellers were tested at the process
pressure of 1 MPa ~ 0.5 MPa. The turbine maximum efficiency was about 70 % at the inlet
temperature of 71 K, rotational speed of 1414 rev/sec. Measured turbine efficiencies
agreed well with predicted efficiencies. Applying these test results to turbine design allows
us to improve the turbine efficiency during the next developmental stage.

901
 Now, development of a process simulator for the new neon refrigerator with a turbo-
expander and a turbo-compressor is in progress [10]. The overall performance test of the
neon refrigerator with a HTS transformer will be implemented in 2012.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development

Organization.

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