In the last few decades, heat exchanger networks have been widely
adopted to recover thermal
energy. Recently, mass exchanger networks have gained attention
for recovering useful
materials. By analogy, another class of exchanger networks, termed
work exchanger networks
(WEN's), is conceivable for recovering mechanical energy. In the
present work, the concept of
the WEN is introduced. The WEN consists of a number of work
exchangers, each of which
serves to exchange mechanical energy between a high-pressure stream and
a low-pressure
stream. By applying the basic principles of energy balance and
thermodynamics laws, the
necessary and sufficient conditions are derived to identify feasible
stream matching in work
exchangers. A comprehensive analysis of stream match mode gives
rise to various heuristic
rules useful for WEN synthesis. Our focus is on the analysis,
rather than the synthesis, of the
WEN. This work lays a foundation to the development of a
systematic WEN synthesis
methodology.
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