Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) channel corner seal
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorFrancis R. Spurrier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A corner seal for an MHD duct includes a compressible portion which contacts the duct walls and an insulating portion which contacts the electrodes, sidewall bars and insulators. The compressible portion may be a pneumatic or hydraulic gasket or an open-cell foam rubber. The insulating portion is segmented into a plurality of pieces of the same thickness as the electrodes, insulators and sidewall bars and aligned therewith, the pieces aligned with the insulator being of a different size from the pieces aligned with the electrodes and sidewall bars to create a stepped configuration along the corners of the MHD channel.
Claims8
In a magnetohydrodynamic channel including an elongated duct, rectangular in cross section, which defines a passageway for an electrically conducting working fluid and which has electrodes and insulators extending transversely across opposed faces of the channel said insulators being disposed between the electrodes said electrodes being supported from the duct at midpoints along their length, the improvement comprising seals disposed in the corners of the duct and extending the length of the channel to impede leakage of working fluid along the corners of the duct, said seals including a compressible portion which contacts the duct and an insulating portion which contacts the electrodes and insulators, said insulating portion being segmented into pieces of the same thickness as the electrodes and insulators and aligned therewith, the pieces aligned with the insulators being of a different size from the pieces aligned with the electrodes to create a stepped configuration along the corners of the duct.
An MHD channel comprising an elongated fiberglass duct, square in cross-section and increasing in cross-sectional area from inlet to outlet which defines a passageway for an electrically conducting plasma, copper or corrosion resistant steel electrodes supported from the duct at their midpoint extending transversely across the top and bottom of the MHD channel, boron nitride insulators held in place by the electrodes extending transversely across the top and bottom of the MHD channel between the electrodes, O-ring strip seals disposed between the insulators and the fiberglass duct and held in place by the insulators, said fiberglass duct being split at its horizontal midplane, pairs of longitudinally aligned copper or corrosion resistant steel sidewall bars fastened at their midpoints to the duct extending transversely across the side walls of the duct, pairs of longitudinally aligned boron nitride insulators extending transversely across the side walls of the duct between the sidewall bars and held in place thereby, O-ring strip seals disposed between these insulators and the duct, said sidewall bars and insulators being of the same thickness and aligned with the electrodes and insulators on the top and bottom walls of the duct, said electrodes and sidewall bars have internal cooling passages therein, means for passing water through said internal coolant passages, and seals disposed in the corners of the duct and extending the length of the channel to impede leakage of plasma along the corners of the duct, said seals being split diagonally into a compressible portion which contacts the duct and an insulating portion which contacts the electrodes, sidewall bars and insulators, said insulating portions being segmented into pieces of the same thickness as the electrodes, sidewall bars and insulators with which they are aligned, the pieces aligned with the electrodes and sidewall bars being longer than the pieces aligned with the insulators which creates a stepped configuration along the corners of the duct.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.