This is an interesting problem. At thin film tolerances liquids or
even compressed air act like a lubricant. It may be worthwhile to
consider conical thin film CO2 bearings. The surface of an armature
can be made smooth and cylindrical or nearly cylindrical but slightly
conical, if necessary using a thin steel enclosure. The armature
could of course be a continuation of the turbine shaft. The stators
could be located outside the shaft.
The high pressure CO2 could be directed in part to the bearings, thus
allowing the high pressure side to act as the equivalent of an oil
pump for an internal combustion engine.
The armature in such a configuration need not contain permanent
magnets or coils. The stator coils and cores cold be located outside
the pressure envelope. The armature could consist of the equivalent
of one or more U shaped magnetic flux conductors, making and breaking
the magnetic circuit with rotation.
For very small units a turbine could be avoided entirely, by using a
free sliding linear motion armature, driven in a manner similar to
old steam engine pistons. The armature would simply make or break
one or two external magnetic circuits to generate power. It would
oscillate back and forth like a frictionless air hockey puck.
A very small LENR unit could be used to charge an EV battery 24 hours
a day.
All just food for thought.
On Dec 2, 2011, at 4:48 AM, Robert Lynn wrote:
Having looked into this in detail recently (I was thing the same
thing) the frictional losses on the surface of the generator rotor
are just too high compared to the magnetic fields that exist in the
rotor air gap and you end up wasting all of your efficiency gains
on CO2 friction on the rotor. It is like trying to run the rotor
at high speed while it is surrounded by water.
On 2 December 2011 12:56, Horace Heffner <[email protected]>
wrote:
Thanks to Jouni for a great reference!
I don't see any reason CO2 turbomachinery in application with LENR
could not be sealed in a high pressure envelope involving no moving
seals. The transactions are heat in and out and electricity out.
The generator would have to be brushless, but that is no problem.
On Dec 2, 2011, at 12:03 AM, Robert Lynn wrote:
CO2 turbomachinery is not scalable to less than perhaps a few
hundred kW due to the extremely high density of CO2 (100's of
times air density), and very expensive seals. In a distributed
generation LENR world it will have pretty limited applications;
maybe aircraft, trucks, trains and ships, but with Gas turbines so
simple (no radiators required) and heat so cheap I don't think you
would bother with CO2.
On 2 December 2011 00:17, Aussie Guy E-Cat
<[email protected]> wrote:
Quote: "The Brayton cycle could yield 20 megawatts of electricity
from a package with a volume as small as four cubic meters." Wow
1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 mtrs for 20 Ac MWs at 46% thermal to electrical
energy conversion! Another total game changer. The good news just
keeps on happening. So much for 2012 being the end of the world.
Baby it is just starting to come together. We are on steroids and
moving at light speed into a new era of thermal and electrical
energy production. Jouni thanks for that amazing link. You made my
day.
AG
On 12/2/2011 10:22 AM, Jouni Valkonen wrote:
I am a great fan of this Cyclone engine. There is also similar
emergencing technology that uses super critical carbondioxide
instead of super critical water. The main benefit of going into
super critical is that the efficiency can go up to 46% for heat
engine. And also with carbon dioxide temperatures can be as low as
250-300 °C.
*Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle Turbines Promise Giant
Leap in Power Generation*
ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2011) — /Sandia National Laboratories
researchers are moving into the demonstration phase of a novel gas
turbine system for power generation, with the promise that thermal-
to-electric conversion efficiency will be increased to as much as
50 percent -- an improvement of 50 percent for nuclear power
stations equipped with steam turbines, or a 40 percent improvement
for simple gas turbines. The system is also very compact, meaning
that capital costs would be relatively low./
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110304090459.htm
This water based Cyclone engine should be in every aspect (moving
parts, friction, noise, vibrations, efficiency, weight, pollution,
and waste motor oil) at least twice if not thrice as good as
traditional internal combustion engine. If someone would invent an
internal combustion engine today, it would be ridiculed as
impossible, due to unsurpassing material and engineering
challenges. External combustion or electric engines are just way
too much simple and easy technologies compared to to internal
combustion engines.
–Jouni
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
