An electrical generator and cooling system
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing generator cooling systems face challenges with sloshing of cryogenic fluids in pressure vessels, leading to increased temperatures and the need for larger vessels that may exceed available space in wind turbines, necessitating costly and complex baffles and rigorous testing.
Innovation Solution
A closed-loop, thermosiphon cryogenic cooling system with a reservoir unit containing liquid cooling fluid and toroidal expansion units, eliminating the need for baffles and reducing the cross-sectional area, allowing for spatial flexibility and reduced testing requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a pressure vessel is sized to maintain both liquid volume and gaseous volume of cooling fluid, then the cooling system can operate in closed-loop, but the liquid volume may slosh within the vessel raising the temperature
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure vessel is divided into multiple separate vessels: a first pressure vessel for liquid cooling fluid and a second pressure vessel for gaseous cooling fluid. This segmentation prevents sloshing of the liquid volume while maintaining closed-loop operation, as each vessel contains only its designated phase of cooling fluid.
2Reliability
If a pressure vessel is sized to maintain both liquid volume and gaseous volume of cooling fluid, then the cooling system can operate in closed-loop, but the vessel size may exceed available space in the wind turbine nacelle
Solution Approach 1:
The single large pressure vessel is segmented into multiple smaller pressure vessels (first pressure vessel for liquid, second pressure vessel for gas). The combined volume of these smaller vessels is less than the volume of a single vessel that would contain both phases, allowing the cooling system to fit within the wind turbine nacelle while maintaining closed-loop operation.
3Volume of stationary object
If a large pressure vessel is used to contain both liquid and gaseous cooling fluid, then the cooling system is compact, but the system requires compliance with rigorous pressure-volume product testing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses multiple smaller pressure vessels instead of one large vessel. Each small vessel has a pressure-volume product below the threshold requiring rigorous testing, thereby eliminating complex testing requirements while maintaining the same total cooling capacity and compact footprint.
4Temperature
If intersecting planar baffles are inserted within the pressure vessel to mitigate sloshing, then the cooling fluid temperature stability is improved, but the device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding complex baffle structures to a single pressure vessel, the system segments the vessel into multiple separate vessels, each containing only liquid or only gaseous cooling fluid. This eliminates the need for baffles entirely, as sloshing cannot occur when each phase is contained in its own separate vessel, thereby reducing device complexity and manufacturing cost.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively mitigates sloshing, reduces costs and complexity, and allows for efficient cooling of superconducting generators within the spatial constraints of wind turbines while meeting pressure-volume testing limits.
Implementation Method 1
a conduit network fluidly coupled to the at least one reservoir unit configured to circulate a portion of the cooling fluid adjacent to the field winding assembly so as to cool the field winding assembly
Implementation Method 2
A closed-loop, thermosiphon cryogenic cooling system with a reservoir unit containing liquid cooling fluid and toroidal expansion units
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical generator and cooling system for the same are provided. Accordingly, the generator includes a non-rotatable component supporting a field winding assembly and a rotatable component oriented to rotate relative thereto. The generator also includes an armature winding assembly fixedly coupled to the rotatable component so as to rotate therewith during operation of the generator. The generator also includes a cooling system operably coupled to the field winding assembly. The cooling system includes at least one reservoir unit and a plurality of expansion units. The cooling system also includes a conduit network configured to circulate a portion of cooling fluid adjacent to the field winding assembly to cool the field winding assembly. Additionally, the cooling system includes a first and a second plurality of toroidal expansion units circumscribing an axis of the generator.