The performances of the four possible RV expander design configurations at suction pressures of 2, 6 and 10 bars and a 1 atm discharge pressure with air as the working fluid are studied in this paper. The study was carried out theoretically by analyzing the vane contact forces and the vane side friction losses behaviors. It was found that the expander design with the vane fixed at the rotor and when the rotor is the driving component configuration (RV-I) produces the best performance, irrespective of the operating pressures. On the other hand, the expander design with the vane at the cylinder and when the rotor is the driving component (RV-IIa) consistently produces the worst performance. It was also found that the vane contact forces and the vane side friction losses are mainly affected by the inertia of the driving component and not by the operational pressures.
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