MAE
SEMINAR SERIES
WAVE
ROTORS AT
DIFFERENT
SCALES:
CONCEPTS
& APPLICATIONS
Florin
Iancu
Michigan
State University, Mechanical Engineering Department
Monday,
July 11, 2005, 11am
Phillips
Hall 7th Floor Conference Room # 736
Wave rotor technology
has shown a significant potential for performance improvement of
thermodynamic cycles. The wave rotor is an unsteady flow machine that
utilizes shock waves to transfer energy from a high-energy fluid to a
low energy fluid, increasing both the temperature and the pressure of
the low energy fluid. Used initially as a high-pressure stage for a gas
turbine locomotive engine, the wave rotor was commercialized only as a
supercharging device for internal combustion engines. Over the
past decade, topping gas turbine engines has received increased
attention from the wave rotor research community. Recently, the wave
rotor research group at Michigan State University proposed a new
concept of using the wave rotor as pressure divider and equalizer for
refrigeration cycles. A new geometric configuration – radial wave rotor
– is presented, as well as a design procedure, numerical validation and
several possible applications. A new ultra-micro wave rotor
is developed for topping a miniaturized gas turbine, aiming to increase
the overall thermodynamic efficiency. The efficiencies of baseline
turbomachinery components are lower at microscale than at large scale.
Because the wave rotor does not use mechanical components to transfer
energy, when it is scaled down, its efficiency is influenced less than
that of turbomachinery components. Thus, at microscale a wave rotor is
more efficient than a compressor. Moreover, the radial geometry is
ideal for microfabrication, which is mainly a 2D process. Several
designs for both axial and radial wave rotors are envisioned and
studied.
Florin Iancu graduated
from the University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Romania, receiving his
BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering, the later with the thesis “Aspect
Concerning Modeling of Thin-Walled Beams”. He continued to develop his
background in structural mechanics while working on his second M.S. at
Michigan State University. He completed his second Masters with
the thesis “Three Dimensional Finite Element Analysis of a Single Lap
Bolted Joint of Thick Isotropic Materials”, and became a Ph.D.
candidate, joining the Turbomachinery Laboratory at Michigan State
University. He expects to receive his Ph.D. by December 2005, with the
thesis “Integration of a Wave Rotor into an Ultra-Micro Gas Turbine
(UGT)”. For the past three years he has investigated the potential of
Ultra-Micro Gas Turbines (UGT) and Ultra-Micro Wave Rotors (UWR). The
goal of his Ph.D. research is to develop the first wave rotor topped
UGT. Mr. Iancu works together with Dr. Norbert Mϋller at Michigan
State University, where he contributed also to research in novel wave
rotor designs and applications. In his research Mr. Iancu also
collaborates with Dr. Janusz Piechna from Warsaw University of
Technology, Dr. Luc Fréchette from Sherbrooke University and Dr.
Stuart Jacobson from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Iancu
has published and presented his work internationally in more than ten
technical publications and is the co-author of two recent patent
applications.
For more information:
202-994-6749