Patent Description:
Hot water tanks are broadly used in domestic applications as thermal and energy storage systems. To achieve high performance during the use of domestic hot water, and better energy and thermal storage capacity, it is necessary to have a highly stratified tank. Hot-water stratified storage tanks are widely known. They serve as far as possible to prevent mixing of hotter and colder water components when loading the storage tank. In this way, heat energy is maintained at the highest possible temperature and thus can be used efficiently.

In this context, stratification is understood as the occurrence and maintenance of adjacent, vertically distributed masses of water of different temperature and density. In a stratified tank, a cold layer of water is present at the bottom of the tank by virtue of its higher density. In the same stratified tank, a hot water layer is present at the top of the water column due to its lower density. These two water layers are separated by a medium temperature middle layer commonly referred to as thermocline.

As is typical of its function, a domestic water tank is subject to introduction and extraction of water. This water, either supplied or extracted, can range from cold to hot. It is particularly advantageous if warm water can be directly introduced within the warm water layer already present within the water tank. This permits, though not limited to, a faster availability of hot water. In a similar way, it is advantageous to introduce cold water within the cold water layer inside the water tank.

In particular during the introduction of water into the tank, vortices tend to form at or near inlet openings. Said vortices tend to be more pronounced as the inflow rate of water increases. These vortices negatively affect the stratification developed inside a water storage tank by promoting the mixing of the different water layers.

It is therefore an important aspect of the performance of a water storage tank that high flow rates into the tank can be attained while mitigating, or preferably, eliminating stratification destroying vortices.

<CIT> discloses a vortex mitigation element for a water storage tank. Said element is a plate or plate like construction comprising a number of through holes on its surface through which water can flow. This element is presented placed close to the domed bottom or top of a water tank, such that a hollow is formed by said element and the domed bottom of said tank, wherein, a water inlet/outlet tube is placed. In another embodiment presented in the same document, a perforated box like construction is shown enveloping an inlet tube. In said construction, water flow into the tank is initially disrupted by said box like construction before being discharge in a substantially vertical direction into the water tank. A similar concept and embodiment thereof is presented in patent document <CIT>. In this document, a box like construction is provided which comprises one or more inlet tubes mounted inside said construction. Said tubes are mounted adjacent an in substantial tangential alignment with the perimeter of the box, thereby promoting the circulation of inflowing water along said perimeter. Water is then allowed to exit the box in a substantially vertical direction, though one or more holes mounted on the top and/or bottom of said box.

The abovementioned concepts and embodiments present a disadvantage that should be obvious to those skilled in the art. Said advantage lies in the fact that water exiting any of the abovementioned box like constructions does so in a mostly vertical direction. Said direction, being substantially normal to the boundary area between water zones, has the most potential to create upward/downwards drafts, which will disturb the stratification inside the tank.

<CIT> discloses a kind of regenerative apparatus of forced layering equipped with at least one floating water distribution element, which element is substantially disk shaped and configured to minimize disturbance to stratification layers of a heat storage medium. Further examples of such disk shaped water distribution elements are found in<CIT>and <CIT>, said devices having opening lying on the horizontal plane along their entire periphery are provided at a water supply port and a water intake port respectively.

<CIT> discloses a concept and multiple embodiments of a diffuser of plate like construction comprising a plate equipped with an approximately centered hole and a second plate mounted substantially parallel and in axial alignment with the first. The hole in the first plate is suitable to receive a water inlet tube, wherein the last section of said tube is oriented substantially perpendicular to the surfaces of both plates. By this concept, mitigation of stratification destroying vortices is attained partially by reducing the flow of water being provided to the tank. Further mitigation of said vortices is attained by the second plate, whereby the momentum of water flowing form the tube is mitigated. In this way, the vortices created by water exiting the end of the tube are mitigated before said water is discharged along the perimeter of the plates.

