Technical Paper
The Fundamentals Governing the Operation and Efficiency of a Superheated Liquid Flash, Boiling (S.L.F.B) Cycle Powered Reciprocating Engine for Automotive Waste Heat Recovery
2015-09-01
2015-01-1966
“Flashing” is a process where high temperature liquids held in a subcooled state, explosively release large amounts of stored energy when depressurized. The rapid volume expansion that results from the flashing has been harnessed to drive an expansion engine working on a cycle called “The Superheated Liquid Flash, Boiling” (S.L.F.B) cycle. In cyclic operation, the expansion engine power output was seen to be directly related to the mass and temperature of the injected subcooled water. At low levels of subcooling, smaller masses of water were able to achieve higher levels of efficiency in converting the total enthalpy of injected subcooled water to work, than larger injection masses with the same level of subcooling. However, with higher levels of subcooling, smaller injection masses show a reduction in efficiency.