Vortex Tower Prototype Realization

Mechanical energy is produced when heat is carried upward by convection in the atmosphere. An atmospheric vortex engine (AVE) uses an artificially created anchored tornado like vortex to capture the mechanical energy produced during upward heat convection. The vortex is created by admitting warm or humid air tangentially into the base of a circular wall. The heat source can be solar energy, warm sea water, warm humid air or waste industrial heat. In this context our contribution consists of the vortex tower prototype realization at reduced scale (1/5). The results showed that the vane-shaped inlets in the convergence chamber have a considerable effect on vortex generation and flow acceleration up the chimney. The analysis shows that the kinematics field is important at the critical point (exit of the convergence chamber and beginning of the chimney) which will be transformed into mechanical energy where the velocity gauge has been placed. The improvement of the performance of this prototype at real scale contributes to the production of electrical energy.