<CIT> discloses a water heater baffle comprising an inlet and an outlet for the passage of water there through, wherein the baffle arrangement forces the water entering the baffle through a labyrinth before exiting the baffle in a direction substantially <NUM>° to its general flow of entry into the baffle. A similar construction can be found in <CIT>. DE '<NUM> discloses a loading and/or unloading system for a thermal energy storage with a liquid container having at least one liquid inlet and at least one liquid outlet, wherein the liquid inlet and / or the liquid outlet has at least one liquid line. Said liquid inlet/outlet opens into a radial diffuser, through which liquid is directed into or out of the liquid container, and wherein the diffuser has a centrally disposed and connected to the liquid line diffuser connection region and radially from the diffuser connection region extending, spaced diffuser plates. Yet another similar construction is disclosed in <CIT>, wherein a feed apparatus having at least two or more guide elements pointing radially outward is used to introduce and/or extract water from a thermal energy store. The guide elements of the feed apparatus are disposed in an arcuate shape for producing a swirling flow, and/or two or more guide elements pointing radially outward in an arcuate shape adjoin the feed apparatus.

The aforementioned concept and embodiments thereof permit the exit of water out of the diffuser and into the tank in a substantially horizontal direction. However, and in order to sufficiently mitigate vortices before they exit said diffuser, a large volume inside the diffuser must be provided, resulting in a diffuser of large dimensions. These large dimensions preclude the installation of such a diffuser in smaller tanks, in particular where flow rates are desirable.

The present invention aims to resolve at least some of the problems and disadvantages mentioned above.

The present invention and embodiments thereof serve to provide a solution to one or more of the above-mentioned disadvantages. To this end, the present invention relates to a diffuser for introducing water into a water tank according to claim <NUM>.

It is an object of the present invention to make available a diffuser which permits, compared to similar diffusers in prior art, minimizing the disturbance to the stratification inside domestic hot water tanks during supply of water.

A more particular object of the invention is to make available a diffuser which, can introduce water as a thin layer. In this way, disturbance to stratification inside a hot water tank can be avoided. In particular, water can be introduced into very thin layers of stratified water.

It is a particular object of the invention to make available a diffuser comprising deflection elements suitable for the destruction or at least the mitigation of vortices created by water inflow. It is yet another object of the invention to make available a diffuser in which said deflection elements are provided encased in two disks. In this way, vortices can be shrouded by the diffusers disks as the deflection elements destroy or minimizes said vortices.

Preferred embodiments of the inventions are presented in claim <NUM> to claim <NUM>. Here, two main embodiments of the invention are disclosed. A first embodiment wherein the deflection elements are cylindrical rings mounted substantially concentric with the center of the disks. In a second embodiment, pins are used as deflection elements.

According to an aspect of the invention, a diffuser is made available, which diffuser comprises a plurality of cylindrical deflectors as deflection elements mounted in two opposing disks. Said cylindrical deflectors are mounted onto said disks such that cylindrical deflectors mounted onto one disk intercalate with cylindrical deflectors mounted upon the opposing disk. In this way, the momentum of the water flowing through the diffuser can be redirected and thereby dampened while still inside the diffuser.

According to another aspect of the invention, a diffuser is made available, which diffuser comprises a plurality of pins as deflection elements mounted onto at least one of two opposing disk. Said pins are mounted onto a disk so as to reduce or eliminate straight paths provided to the water moving between the center and the outer edge of the diffuser. In this way, the formation of vortices is prevented inside the diffuser.

The present invention concerns a diffuser (<NUM>) for hot water storage tanks, which permits supply of water to said water tank.

In a first aspect, the invention relates to a vastly improved diffuser (<NUM>) configured to receive water through a center inlet and to dispense said water through a radial outlet, and into a cylindrical water tank, said diffuser comprising:.

The domed disks (<NUM>, <NUM>) permit a larger volume inside the diffuser (<NUM>), which volume allows, advantageously a more efficient reduction of the water velocity, as the vortices at the inlet of the diffuser are gradually broken down into smaller innocuous vortices.

<FIG> shows an embodiment of a diffuser (<NUM>) comprising a first disk (<NUM>) and a second disk (<NUM>). Said disks being assembled parallel to each other by means of a plurality of struts (<NUM>) such that a uniform distance is defined between said two disk around the whole perimeter of the diffuser (<NUM>). Said first disk (<NUM>) is here presented assembled onto a pipe (<NUM>) via a pipe extension (<NUM>). Each disk (<NUM>) and <NUM> are provided with a plurality of reinforcing ribs (<NUM>) in order to improve the rigidity of each disk and, and consequently, the rigidity of the whole diffuser.

