Calculation of the structural parameters of a multi-cylinder thermal generator based on the Couette-Taylor flow

Abstract

Direct conversion of wind energy into heat is a relevant direction for the development of alternative heat power engineering. The paper considers an efficient wind heat generator that consists of two rotors nested in each other's annular gaps and forming a system of cylindrical coaxial annular channels filled with a viscous working fluid. Depending on the properties of the working fluid, the velocity of the rotors, the number of annular channels and their geometry, there are combinations of parameters for the optimal design of the heat generator. The proposed method for selecting the design parameters of coaxial rotors makes it possible to directly select the optimal design of rotors for a given power of the heat generator and the properties of a viscous working fluid. The design of the multi-cylinder system of the heat generator, which uses the annular Couette–Taylor flow, is presented in the form of an equivalent single annular gap, which made it possible to generalize the results of investigations carried out with different working fluids under various conditions, in the form of a single dependence of the dimensionless power of the heat generator on the number Reynolds. The obtained dependence is well approximated by a linear function in the experimentally studied range of Reynolds numbers. An algorithm for calculating the geometric design parameters of a multi-cylinder annular system is proposed. As an example, calculations of the structural dimensions of nine variants of heat generators for three power values are given: 10 kW, 20 kW and 50 kW.