Pressure drop in large volumetric heat storage tank radial plate diffuser

Abstract In this paper a number of numerical simulations were performed to determine the geometry and the process parameters influence on the large volumetric heat storage tank radial plate diffuser pressure drop. The tank is used in district heating systems. To reduce the possibility of a pressure drop in the diffuser below the water saturation pressure, three basic diffuser types were tested sharpe edge joint (SEJ), conical element (COE) and curved element (CUE). The analysis shows the differences and similarities between the diffuser types and their influence on the static and total diffuser pressure drop. The geometric similarity of the hermetic compressor radial valve with heat storage tank radial plate diffuser was used to validate the numerical model. The numerical calculation results were compared with the experimental measurements of the air pressure drop on the radial valves front plate taken from the literature. Good correlation between the calculation results and experimental measurements has been achieved. Along with mentioned, the diffuser model similarity effect is also presented and analyzed. The obtained results showed that, the static pressure drop remains the same for different diffuser sizes, when the geometric similarity of the diffuser is preserved.