The diffuser (<NUM>), and in particular, the deflection element provide, when compared to the prior art, a vastly more efficient reduction of the velocity of the water admitted into the diffuser (<NUM>). Furthermore, the deflection elements integral to the diffuser (<NUM>) of the present invention allow, advantageously, to inhibit the formation of vortices by arresting turbulent flows resulting from the higher velocity with which the water enters the diffuser (<NUM>). The reduction of these vortices allows for a gentler introduction of water into a water tank. This is particularly advantageous where water stratification of hot and cold water layers is desired.

In this context, "turbulence" is defined as a fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. Vortices are a major component of a turbulent flow. The terms "vortex" or "vortices" are defined as regions of a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axial line, which line can be either straight or curved. In this context, the terms "stratification" and "stratified" define, respectively, the action and state of separation of a water column into different layers having different temperatures. Each of said layers having a substantially uniform temperature.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the diameter of any of the round disks (<NUM>, <NUM>) is less than half of the diameter of the tank where it is installed. The diffuser (<NUM>) is installed in the tank so that the center axis of the disks (<NUM>, <NUM>) is in a vertical direction. In this way, water delivered out of the diffuser (<NUM>) is provided with enough distance to sufficiently slow down further before reaching the side walls of the tank, thereby avoiding any further disturbance to the water in the tank.

According to a further or another embodiment of the invention the radial outlet has an area substantially larger than the area of the inlet (<NUM>) of the diffuser (<NUM>). Preferably, the distance between the two disks (<NUM>, <NUM>) is kept small. In this way, the flow of water leaving the diffuser (<NUM>) can be maintained as a substantially thin and uniform film of water, while still maintaining an outlet area substantially larger than the inlet area of the diffuser (<NUM>).

In a preferred embodiment of the diffuser (<NUM>), the flow of water through the inlet (<NUM>) of the diffuser (<NUM>), the height of the outlet of the diffuser (<NUM>) and the diameter of the diffuser (<NUM>) are related to each other by means of a ratio of proportionality. In particular, the aforementioned variables are governed by the following equations: <MAT> <MAT> wherein, Q is the flow in cubic meters per second, h is the gap (<NUM>) between the round disks (<NUM>, <NUM>) in meters, d is the diameter of the diffuser (<NUM>), π is <NUM>, g is the acceleration of gravity in meters per second per second, ρ is the density of the fluid in Kilograms per cubic meter and c<NUM> and c<NUM> are constant ratios. To provide an optimal rate of the jets to its buoyancy, the value of c<NUM> should be between <NUM> and <NUM>, most preferably, c<NUM> should be <NUM>. The value of c<NUM> should be between <NUM> and <NUM>, as obtained from the Froude number relation. More preferably, c<NUM> should be <NUM>. In this way, optimal reduction of the velocity at the outlet of the diffuser (<NUM>) and optimal reduction of vortices can be attained for different water flows and tank dimensions.

According to a further or another embodiment of the radius of curvature of any domed disk (<NUM>, <NUM>) is such that the angle tangent to said curvature at the outer edge of the dome defines an angle with the horizontal plane which angle is more than <NUM> degrees. Said angle permits dispensing the water coming out of the diffuser in a more advantageous direction. More preferably, said angle is combined with a smooth curvature of domed inner surface of the disk, thereby avoiding the creation of further turbulence.

