The geometry of the scroll compressor (Q2706427)

A scroll compressor is a machine for compressing air or refrigerant. The paper deals with the design of the boundary curves of the compression chambers of such a machine. The authors start from the intrinsic equation of one of the boundary curves. This equation links the arc-length \(s\) and the radius \(\rho\) of curvature of this curve \({\mathbf x}\). To ensure that the curve is a spiral without self-intersections the authors presume that \(\rho\) is a positive and increasing function of the tangent angle \(\phi\) (this is the angle between an arbitrarily chosen \(x\)-axis and the tangent of the curve). Then \({\mathbf x}\) is translated along a circular orbit which gives a family \({\mathbf x}_t\) of curves. The mating curve \({\mathbf y}\) is constructed as envelope of the family \({\mathbf x}_t\). NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEA corresponding mating pair \((\widetilde{\mathbf x}, \widetilde{\mathbf y})\) of curves is constructed by reflecting the first mating pair \(({\mathbf x}, {\mathbf y})\) in a suitably chosen point \(C\). NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe volume of the compression chambers and the total compression is computed. Additionally the authors discuss an optimization process for maximizing the choke volume of the compressor.