Flow Mechanism in an Ultra Micro Steam Injector

Abstract

It is suggested that a steam injector (SI) is applied to heat pump systems as an effective condenser or compressor in the battle against global warming to downscale them. SI which consists of a compact structure has high heat transfer performance due to the direct contact condensation, and the downsizing of a condenser is expected. And it is expected that the feature to act as a static jet pump without any rotating power source may enable to downscale a compactor. Thus the objective of the present study is to investigate the internal flow mechanism of an ultra micro steam injector (UMSI) in an effort to develop the further small SI. In particular the flow observation in UMSI whose throat diameter is 600 μm is conducted. As the results, the formation of water jet and the back stream in the mixing nozzle which are the operating characteristics of SI is confirmed.