Diseño de un prototipo de turbina esférica para generar energía a partir de un flujo de aire.

Abstract

The energy efficiency in the industries is becoming more and more important, this leads to the implementation of methods such as equipment upgrading, electrical cogeneration and renewable energy (wind, photovoltaic), and when analyzing these methods it is possible find industrial processes to which certain physical principles can be applied. Air flows to the atmosphere are very common in industries, so in this mechanical, design project for develop of a prototype of a spherical turbine, the next flows can be considered. The models are made through a computer aided design program Autodesk Inventor and the analysis of dynamic simulation by a computational fluid dynamics software. With these two programs, it is possible to obtain plans at the detail level in its construction and an approximate torque calculation for power generation.

An air flow from a process in the cement producing company, Cementos del Oriente SA, located in the city of Sogamoso-Boyacá, was analyzed, air flow from the raw flour line, and the geometry of the chimney in the vertical mass mill filter. The spherical turbine design was carried out in detail based on the Gorlov and Lucid Energy design, implementing the designs in the chimney, initially the air flow without the turbine is simulated, to determine the turbulence and predict the possible location of the turbine inside the chimney, then the analysis of the air flow is carried out with the chimney-turbine model, in a period of time to generate data of speeds, pressures, torque and kinetic energy.

The values produced by the simulation are between 100 kW and 200 kW power production, very favorable for this work and the basis for future research in industrial processes that wish to analyze their residual air flows.