Research Initiation: Analysis of Waste Heat Recovery by Phase-Change Particles

本项目的目的是分析一种从典型燃烧系统中回收和再利用废旧能源的创新方法的有效性和紧凑性。这种能量回收和再利用是通过使用包裹相变材料的小颗粒来实现的。为了成功地实现所提出的目标，有必要从理论和实验上分析流体力学和传热学问题。该理论涉及质量、动量、能量和辐射守恒方程的数值解。这些实验使用固体颗粒来验证理论中使用的经验关系，包括用标准方法测量气体和颗粒的速度和温度。出于几个原因，拟议中的工作可能会对电力和工业工厂产生重大影响。首先，与传统的固定式或旋转式热交换器相比，无论是在改装还是在新安装中使用，都应该大大节省燃料。其次，该装置是可操作的，并且颗粒可以连续从未燃烧的燃料和污垢中清除，从而提高了热力学转换效率，并更好地控制了氮氧化物的形成。最后，这些颗粒可以作为去除颗粒物和气态污染物的洗涤介质，因此具有双重目的：回收浪费的能量和控制污染物。

The objective of this project are to analyze the effectiveness and compactness of an innovative approach for recovering and reusing the wasted energy from a typical combustion system. Such energy recovery and reuse are achieved by employing small particles encapsulating a phase-change material. To successfully accomplish the proposed objectives, it is necessary to analyze the fluid dynamics and heat transfer problem both theoretically and experimentally. The theory involves a numerical solution to a formulation of the conservation equations for mass, momentum, energy and radiation. The experiments, which employ solid particles to verify empirical relations used in the theory, include measurements of velocities and temperatures of the gas and particles by standard methods. The proposed work could be of significant interest to power and industrial plants for several reasons. First, its use, either as retrofitted or in new installations, should yield significant savings in fuel over conventional fixed or rotary heat exchangers. Second, the unit is operable and particles cleanable from unburnt fuel and dirt on a continuous basis, resulting in improved thermodynamic conversion efficiencies and better control of the oxides of nitrogen formation. Finally, the particles may act as scrubbing media for removal of particulate matter and gaseous pollutants, thus serving a dual purpose: recovery of wasted energy and pollutant control.