CENTRIPETAL TURBINE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a centripetal turbine, and more particularly to a centripetal turbine, which is rotated via collision with a fluid injected from nozzles so as to allow power generation and cooling to be performed simultaneously while allowing kinetic energy of the fluid to be substantially completely recovered through the turbine, and is configured to permit easy discharge of condensed water to an outside, if necessary.

Description of the Related Art

As well known in the art, a power generator is an apparatus to generate electricity, and includes a hydraulic generator, a thermal power generator, etc. For the thermal power generator, power generation is performed in such a way of burning a material to generate thermal energy, followed by converting the thermal energy into mechanical energy.

Referring to Fig. 5, a conventional thermal power generator generally comprises an engine 100 to convert thermal energy generated through combustion of a material into mechanical energy, a power generating unit 200 to

generate power by virtue of the mechanical energy from the engine 100, and a radiator 300 to remove heat generated when burning the material in the engine 100.

As such, since the conventional thermal power generator requires such a separate cooling means, the structure of the generator becomes complicated and makes it difficult to be reduced in size, thereby causing a problem of high cost and low efficiency.

Furthermore, for a turbine generator, efficiency of power generation is determined according to capability of a turbine, which can be generally classified into a centrifugal turbine and a centripetal turbine.

The centrifugal turbine is operated according to a principle wherein the turbine positioned at an outer side of the generator is rotated by a fluid injected through nozzles positioned at an inner side of the generator. The centrifugal turbine is operated according to a principle wherein the turbine positioned at an inner side of the generator is rotated by a fluid injected through nozzles positioned at an outer side of the generator.

Efficiency of the turbine is determined by a capability of transferring kinetic energy of the fluid to the turbine upon collision of the fluid with the turbine, and a capability of discharging condensed water to an outside when the condensed water is generated.

For the centrifugal turbine, however, since the fluid is injected simply through the nozzles positioned at the inner side of the generator to the turbine positioned at the outer side of the generator, a speed of the fluid leaving out through rotational blades, that is, a circumferential speed, becomes high, and thus the kinetic energy of the fluid cannot be sufficiently transferred to the turbine, making it impossible to completely recover the energy of the fluid. In addition, since the conventional centripetal turbine has the structure which subjects the condensed water to a centrifugal force and fails to discharge the condensed water to the outside when the condensed water is generated in the turbine, there is a problem of lowering the efficiency of power generation. In other words, the efficiency of power generation is affected by a phase change of the fluid.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a centripetal turbine, which is rotated via collision with a fluid injected from nozzles so as to allow power generation and cooling to be performed

simultaneously while allowing kinetic energy of the fluid to be substantially completely recovered through the turbine, and is configured to permit easy discharge of condensed water to an outside when the condensed water is generated in the turbine.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a centripetal turbine, wherein a fluid is injected circumferentially from nozzles positioned outside a housing of the turbine to the turbine positioned inside the housing to cause the turbine to be rotated via collision with the fluid, and is discharged to an outside via a central region of the turbine after colliding with the turbine. The turbine may comprise a plurality of arcuate rotational blades circumferentially disposed to face the nozzles, and a plurality of arcuate vanes extending from the rotational blades towards the central region of the turbine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a power generator comprising a centripetal turbine according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front view illustrating the structure of the centripetal turbine according to the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a partial enlarged view of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a front view illustrating operation of the centripetal turbine according to the present invention; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional power generator.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a power generator comprising a centripetal turbine according to the present invention. Referring to Fig. 1, a centripetal turbine 1 according to the present invention is installed on a driving shaft 20 of a generator 2, and is enclosed from an outside by a housing 11, which has a plurality of nozzles 12 formed along a circumference of the housing 11 and a discharge port 11a formed at a front side of a central region of the housing

11.

The turbine 13 comprises a plurality of rotational blades 13a positioned on a front side of the turbine 13 so as to collide with a fluid injected from the nozzles 12, a plurality of vanes 13b extending from the rotational blades 13a to allow the fluid to move from the rotational blades 13a to a central region of the turbine 13, and a cover plate 13c to cover front sides of the rotational blades 13a and the vanes 13b. With this structure, as indicated by an arrow, an external fluid is injected towards the turbine 13 within the housing 11 through the nozzles 12, and collides with the rotational blades 13a of the turbine 13, causing rotation of the turbine 13. Then, rotational force of the turbine 13 is converted into a shaft power, and transferred to the generator 2 side through the driving shaft 20, generating power.

