Analytical and computational study of a novel waste-heat-recovery radial expander

据估计，加拿大制造过程消耗的能源中，有20%-50%最终是通过热排气、冷却水和热表面和产品的热传递而损失的。从这些废热中回收能量是一种无排放的替代昂贵的购买燃料或电力，将显著减少加拿大工业的能源消耗和温室气体排放。拟议的研究项目将对一种新的废热回收概念进行分析和计算分析，该概念从入口温度相对较低的加压流体中提取功。该装置是一种径向透平膨胀机，通过旋转机械和装置内流体之间的相互作用产生的摩擦力回收余热。与现有的热回收技术相比，概念化透平膨胀机的几何简单性将使其制造和操作成本大大降低，并有望实现足够高的效率，以便在石油和天然气处理设施中从废热中提取电力是经济的。通过对膨胀机内部流体流动的第一性原理分析和深入的计算流体力学模拟，本研究项目将确定最大功率和效率的最佳膨胀机结构，调查装置内气动损失的来源，并在已知损失源的基础上改进膨胀机的设计。该项目将产生一种新型设备，能够以比目前可用的更高的效率和更低的成本从废热资源中提取电力，为加拿大的能源、石油和天然气以及制造业带来显著的财务和环境节约。

It is estimated that 20-50% of the energy consumed by Canadian manufacturing processes is ultimately lost viawaste heat emitted in hot exhaust streams, cooling water, and heat transfer from hot surfaces and products.Recovering energy from this waste heat is an emission-free substitute for costly purchased fuels or electricity,and will significantly reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian industry. Theproposed research project will conduct an analytical and computational analysis of a novel waste heat recoveryconcept that extracts work from a pressurized fluid stream with a relatively low inlet temperature. The device isa radial turboexpander that recovers waste heat through frictional forces arising from the interaction betweenthe rotating machinery and fluid within the device. The geometrical simplicity of the conceptualizedturboexpander will make it much cheaper to manufacture and operate compared to existing heat recoverytechnologies, and is expected to achieve a high enough efficiency so as to be economical for extracting powerfrom waste heat in oil and gas processing facilities. Through first-principles analytical analysis and in-depthcomputational fluid dynamics simulations of the fluid flow within the expander, the research project willidentify the optimum expander configuration for maximum power and efficiency, investigate the sources ofaerodynamic losses within the device, and improve the expander design based on the knowledge of the losssources that are present. The project will lead to a novel device that can extract power from waste heat sourceswith much higher efficiencies and lower costs than are currently available, bringing significant financial andenvironmental savings to Canada's energy, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries.