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.