On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Henry Spencer <[email protected]>wrote:
> ... > > In a Kelvin generator (yet another name for the same thing), the droplets > are decelerated electrostatically. (Doing this will of course require > that the exhaust not be electrically conductive at that point.) That will > produce aerodynamic drag on the gas, but whether that will be enough to > decelerate the gas well is a good question. In a practical system the > droplet deceleration will probably have to be fairly abrupt, given the > high exhaust velocity and the short range of electrostatic forces in a > practical system, which doesn't augur well for gas deceleration. This > will mean high relative velocities between droplets and gas, which will > tend to cause friction heating of both, and atomization of the droplets. > The mass ratio of water to the gas it must drag down with it is 1:2 and it starts out at very low (near 0) vapor pressure. This mass ratio has to enter into the thermalization calculation (hence the efficiency). Its unclear how far one could take this mass ratio. For instance, by using an air separation prestage one could not only lower the gas in the plume to near 0, but one could increase the amount of water injected.
