Power plants – Combustion products used as motive fluid – Rotating combustion products generator and turbine
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-10
2004-01-06
Gartenberg, Ehud (Department: 3746)
Power plants
Combustion products used as motive fluid
Rotating combustion products generator and turbine
Reexamination Certificate
active
06672048
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a rotary impeller driven turbine whereby relatively small engines are placed at or near the ends of at least two opposing impeller blades on a rotor. The engines propel the impeller blades to turn the rotor and shaft which in turns generates power. The engines are powered by a catalytic combustible reaction that produces steam, preferably by catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The invention therefore relates to a caturbine, or “catalytic turbine.”
2. Description of Related Art
Creating power by turning a rotor, or wheel, has been known for ages. Water wheels once generated the power needed to crush grain. Giant dams have been built to drive wheels to generate power and electricity. More recent advances have used various mechanisms to generate steam to impinge on rotor impellers (some of which were equipped with cup-like devices to more readily receive the steam) to turn the rotor, and consequently, generate energy. Much research has gone into the various mechanisms to generate the steam.
In a gas and steam-turbine plant, heat contained in an expanded working medium (flue gas) from the gas turbine is utilized to generate steam for the steam turbine. The heat transfer is effected in a heat-recovery steam generator, which is connected downstream of the gas turbine on the flue-gas side and in which heating areas are disposed in the form of tubes or banks of tubes. The latter in turn are connected in the water/steam circuit of the steam turbine. The water/steam circuit normally includes a plurality of pressure stages, for example two pressure stages. Each pressure stage has a preheating and an evaporator heating area.
The steam generated in the heat-recovery steam generator is fed to the steam turbine, where it expands to perform work. In this case, the steam turbine may include a number of pressure stages, which are adapted in their number and layout to the structure of the heat-recovery steam generator. The steam expanded in the steam turbine is normally fed to a condenser and condenses there. The condensate resulting during the condensation of the steam is fed again as feed water to the heat-recovery steam generator, so that a closed water/steam circuit is obtained.
The turbine rotor of a steam turbine of this type is normally mounted in a number of axial and/or radial bearings. One of these bearings, also referred to as the end bearing, is arranged in the interior, for example in the inner hub, of the exhaust steam housing and is used to fix that end of the shaft of the turbine rotor which is located in the exhaust steam housing. The end bearing is normally constructed as a radial bearing, that is to say as a bearing that absorbs radial forces.
The condenser of such a gas and steam-turbine plant, like a heat exchanger, can normally be acted upon by a cooling medium, which extracts heat from the steam for the condensation. In that case, water is normally provided as the cooling medium. As an alternative, however, the condenser may also be constructed as an air condenser, to which air is admitted as the cooling medium.
Wind Turbines provide a source of electrical power as an alternative to fossil fuels to help reduce gaseous emissions and other environmental problems. Wind turbines also provide electrical power in remote areas where power lines have not been strung. Accordingly, numerous wind turbines have been installed in high wind areas in the United States and other countries.
Wind turbines have either horizontal axes or vertical axes of rotation, with each type having different advantages and disadvantages. Vertical axis turbines have, among other advantages, little or no need for a tower on which to mount the turbines. The turbine, gearing electrical generators and the like can generally be mounted at ground level.
Most wind turbines are subject to possible damage from excessively high winds. Vertical axis turbines are less vulnerable to damage from high winds because such turbines are not usually mounted on towers that can be blown over. However, high winds can damage vertical axis turbines by causing them to run at excessively high speeds (RPM), which can cause catastrophic failure of the rotor, gearing, etc.
It is known to provide speed limiters or governors for wind turbines to reduce the risk of damage from high winds and excessively high speed rotation of the turbines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,619 to Aglor discloses a horizontal axis turbine having spring-loaded gate flaps which open responsive to predetermined levels of air pressure to spill air through outlets instead of across the air-engaging blades in the turbine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,432 discloses a vertical axis turbine having leaves made of resilient material which are unfolded by centrifugal forces at predetermined rotational speeds to interfere with air that would otherwise cause the rotor to speed out of control. U.S. Pat. Nos. 591,962; 1,586,914 and 4,004,861 also disclose systems for controlling the speed of wind turbines.
A turbine blade or vane for use in the wet steam region of the penultimate and final stages of turbines is described in German published, non-prosecuted Patent Application DE 195 46 008 A1. Such a turbine blade or vane is subject to erosive wear due to impinging water droplets. This erosive wear is reduced by the airfoil of the turbine blade or vane having surface roughness in the region of its leading edge and the region of the suction surface of the blade or vane or in at least a partial region thereof, which surface roughness is markedly increased relative to the surface roughness of the pressure surface of the airfoil. A film of water is held on the surface of the turbine blade or vane by this surface roughness. This film of water reduces the erosive effect of impinging water droplets.
German Patent DE 36 095 41 C2 deals with the reduction of the aerodynamic drag of a body in turbulent flow. The reduction in drag is achieved by reducing the turbulent wall shear stress. For this purpose, the surface of the body is provided with ribs in a plurality of rib formations. The ribs are arranged offset to one another laterally to a flow direction and have short extensions in the flow direction. In particular, DE 36 095 41 C2 reveals such a surface structure for reducing the drag of an aircraft wing.
German published, non-prosecuted Patent Application DE 43 19 628 A1 deals with the structuring of turbo-machine surfaces in contact with fluid. The flow losses are minimized by a applying a grooved structure. The special relationships of fluid pumps are taken into account in this publication.
German Utility Model G 90 13 099 relates to a rotor for extracting energy from a flowing medium or for releasing energy to a flowing medium consisting of a hub and at least one rotor blade. An increase in the efficiency of the rotor is achieved by a rotor blade of the rotor having a corrugated shape. In addition to the absolutely necessary corrugated shape, such a rotor blade can also be completely covered with grooving.
An impeller for a centrifugal compressor, in particular for a gas turbine, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,531. The impeller has vanes which extend radially outward and between which is located an impeller wall. The impeller wall is provided with grooves which extend radially outward so that a boundary layer of gas adhering to the wall is broken up and energy losses are therefore minimized.
U.S. Pat. No.4,023,350 illustrates an appliance that reduces pressure loss in a gas turbine. The appliance consists of a chain of protrusions which extends between two adjacent blades or vanes of a blading ring of the gas turbine. This chain of protrusions acts to generate a vortex so that a boundary layer thickness, and therefore losses due to transverse flows, are reduced.
In the VDI reports No. 1109 of 1994, Jetter and Rie &bgr; describe on page 241 of the article “Aerodynamic Properties of Turbine Blading Profiles of Different Manufacturing Qualities”, the influence of surface roughness on the efficien
Doody Patrick A.
Gartenberg Ehud
Hunton @ Williams LLP
LandOfFree
Rotary impeller driven turbine does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Rotary impeller driven turbine, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Rotary impeller driven turbine will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3194650