scholarly journals The influence of selected design and operating parameters on the dynamics of the steam micro-turbine

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Żywica ◽  
Jan Kiciński

AbstractThe topic of the article is the analysis of the influence of selected design parameters and operating conditions on the radial steam micro-turbine, which was adapted to operate with low-boiling agent in the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). In the following parts of this article the results of the thermal load analysis, the residual unbalance and the stiffness of bearing supports are discussed. Advanced computational methods and numerical models have been used. Computational analysis showed that the steam micro-turbine is characterized by very good dynamic properties and is resistant to extreme operating conditions. The prototype of micro-turbine has passed a series of test calculations. It has been found that it can be subjected to experimental research in the micro combined heat and power system.

Author(s):  
T. Efstathiadis ◽  
M. Rivarolo ◽  
A. I. Kalfas ◽  
A. Traverso ◽  
P. Seferlis

An increasing trend in exploiting low enthalpy content energy sources, has led to a renewed interest in small-scale turbines for Organic Rankine Cycle applications. The design concept for such turbines can be quite different from either standard gas or steam turbine designs. The limited enthalpic content of many energy sources enforces the use of organic working media, with unusual properties for the turbine. A versatile cycle design and optimization requires the parameterization of the prime turbine design. In order to address the major challenges involved in this process, the present study discusses the preliminary design of an electricity-producing turbine, in the range of 100 kWel, for a low enthalpy organic Rankine cycle. There are many potential applications of this power generating turbine including geothermal and solar thermal fields or waste heat of PEM type fuel cells. An integrated model of equations has been developed, accordingly. The model aims to assess the performance of an organic cycle for various working fluids, including NH3, R600a and R-134a. The most appropriate working fluid has been chosen, taking into consideration its influence on both cycle efficiency and the specific volume ratio. The influence of this choice is of particular importance at turbine extreme operating conditions, which are strongly related to the turbine size. In order to assess the influence of various design parameters, a turbine design tool has been developed and applied to preliminarily define the blading geometry. Finally, a couple of competitive turbine designs have been developed. In one approach, the turbine speed is restricted to subsonic domain, while in the other approach the turbine speed is transonic, resulting to choked flow at the turbine throat. The two approaches have been evaluated in terms of turbine compactness and machine modularity. Results show that keeping the crucial parameters of the geometrical formation of the blade constant, turbine size could become significantly smaller decreasing up to 90% compared its original value.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1984
Author(s):  
Ramin Moradi ◽  
Emanuele Habib ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Luca Cioccolanti

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems are some of the most suitable technologies to produce electricity from low-temperature waste heat. In this study, a non-regenerative, micro-scale ORC system was tested in off-design conditions using R134a as the working fluid. The experimental data were then used to tune the semi-empirical models of the main components of the system. Eventually, the models were used in a component-oriented system solver to map the system electric performance at varying operating conditions. The analysis highlighted the non-negligible impact of the plunger pump on the system performance Indeed, the experimental results showed that the low pump efficiency in the investigated operating range can lead to negative net electric power in some working conditions. For most data points, the expander and the pump isentropic efficiencies are found in the approximate ranges of 35% to 55% and 17% to 34%, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum net electric power was about 200 W with a net electric efficiency of about 1.2%, thus also stressing the importance of a proper selection of the pump for waste heat recovery applications.


Author(s):  
Elio A. Bufi ◽  
Paola Cinnella ◽  
Xavier Merle

The design of an efficient organic rankine cycle (ORC) expander needs to take properly into account strong real gas effects that may occur in given ranges of operating conditions, which can also be highly variable. In this work, we first design ORC turbine geometries by means of a fast 2-D design procedure based on the method of characteristics (MOC) for supersonic nozzles characterized by strong real gas effects. Thanks to a geometric post-processing procedure, the resulting nozzle shape is then adapted to generate an axial ORC blade vane geometry. Subsequently, the impact of uncertain operating conditions on turbine design is investigated by coupling the MOC algorithm with a Probabilistic Collocation Method (PCM) algorithm. Besides, the injector geometry generated at nominal operating conditions is simulated by means of an in-house CFD solver. The code is coupled to the PCM algorithm and a performance sensitivity analysis, in terms of adiabatic efficiency and power output, to variations of the operating conditions is carried out.


Author(s):  
Fredrik Ahlgren ◽  
Maria E. Mondejar ◽  
Magnus Genrup ◽  
Marcus Thern

Maritime transportation is a significant contributor to SOx, NOx and particle matter emissions, even though it has a quite low CO2 impact. New regulations are being enforced in special areas that limit the amount of emissions from the ships. This fact, together with the high fuel prices, is driving the marine industry towards the improvement of the energy efficiency of current ship engines and the reduction of their energy demand. Although more sophisticated and complex engine designs can improve significantly the efficiency of the energy systems in ships, waste heat recovery arises as the most influent technique for the reduction of the energy consumption. In this sense, it is estimated that around 50% of the total energy from the fuel consumed in a ship is wasted and rejected in fluid and exhaust gas streams. The primary heat sources for waste heat recovery are the engine exhaust and the engine coolant. In this work, we present a study on the integration of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) in an existing ship, for the recovery of the main and auxiliary engines exhaust heat. Experimental data from the operating conditions of the engines on the M/S Birka Stockholm cruise ship were logged during a port-to-port cruise from Stockholm to Mariehamn over a period of time close to one month. The ship has four main engines Wärtsilä 5850 kW for propulsion, and four auxiliary engines 2760 kW used for electrical consumers. A number of six load conditions were identified depending on the vessel speed. The speed range from 12–14 knots was considered as the design condition, as it was present during more than 34% of the time. In this study, the average values of the engines exhaust temperatures and mass flow rates, for each load case, were used as inputs for a model of an ORC. The main parameters of the ORC, including working fluid and turbine configuration, were optimized based on the criteria of maximum net power output and compactness of the installation components. Results from the study showed that an ORC with internal regeneration using benzene would yield the greatest average net power output over the operating time. For this situation, the power production of the ORC would represent about 22% of the total electricity consumption on board. These data confirmed the ORC as a feasible and promising technology for the reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of existing ships.


Author(s):  
Concepción Paz ◽  
Eduardo Suarez ◽  
Miguel Concheiro ◽  
Antonio Diaz

Waste heat dissipated in the exhaust system in a combustion engine represents a major source of energy to be recovered and converted into useful work. A waste heat recovery system (WHRS) based on an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a promising approach, and has gained interest in the last few years in an automotive industry interested in reducing fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. Understanding the thermodynamic response of the boiler employed in an ORC plays an important role in steam cycle performance prediction and control system design. The aim of this study is therefore to present a methodology to study these devices by means of pattern recognition with infrared thermography. In addition, the experimental test bench and its operating conditions are described. The methodology proposed identifies the wall coordinates, traces paths, and tracks wall temperature along them in a way that can be exported for subsequent post-processing and analysis. As for the results, through the wall temperature paths on both sides (exhaust gas and working fluid) it was possible to quantitatively estimate the temperature evolution along the boiler and, in particular, the beginning and end of evaporation.


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