The suitability of microscale compressed air axial turbine for domestic solar powered Brayton cycle

Abstract

Despite the fact that concentrated solar power technology was first studied about 55 years ago, it is just in recent times that this knowledge has achieved the attention of both investors and researchers all over the world. The turbine is considered to be one of the most important components of any power cycle, and it always needs to be improved to operate at a very high performance. This paper tries to typify the structural and aerodynamic analyses of a microscale axial turbine worked with the “Brayton cycle”, at several working conditions, by means of both the 3D CFD and FEM. First of all, the turbine was proposed to have 0.5–1.5 kW as output power and 83.3% as efficiency. At that time, the rotor’s hub and the blades were geometrically examined at a range of boundary conditions, with the aim of picturing the influence of various operational and geometrical parameters on the stress contours and values as well as the deformations across the rotor’s hub and the blades. The results indicated that the highest maximum principle and von Mises stresses are significantly guided by the “rotor stagger and trailing edge wedge” angles, as well as the rotor’s rotational speed and the working fluid inlet temperature. Moreover, the fatigue life was calculated, as well, and together the “rotor stagger and trailing edge wedge” angles considerably affected its value. Like these, results could open the doors for further analyses and market research to make this (domestic) system applicable.