Mariia Polikarpova Lappeenranta 2014 204 pages Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 597 Diss. Lappeenranta University of Technology ISBN 978-952-265-672-8, ISBN 978-952-265-673-5 (PDF), ISSN-L 1456-4491, ISSN 1456-4491 In the design of electrical machines, efficiency improvements have become very important. However, there are at least two significant cases in which the compactness of electrical machines is critical and the tolerance of extremely high losses is valued: vehicle traction, where very high torque density is desired at least temporarily; and direct-drive wind turbine generators, whose mass should be acceptably low. As ever higher torque density and ever more compact electrical machines are developed for these purposes, thermal issues, i.e. avoidance of over-temperatures and damage in conditions of high heat losses, are becoming of utmost importance. The excessive temperatures of critical machine components, such as insulation and permanent magnets, easily cause failures of the whole electrical equipment. In electrical machines with excitation systems based on permanent magnets, special attention must be paid to the rotor temperature because of the temperature-sensitive properties of permanent magnets. The allowable temperature of NdFeB magnets is usually significantly less than 150  ̊C. The practical problem is that the part of the machine where the permanent magnets are located should stay cooler than the copper windings, which can easily tolerate temperatures of 155  ̊C or 180  ̊C. Therefore, new cooling solutions should be developed in order to cool permanent magnet electrical machines with high torque density and because of it with high concentrated losses in stators. In this doctoral dissertation, direct and indirect liquid cooling techniques for permanent magnet synchronous electrical machines (PMSM) with high torque density are presented and discussed. The aim of this research is to analyse thermal behaviours of the machines using the most applicable and accurate thermal analysis methods and to propose new, practical machine designs based on these analyses. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) thermal simulations of the heat transfer inside the machines and lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) simulations both presented herein are used for the analyses. Detailed descriptions of the simulated thermal models are also presented. Most of the theoretical considerations and simulations have been verified via experimental measurements on a copper tooth-coil (motorette) and on various prototypes of electrical machines. The indirect liquid cooling systems of a 100 kW axial flux (AF) PMSM and a 110 kW radial flux (RF) PMSM are analysed here by means of simplified 3D CFD conjugate thermal models of the parts of both machines. In terms of results, a significant temperature drop of 40 ̊C in the stator winding and 28 ̊C in the rotor of the AF PMSM was achieved with the addition of highly thermally conductive materials into the machine: copper bars inserted in the teeth, and potting material around the end windings. In the RF PMSM, the potting material resulted in a temperature decrease of 6 ̊C in the stator winding, and in a decrease of 10 ̊C in the rotor embedded-permanentmagnets. Two types of unique direct liquid cooling systems for low power machines are analysed herein to demonstrate the effectiveness of the cooling systems in conditions of highly concentrated heat losses. LPTN analysis and CFD thermal analysis (the latter being particularly useful for unique design) were applied to simulate the temperature distribution within the machine models. Oil-immersion cooling provided good cooling capability for a 26.6 kW PMSM of a hybrid vehicle. A direct liquid cooling system for the copper winding with inner stainless steel tubes was designed for an 8 MW directdrive PM synchronous generator. The design principles of this cooling solution are described in detail in this thesis. The thermal analyses demonstrate that the stator winding and the rotor magnet temperatures are kept significantly below their critical temperatures with demineralized water flow. A comparison study of the coolant agents indicates that propylene glycol is more effective than ethylene glycol in arctic conditions.

