Multi-scale evaporator architectures for geothermal binary power plants

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2016

OSTI ID:1240580

Sabau, Adrian S ^[1]; Nejad, Ali ^[2]; Klett, James William ^[1]; Bejan, Adrian ^[3]

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1. ORNL
2. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)
3. Duke University, North Carolina

In this paper, novel geometries of heat exchanger architectures are proposed for evaporators that are used in Organic Rankine Cycles. A multi-scale heat exchanger concept was developed by employing successive plenums at several length-scale levels. Flow passages contain features at both macro-scale and micro-scale, which are designed from Constructal Theory principles. Aside from pumping power and overall thermal resistance, several factors were considered in order to fully assess the performance of the new heat exchangers, such as weight of metal structures, surface area per unit volume, and total footprint. Component simulations based on laminar flow correlations for supercritical R134a were used to obtain performance indicators.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1240580
• Resource Relation: Conference: Stanford Geothermal Workshop, Stanford, CA, USA, 20160222, 20160222
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English