Back to results
US 4,641,498 AGranted
Geothermal turbine
AssigneeGeothermal Energy Development Corporation
InventorsPeter Markovitch, Philip H. Klepesch
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A geothermal turbine for converting the energy of two-phase geothermal fluids to rotary power includes a housing having a generally cylindrical rotor chamber with a circular manifold, and a plurality of peripheral nozzles for communicating fluid to the rotor chamber, and a rotor mounted coaxially within the chamber incuding a plurality of converging overlapping blades mounted around a central hub and positioned within the rotor for engagement by fluid from the nozzles.
Claims12
A two-phase fluid turbine comprising:
- a housing having a generally cylindrical rotor chamber;
- a plurality of nozzles for communicating fluid to said chamber at spaced points around the periphery of said chamber;
- a manifold for communicating pressurized fluid from a source to said nozzles;
- and
- a rotor mounted coaxially within said rotor chamber and including a plurality of radially converging blades mounted around a central hub, each blade overlapping the next adjacent blade by a sufficient amount to form converging flow guiding channels between the opposing overlapping faces of adjacent blades for directing flow from the exterior to the interior of the rotor, each blade having a radially outward tip positioned for interruption of fluid from said nozzles;
- said blades defining spiral evolute segments diminishing in radius and width in the direction of rotation.
3 more elements
A fluid power system comprising:
- a source of geothermal fluid;
- a two-phase fluid turbine for converting kinetic energy of said geothermal fluid to a rotating motion of a drive shaft;
- said turbine including blades having a segmented spiral evolute configuration overlapping adjacent blades forming converging fluid channels there between for thereby defining a boundary layer turbine;
- said turbine comprising a generally flat cylindrical housing oriented on a vertical rotary axis and including a coaxial fluid outlet.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.