According to a further or another embodiment of the invention and as illustrated in <FIG>, the plurality of deflection elements comprise of cylindrical shapes which are formed in each of the first and second discs and extended towards the cylindrical space. According to a further embodiment of the invention, a first cylindrical shapes formed on the first disc (<NUM>) and a second cylindrical shapes formed on the second disc (<NUM>) are arranged such that said cylindrical shapes intercalate. According to a further embodiment of the invention, the number of second cylindrical shapes formed in the second disk (<NUM>) is larger than the number of the first cylindrical shapes. Preferably, the diffuser incudes five vertically extending cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>) arranged concentric with the centerline of the diffuser (<NUM>). In particular, the position of each said cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>) being defined in function of the diameter of the diffuser (<NUM>). The diameter of each deflection element (<NUM>) Dfi is given by the following five equations: <MAT> <MAT> <MAT> <MAT> <MAT> wherein, d is the diameter of any disk (<NUM>, <NUM>) of the diffuser. More preferably, the first disk is configured to receive water through a center inlet (<NUM>) and is equipped with two cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>). The second disk (<NUM>) is configured to be in front of the water entering the diffuser (<NUM>) through the first disk (<NUM>), which second disk (<NUM>) is equipped with three cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>). Said cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>) being arranged on their respective disks (<NUM>, <NUM>) such that said cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>) intercalate. The height of the cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>) being largest at the center of the diffuser (<NUM>) and decreasing progressively with each subsequent deflection element towards the perimeter of said diffuser (<NUM>) advantageously combines with. the positioning of the deflection elements to more advantageously permit the interruption of vortices. The internal geometry of the diffuser (<NUM>) as described herein permits, advantageously, the partial formation of vortices in the larger more central volumes of the diffuser (<NUM>). A cycle of partial vortex formation and breakdown is repeated by effect of each subsequent deflection element. <FIG> illustrates such the resulting flow through the diffuser (<NUM>). In this figure, the pipe (<NUM>) and the interior of the diffuser (<NUM>) are in fluid connection by intermediate of pipe extension (<NUM>). Said pipe extension (<NUM>) being rigidly attached to the first disk (<NUM>) by action of the nut (<NUM>). Further depicted in <FIG> is the flow of the water admitted into the diffuser (<NUM>). Said water is admitted via the pipe (<NUM>), and through inlet (<NUM>), said inlet (<NUM>) not being shown in the figure. Upon entering the diffuser, said water encounters a first cylindrical deflection element (<NUM>), by action of which, the flow of said water is forced to change direction and to exit said deflection element (<NUM>). Further deflection elements are provided integral to the first disk (<NUM>) and the second disk (<NUM>), said deflection elements being positioned such that they intercalate, and thereby inducing a water flow (<NUM>) as shown in <FIG>. Once water flow (<NUM>) reaches the last deflection element, said water leaves the diffuser through a gap (<NUM>) defined by the perimetral circumference of the first disk (<NUM>) and the second disk (<NUM>). The number of deflection elements included in the present embodiment of the invention is sufficient to fully arrest any vortices before these reach the outlet of the diffuser (<NUM>).

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, and as illustrated in <FIG>, the deflection elements integral to the diffuser (<NUM>) of this invention are cylindrical pins (<NUM>) integrated in the second disk (<NUM>) and disposed either in a square pattern or a radially staggered pattern. Preferably, the top ends of all the pins (<NUM>) are contained in the same horizontal plane. The aforementioned internal geometry of the diffuser (<NUM>) permits, advantageously, an faster vortex arrestment, allowing for more compact diffusers to be used. As illustrated in <FIG>, the diffuser (<NUM>) is provided with a plurality of pins (<NUM>) as deflection elements. This embodiment of the invention comprises also a first disk (<NUM>) and second disk (<NUM>) rigidly attached and spaced evenly and in parallel to one another by means of a plurality of struts (<NUM>).

In a further or another embodiment of the invention, the inlet (<NUM>) on the first disk (<NUM>) is suitable to be attached to a pipe (<NUM>) segment, either by a full thread, an interrupted thread or an interrupter collar. In <FIG>, diffuser attached to a pipe (<NUM>) by intermediate of a pipe extension (<NUM>) in fluid attachment to the interior of the diffuser (<NUM>) through a center inlet (<NUM>) on the first disk (<NUM>).

Claim 1:
A diffuser (<NUM>) configured to receive water through a center inlet (<NUM>) and to dispense said water through a radial outlet, and into a cylindrical water tank, said diffuser (<NUM>) comprising:
a first disk (<NUM>) equipped with a center inlet (<NUM>) and
a second similar sized, preferably equal sized disk (<NUM>) to be placed parallel to the first disk (<NUM>), said disks being spaced apart by a plurality of struts (<NUM>) extending towards said disks, and;
a substantially cylindrical space defined by said parallel arranged disks into which water admitted through the center inlet (<NUM>) of the first disk (<NUM>) flows and from which said water is radially discharged through a radial outlet between the two disks;
a plurality of parallel arranged deflection elements (<NUM>) extending towards one or both disks from one or both disks, said deflection elements being contained within the cylindrical space between the disks wherein at least one of the disks is domed on the surface facing the inside of the diffuser (<NUM>);
characterized in that, the deflection elements are cylindrical, the height of the cylindrical deflection elements (<NUM>) is largest at the center of the diffuser (<NUM>) and decreases progressively with each subsequent deflection element towards the perimeter of said diffuser (<NUM>).