Liquid cooling solutions for rotating permanent magnet synchronous machines

Optimization of the regeneration of the sodium-cation ion-exchange filter

A mathematical model of the water decarbonization processes in atmospheric deaerators is proposed to calculate the thermal decomposition degree of hydrocarbonates in a deaerator, pH of a deaerated water sample, and the mass concentration of free carbonic acid in it on a carbon dioxide basis. The mathematical description of these processes is based on the deaeration tank water flow model implemented in the specialized software suite for the calculation of three-dimensional liquid flows, where a real water flow is a set of parallel small plug-flow reactors, and the rate constant of the reaction representing a generalized model of the thermal decomposition of hydrocarbonates with consideration for its chemical and diffusion stages is identified by experimental data. Based on the results of experimental studies performed on deaerators of different designs with and without steam bubbling in their tanks, an empirical support of this model has been developed in the form of recommended reaction order and rate constant values selected depending on the overall alkalinity of water fed into a deaerator. A self-contained mathematical description of the water decarbonization processes in deaerators has been obtained. The proposed model precision has been proven to agree with the specified metrological characteristics of the potentiometric and alkalimetric methods for measuring pH and the free carbonic acid concentration in water. This allows us to recommend the obtained model for the solution of practical problems of forming a specified amount of deaerated water via the selection of the structural and regime parameters of deaerators during their design and regime adjustment.

Modeling the water decarbonization processes in atmospheric deaerators

The quality of steam produced by boilers is strictly standardized and must be maintained whatever the quality of makeup water and whatever the composition of the boiler unit’s thermal cycle equipment. Under the conditions of constantly improved instruments for chemical monitoring, it becomes possible to develop measurement systems using which the main standardized and diagnostic steam quality indicators can be monitored by measuring the electric conductivity and pH of cooled samples. Unlike boilers operating at a pressure of 13.8 MPa and higher, steam boilers for steam pressures equal to 9.8 and 3.9 MPa—and also industrial heat recovery steam generators—operate with steam that has a higher content of salts and carbon dioxide; in addition, it contains ammonia, which enters into steam from boiler water. Steam quality is often estimated using the two-quadrant nomographic chart of Mostofin, who proposed it more than 50 years ago. In using certain computation algorithms, it is possible to calculate the standardized and diagnostic steam quality indicators, such as concentrations of sodium, chlorides, ammonia, carbon dioxide, and salt content. The article presents an algorithm for estimating the concentrations of the above-mentioned impurities for cooled live steam samples of power-generating boilers operating at pressures below 10.0 MPa, and boilers for superhigh and supercritical pressures, and industrial heat recovery steam generators, including the combined-cycle power plant units. Examples of using the calculation procedure for analyzing the steam quality in industrial boilers are given.

Estimating the Steam Quality in Power-Generating Boilers from Electrical Conductivity and pH Measurements

Technologies for utilizing the wastewater of the reverse-osmosis plants (ROPs) to prepare the make-up water for power-generating plants of combined heat and power plants and nuclear power plants are proposed and substantiated using mathematical models and full-scale experiments. The ROPs use natural feedwater with a wide range of quality characteristics. For the first time, variants of the treatment of the concentrate formed in the ROP cycle have been proposed for the reuse of the latter by acidifying it in H-type cation- exchange filters charged with a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin. By admixing part of the filtrate processed in the H-type cation-exchange filters to the feedwater, the latter is acidified thus reducing the probability of formation of carbonaceous sediments and water consumption. The rest of the filtrate subjected to a conversion process is used as a constituent of the make-up feedwater of the heating system or potable water, which eliminates the discharge of the reverse-osmosis plant wastewater into the environment. Another feature of the proposed technology is that the H-type cation-exchange filters are integrated into a regenerant solution reuse circuit (RSRC). As a result, the consumption rate of sulfuric acid for regeneration equals the stoichiometric rate and the regeneration yields gypsum used to produce a binding agent for construction. The kinetics of separation of gypsum from the spent regenerant solutions with different chemical compositions was studied experimentally as applied to the RSRC conditions. The procedure of operating filters charged with the Lewatit CNP-LF cation-exchange resin was trialed under production conditions. It was established that the height of the filtering cation-exchange resin layer should be 1.0–1.5 m and the concentration of the regenerant solution should not exceed 0.8% at a rate of 10–15 m/h. The basic components of the technological scheme were trialed under production conditions on a water treatment plant in service.

