An investigation on the impact fatigue characteristics of valve leaves for small hermetic reciprocating compressors in a new automated test system

A.C. Altunlu, I. Lazoglu, E. Oguz, S. Kara

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
5 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation on the impact fatigue characteristics of valve leaves that are prevalently used in hermetic reciprocating compressors especially for the household type refrigerators. A unique automated impact fatigue test system has been designed and produced, which enables to carry out impact fatigue tests of the compressor valve leaves under the desired impact velocities. The test system serves investigations on the impact fatigue characteristics with the ability of crack detection and as the subsequent step of automatically terminating the test. The crack detection technique incorporates a non-contact actuation, a data acquisition system and a microphone. The investigation relates the impact fatigue lifetime of the valve leaves with the impact velocity, asymmetrical impact, operation temperature, material type (carbon strip steel, stainless strip steel and new stainless strip steel grade) and tumbling operation duration. Microscopic and metallographic observations were performed on the specimens. It was observed that the crack initiated at the edge of the valve leaves on the contact surface of valve leaf and vale plate and a particle is torn away from the edge before propagation. As the crack propagates, branching along the crack path is caused by the geometrical shape and stress waves on the valve leaves. The investigation and introduced test system guide the design optimization of valve leaves in terms of compressor performance due to energy consumption and lifetime of the valve leaf.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)826-841
Number of pages31
JournalFatigue & fracture of engineering materials & structures
Volume35
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 May 2012

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