Optimised Liquid Flooded Gas Cycle for Heat Pump and External Heat Engine Applications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5334/fce.83Keywords:
Gas Cycle, Ericsson, Liquid Flooding, Heat Pump, External Heat EngineAbstract
Gas cycles, in their ideal form, promise the highest efficiency heat pump and external heat engine systems. The Ericsson and Stirling cycle promise Carnot efficiency, yet their seeming simplicity present significant engineering challenges in implementation. The primary challenge of both cycles is isothermal compression and expansion where finite time and the mechanical system’s insufficient surface area prevent ideal performance. Liquid flooding of the Ericsson cycle has been explored previously. Flooding with a high heat capacity liquid in effect increases the surface area for heat exchange, yet the experimental mechanical system uncounted significant losses, preventing suitable performance. This paper models a novel gas cycle system that combines aspects of the reverse Brayton air cycle and the Liquid Flooded Ericsson cycle. The enthalpy model in EES (Engineering Equation Solver) allows optimization of possible cycle arrangements and yields an optimal arrangement that constitutes a new gas cycle utilizing liquid flooding to achieve superior performance in a simpler cycle that previously envisioned. Possible applications of the new cycle include heat pump and external heat engines.Published
2020-05-13
Issue
Section
Technical Articles
License
Copyright (c) 2020 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms (if a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s)):- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author's responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.
Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate licence agreement document from the editorial team (e.g. authors who are Crown employees).