Affiliation:
1. Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, India
Abstract
Hydraulic air compressor is a device that utilizes the energy of falling water, with entrained air bubbles, onto a downcomer pipe to compress the air within it. This concept to harness hydropower to compress air and its use dates back to the Iron Age. It was discarded after the evolution of fossil fuel due to its bulkiness. The concept has revived again after the global cry for renewable sources of energy. In this work an experimental setup was made to study the hydrodynamic characteristics of downward air-water two-phase flow through the downcomer pipe of the hydraulic air compressor. It was observed that the results were quite comparable to the theoretical predicted values and hydraulic air compressor has many useful interesting applications and can also be used as an alternative air compression system.