Split Buffer Tank Separation Disk for Thermal Stratification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing heating/cooling systems with buffer tanks suffer from efficiency losses due to mixing of hot and warm water flows, leading to suboptimal thermal performance and increased energy consumption, as current technologies lack a mechanical medium to isolate these flows, resulting in chaotic flow patterns and inefficient stratification.
Innovation Solution
A split buffer tank design featuring a separation disk that hydraulically isolates hot and warm fluid storage sections, allowing independent flow management between the heat source provider and secondary system, with hydraulic connections and disk flow bypasses to maintain thermal separation and prevent mixing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a buffer tank is added to eliminate excessive cycling and improve temperature control, then system reliability improves, but thermal efficiency deteriorates due to water mixing inside the tank
Solution Approach 1:
The buffer tank is segmented into distinct thermal zones using a separation disk with bypass passages. The disk divides the tank interior into regions that handle boiler flow separately from system flow, preventing mixing while maintaining buffer capacity. This segmentation allows the tank to provide stability without sacrificing thermal efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The separation disk acts as an intermediary element that mediates between the boiler flow and system flow. It provides a mechanical barrier with controlled bypass passages that allow each flow to pass through independently without direct mixing, thus preserving thermal stratification while maintaining buffer functionality.
2Stability of the object's composition
If buffer tank diameter and height are increased to reduce mixing effects, then thermal stratification improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing tank size to prevent mixing, the invention segments the existing tank volume using a separation disk. This creates distinct flow paths and thermal zones within the original dimensions, achieving stratification without requiring larger equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The separation disk introduces a new spatial dimension for flow management within the existing tank volume. By creating vertical and radial flow paths through the disk bypasses, the system achieves thermal stratification without increasing the tank's overall diameter or height.
3Stability of the object's composition
If inlet/outlet piping velocity is reduced to enable stratification, then thermal mixing decreases, but productivity and system responsiveness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The separation disk segments the flow paths to create dedicated channels for boiler flow and system flow. This segmentation allows high-velocity flow to be maintained in each separate path without causing cross-mixing, thus preserving both stratification and system responsiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The disk bypass passages create alternative flow paths that utilize vertical and radial dimensions within the tank. This allows high-velocity flow to pass through the bypass openings without creating horizontal mixing, maintaining both stratification and rapid system response.
4Loss of energy
If a separation disk with bypass passages is installed to prevent mixing, then thermal efficiency improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The separation disk performs multiple functions simultaneously: it physically separates boiler and system flows, provides bypass passages for independent flow paths, maintains thermal stratification, and prevents mixing. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional separate components, offsetting the added complexity with consolidated functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The separation disk design recovers the thermal energy that would otherwise be lost to mixing by directing flows through separate bypass passages. It effectively recovers the thermal stratification that exists in the buffer tank by preventing disruption from mixed flows, thus improving efficiency without requiring complex external systems.
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
This solution maintains stable high efficiency operation by preventing water mixing, reducing energy consumption, and allowing for smaller equipment sizes, while enabling continuous high-performance operation of condensing boilers and other HVAC systems.
Implementation Method 1
a separation disk, to make room for hot and warm fluid storage on opposite sides of the disk, a sealed relationship between a periphery of the separation disk and an internal surface of a peripheral wall of the split buffer tank
Implementation Method 2
two disk flow bypasses defined on the separation disk inside the tank for respective loop flow functionality between the split buffer tank and each of the heat source provider and the secondary system
Data Source
AI summary
This invention relates to a heating/cooling system operating on the basis of a novel SPLIT BUFFER TANK; representing an efficiency improvement alternative to HVAC systems functioning with existing commercial buffer tanks. Currently, commercial buffers have the heat source provider (HSP)-return and system-return discharging to a common buffer/vessel. Novel SPLIT BUFFER is provided with a SEPARATION DISK placed inside the tank as mechanical way of separating the hot water inflow from the HSP from the warmer water inflow from system return. The disk moves up and down along the tank driven by demanded water supply and return. Pump-1 circulates hot water from the hot section of the buffer to the secondary system claiming for heat. Pump-2 circulates warmer water from the warmer section of the buffer through the HSP where it is reheated, and subsequently stored in the hot section of the buffer to reinitiate this cycle again.