Effectiveness analysis and optimum design of the rotary regenerator for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system

Abstract

The influence of the period of rotation on the effectiveness of the thermophotovoltaic (TPV) rotary regenerator was theoretically and experimentally investigated. It was found that the deviations of the theoretical results from the experimental ones decrease with the increase of the period of rotation. To the TPV system of 10 kW combustion power, the deviation is 3.5% when the rotation period is 3 s; while the deviation decreases to 1.5% when the rotation period increases to 15 s. The deviation could be mainly attributed to the cold and hot fluids carryover loss which was not considered in the model. With a new model taking account of the carryover loss established, the predicted results were greatly improved. Based on the modified model, the influence of geometrical parameters of rotary regenerator on the effectiveness was analyzed for TPV systems of various combustion power. The results demonstrate that the effectiveness increases with the increase of the rotary regenerator diameter and height, while fluid carryover loss increases at the same time, which weakens the impact of geometrical parameters.

Keywords

thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system / rotary regenerator / effectiveness / carryover loss

References

[1] Frass L M, Avery J E, Huang H X. Thermophotovoltaic furnace-generator for the home using low bandgap GaSb cells. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 2003, 18(5): s247-s253

[2] Qiu K, Hayden A C S. Thermophotovoltaic power generation systems using natural gas-fired radiant burners. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2007, 91(7): 588-596

[3] Colangelo G, de Risi A. New approaches to the design of the combustion system for thermophotovoltaic applications. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 2003, 18(5): s262-s269

[4] Wu X, Ye H, Dai S M. The performance analysis of the combustor-emitter of thermophotovoltaic system. Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica, 2009, 30(8): 1058-1063

[5] Li J, Chou S K, Li Z W, Yang W M. A potential heat source for the micro-thermophotovoltaic(TPV) system. Chemical Engineering Science, 2009, 64(14): 3282-3289

[6] Kays W M, London A L. Compact Heat Exchangers. third ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984

[7] Hill A, Willmott A J. Accurate and rapid thermal regenerator calculations. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 1989, 32(3): 465-476

[8] Klein H, Eigenberger G. Approximate solutions for metallic regenerative heat exchangers. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2001, 44(18): 3553-3563

[9] Sphaier L A, Worek W M. Parametric analysis of heat and mass transfer regenerators using a generalized effectiveness-NTU method. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2009, 52(9): 2265-2272

[10] Nair S, Verma S, Dhingra S C. Rotary heat exchanger performance with axial heat dispersion. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 1998, 41(18): 2857-2864

[11] Colangelo G, de Risi A, Laforgia D. Experimental study of a burner with high temperature heat recovery system for TPV applications. Energy Conversion and Management, 2006, 47(9): 1192-1206

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (No. 2007AA05Z236) and Anhui Province Foundation (No. 2007Z011).

Notations

A	Heat transfer area of matrix/m2
C	Thermal capacity rate/(J·K-1·s-1)
cp	Specific heat capacity/( J·kg-1·K-1)
h	Heat transfer coefficient/( W·m-2·K-1)
k	Matrix thermal conductivity/(W·m-1·K-1)
L	Matrix height/m
R	Matrix radius/m
T	Matrix or fluid temperature/K
z	Axial direction coordinate
\mathrm{\Delta }z	Element length/m
Greek symbols
ϵ	Porosity of regenerator
\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi	Zone angle occupied by element/rad
\eta	Regenerator effectiveness
\theta	Dimensionless matrix or fluid temperature
\rho	Density/(kg·m-3)
\omega	Rotation period/s
\psi	Zone angle/rad
Subscripts
c	Cold fluid
f	Fluid
h	Hot fluid
l	Carryover loss
r	Matrix

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg