Current Status, Design and Performance Trends for the Regenerative Flow Compressors and Pumps

Regenerative flow compressors and pumps, hereafter called RFC/RFP have found many applications in industry; still they are the most neglected turbomachines in the family of dynamic compressors. The number of publications existing in literature is very small compared to the large number of papers about the centrifugal and axial turbocompressors. This paper gives a detail discussion of fundamentals and working principle of regenerative turbomachines. Regenerative compressors are compared with centrifugal compressors and the importance of regenerative turbomachines in low specific speed range is emphasized. The major findings of available literature on regenerative turbomachine are summarized. The current status, limitations and some of the challenges faced by RFC/RFP are assessed in context of performance improvement. The paper concludes with an overview of ongoing research and future directions to be followed for performance improvement of this neglected class of turbomachines.