Feasibility analysis of a steam-water supercharger for small-scale Rankine cycle. (5th March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rui, Xi; Zheng, Fei; Yan, Lide
• Is Part Of: Applied thermal engineering. Volume 186(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-03-05
• Subjects: Steam-water supercharger -- Feasibility -- Rankine cycle -- Experimental verification; Heat engineering -- Periodicals; Heating -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2020.116496
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-4311

Abstract

Highlights: A steam-water supercharger for small-scale Rankine cycle is proposed. The condensate is pressurized by high-pressure steam discharged from evaporator. A principle prototype is developed to verify the feasibility of the supercharger. The supercharger can act as the liquid pump, with no electricity consumption. Abstract: For the traditional Rankine cycle, mechanical pump driven by electricity is the only power-consuming part. Based on this, a steam-water supercharger is proposed in this paper, which can realize the pressurization of low-pressure condensate only using high-pressure and high-temperature steam. In the structural design, the crank slider mechanism is selected to realize automatic control of steam-intake and steam-exhaust passages. Besides the overview of principle, the mathematical modeling for performance analysis is also conducted. Then the theoretical study, including pressurizing performance and parameters study, and experimental verification are carried out to prove the feasibility of the proposed supercharger. The results show that: the proposed supercharger can be an alternative to the mechanical pump, and there is no requirement for external electric energy or power transmission, which is conducive to the promotion of small-scale portable solar power generation systems.