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

该项目的目标是分析一种创新方法的有效性和紧凑性，用于回收和再利用来自典型燃烧系统的浪费能源。这种能量回收和再利用是通过采用小颗粒封装相变材料来实现的。为了成功地实现所提出的目标，有必要从理论上和实验上对流体动力学和传热问题进行分析。该理论涉及质量、动量、能量和辐射守恒方程公式的数值解。这些实验使用固体粒子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粒子的速度和温度。出于几个原因，这项提议的工作可能会引起电力和工业工厂的极大兴趣。首先，它的使用，无论是改造还是在新装置中，都应该比传统的固定或旋转热交换器节省大量的燃料。其次，该装置是可操作的，并且可以连续地从未燃烧的燃料和污垢中清除颗粒，从而提高热力学转换效率并更好地控制氮氧化物的形成。最后，颗粒可以作为去除颗粒物质和气态污染物的洗涤介质，从而达到双重目的：回收浪费的能源和控制污染物。

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.