Transient Response of Rotary Regenerators

Exit gas temperature responses of the counterflow rotary regenerator are found for a unit step increase of the inlet temperature of either gas. An analytic solution applicable during the first part of the transient shows that the responses cannot be smooth. The overall response is found by dividing the regenerator disk into pie-shaped segments and approximating the area-mean gas temperature leaving a segment as the temperature of the gas leaving a small regenerator located at the center of the segment. The method is shown to give good accuracy and is in agreement with predictions of the analytic solution.