Then, after colliding with the rotational blades 13a, the fluid is condensed due to loss of kinetic energy, flows in a low temperature state to the central region of the turbine 13 through the vanes 13b extending from the rotational blades 13a, and is discharged to the outside through the discharge port 11a of the housing 11.

Fig. 2 shows the structure of the turbine according to the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a partial enlarged view

of Fig . 2 .

Referring Figs. 2 and 3, the plurality of nozzles 12 are circumferentially secured around the housing 11 so that the turbine 1 is rotated inside the nozzles 12. The turbine 13 comprises the plurality of rotational blades 13a facing the nozzles 12, and the plurality of vanes 13b extending from the rotational blades 13a to cause the fluid to be directed to the central region of the turbine 13 after colliding with the rotational blades 13a. Here, each of the vanes 13b has an elongated arcuate shape with its end adjacent to the central region of the turbine.

In other words, the vanes 13 are configured to force condensed water generated when the fluid is deprived of its kinetic energy by the rotational blades 13a via collision therewith to naturally flow to the central region of the turbine without any obstacle. As shown in Fig. 3, the vanes 13 constitute relative pathways of the fluid with respect to absolute pathways of the fluid by the nozzles 12.

With this structure described as above, when the external fluid is injected to the rotational blades 13a of the turbine 13 through the nozzles 12 as shown in Fig. 4, the injected fluid collides with the rotational blades 13a where the kinetic energy of the injected fluid is transferred to the rotational blades 13a and causes rotation of the turbine 13. Then, rotational force of the turbine 13

is converted into shaft power, and transferred to the generator 2 via the driving shaft 20, generating power.

In addition, the fluid deprived of its kinetic energy via the collision with the rotational blades 13a moves to the central region of the turbine along the vanes 13b extending from the rotational blades 13a, and is then discharged to the outside through the discharge port 11a of the housing 11. At this point, since the fluid is discharged in a condensed stated having a low temperature due to loss of energy from when colliding with the rotational blades 13a, the fluid has a low circumferential speed when leaving out through the vanes 13b, thereby enabling substantially complete recovery of the kinetic energy.

More specifically, for a centrifugal turbine, since a fluid is injected from nozzles positioned inside a housing to the turbine positioned outside the housing, a speed of the fluid leaving out through rotational blades of the centrifugal turbine, that is, a circumferential speed, becomes high, thereby making it impossible to completely recover the kinetic energy of the fluid. On the contrary, for the centripetal turbine of the present invention, since the fluid is injected from the nozzles positioned on the outer surface of the housing to the turbine positioned inside the housing, moves to the central region of the turbine, and is discharged at a low circumferential speed to

the outside via the ends of the vanes adjacent to the central region of the turbine, the kinetic energy of the fluid is sufficiently transferred to the rotational blades, thereby enabling substantially complete recovery of the kinetic energy of the fluid.

Additionally, when colliding with the rotational blades of the turbine, the fluid is deprived of the kinetic energy by the rotational blades, and is condensed to a low temperature state. Then, due to the structure of the rotational blades 13a and the vanes 13b wherein each of the vanes 13b extending from the rotational blade 13a has the end adjacent to the central region of the turbine, the fluid naturally moves without suffering from high resistance, and is smoothly discharged to the outside through the discharge port 11a of the housing 11. Thus, the efficiency of power generation is not affected by a phase change of the fluid.

As apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the generator can perform power generation and cooling at the same time while the turbine is rotated via collision with a fluid injected from nozzles, so that a separate cooling means is not required and so that the generator can have a simple structure, thereby enabling size reduction of the generator. In addition, according to the present invention, the turbine is configured to allow kinetic energy of the fluid to be substantially completely

recovered through the turbine, and to permit easy discharge of condensed water to an outside, if necessary, thereby providing high efficiency of power generation at low costs.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.