Computational-Experimental Verification of Technologies of Utilization of the Concentrate Formed in the Reverse-Osmosis Water Demineralization Cycle

Prospective and existing technologies for water treatment at thermal power plants, including pretreatment, ion exchange, and membrane method are considered. The results obtained from laboratory investigations and industrial tests of the proposed technologies carried out at different thermal power plants are presented. The possibilities of improving the process and environmental indicators of water treatment plants are shown.

Improvement of water treatment at thermal power plants

The increased requirements to the quality of the water heat conductor for working superhigh (SHP) and supercritical (SCP) pressure power plants and promising units, including combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units and power plants with ultrasupercritical parameters (USCPs), can largely be satisfied through specific electric conductivity and pH measurements for cooled heat conductor samples combined with calculations of ionic equilibria and indirect measurements of several specified and diagnostic parameters. The possibility of calculating the ammonia and chloride concentrations and the total concentration of hardness and sodium cations in the feed water of drum-type boilers and the phosphate and salt contents in boiler water was demonstrated. An equation for evaluating the content of potentially acid substances in the feed water of monotube boilers was suggested. The potential of the developed procedure for evaluating the state of waterchemistry conditions (WCCs) in power plants with CCGT units was shown.

Improvement of chemical monitoring of water-chemistry conditions at thermal power stations based on electric conductivity and pH measurements

Implementation of automatic water chemistry control at power units of thermal power stations (TPS) is hindered by the unavailability of analyzers required for monitoring certain standardized characteristics of the coolant. Important characteristics include salt content and ammonia concentration in the feedwater and salt content and phosphate concentration in the boiler water. If automatic analyzers are not available, phosphate concentration in the boiler water of drum boilers with an operating pressure above 10 MPa can be determined using conductivity measurements. In this case, the concentration of phosphates is calculated using the regression equation correlating phosphate concentration with electric conductivity of a cooled boiler water sample from the salt compartment or the equation derived by transformation of the system of equations describing the ionic equilibrium in the feedwater and the boiler water. The procedure was developed based on the results of a full-scale experiment performed at the TETs-26 cogeneration power station of PAO Mosenergo. It has been demonstrated that the correlation coefficient is 1.0 and the phosphate concentration is a function of the specific electric conductivity of a direct sample and an H-cation-treated cooled sample of water taken in the salt compartment of a drum boiler. However, for practice, the results of measurement of the specific electrical conductivity of an H-cation-treated sample are the only correct ones that enables the effect of a change in the quality of the working solution of sodium phosphate or feed water to be eliminated. Additional measurements of boiler water pH make it possible to calculate the concentration of salt components and improve the reliability of chemical control if fast upsets of the water chemistry occur. The developed calculation method for determining phosphate concentrations in boiler water using conductivity measurements was verified in a TP-87 boiler with a drum pressure of 13.8 MPa at the Ivanovo TETs-3.

Determination of Salt Component Concentrations in Boiler Water using Conductivity and pH Measurements

Results from studies of the water chemistry used in the system for cooling the stator windings of alternators used in supercritical-pressure power units are presented, and a solution is suggested using which the standardized pH value of cooling water is maintained in the range 8.0–9.0. It is shown that addition of NaOH in the water cooling system when a drop of pH value occurs cannot fully satisfy the requirements of the operating circular due to low buffer properties of aqueous medium.

B. M. Larin

Papers

Improvement of water treatment at thermal power plants

Estimating the Steam Quality in Power-Generating Boilers from Electrical Conductivity and pH Measurements

Improvement of chemical monitoring of water-chemistry conditions at thermal power stations based on electric conductivity and pH measurements

Determination of Salt Component Concentrations in Boiler Water using Conductivity and pH Measurements

Water chemistry of the system for cooling the electrical generator’ stator of the power unit at a thermal power station