Showing papers in "Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power-transactions of The Asme in 2015"

Organic Rankine Cycle Power Systems: From the Concept to Current Technology, Applications, and an Outlook to the Future

Abstract: The cumulative global capacity of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power systems for the conversion of renewable and waste thermal energy is undergoing a rapid growth and is estimated to be approx. 2000 MWe considering only installations that went into operation after 1995. The potential for the conversion of the thermal power coming from liquid-dominated geothermal reservoirs, waste heat from primary engines or industrial processes, biomass combustion, and concentrated solar radiation into electricity is arguably enormous. ORC technology is possibly the most flexible in terms of capacity and temperature level and is currently often the only applicable technology for the conversion of external thermal energy sources. In addition, ORC power systems are suitable for the cogeneration of heating and/or cooling, another advantage in the framework of distributed power generation. Related research and development is therefore very lively. These considerations motivated the effort documented in this article, aimed at providing consistent information about the evolution, state, and future of this power conversion technology. First, basic theoretical elements on the thermodynamic cycle, working fluid, and design aspects are illustrated, together with an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages in comparison to competing technologies. An overview of the long history of the development of ORC power systems follows, in order to place the more recent evolution into perspective. Then, a compendium of the many aspects of the state of the art is illustrated: the solutions currently adopted in commercial plants and the main-stream applications, including information about exemplary installations. A classification and terminology for ORC power plants are proposed. An outlook on the many research and development activities is provided, whereby information on new high-impact applications, such as automotive heat recovery is included. Possible directions of future developments are highlighted, ranging from efforts targeting volume-produced stationary and mobile mini-ORC systems with a power output of few kWe, up to large MWe base-load ORC plants.

Transient gas turbine performance diagnostics through nonlinear adaptation of compressor and turbine maps

Abstract: Gas turbines are faced with new challenges of increasing flexibility in their operation while reducing their life cycle costs, leading to new research priorities and challenges. One of these challenges involves the establishment of high fidelity, accurate, and computationally efficient engine performance simulation, diagnosis, and prognosis schemes, which will be able to handle and address the gas turbine's ever-growing flexible and dynamic operational characteristics. Predicting accurately the performance of gas turbines depends on detailed understanding of the engine components behavior that is captured by component performance maps. The limited availability of these maps due to their proprietary nature has been commonly managed by adapting default generic maps in order to match the targeted off-design or engine degraded measurements. Although these approaches might be suitable in small range of operating conditions, further investigation is required to assess the capabilities of such methods for use in gas turbine diagnosis under dynamic transient conditions. The diversification of energy portfolio and introduction of distributed generation in electrical energy production have created need for such studies. The reason is not only the fluctuation in energy demand but also more importantly the fact that renewable energy sources, which work with conventional fossil fuel based sources, supply the grid with varying power that depend, for example, on solar irradiation. In this paper, modeling methods for the compressor and turbine maps are presented for improving the accuracy and fidelity of the engine performance prediction and diagnosis. The proposed component map fitting methods simultaneously determine the best set of equations for matching the compressor and the turbine map data. The coefficients that determine the shape of the component map curves have been analyzed and tuned through a nonlinear multi-objective optimization scheme in order to meet the targeted set of engine measurements. The proposed component map modeling methods are developed in the object oriented MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and integrated with a dynamic gas turbine engine model. The accuracy of the methods is evaluated for predicting multiple component degradations of an engine at transient operating conditions. The proposed adaptive diagnostics method has the capability to generalize current gas turbine performance prediction approaches and to improve performance-based diagnostic techniques. Copyright © 2015 by ASME.

Adjoint Method for Shape Optimization in Real-Gas Flow Applications

Abstract: An adjoint-based shape optimization approach for supersonic turbine cascades is proposed for application to organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbines. The algorithm is based on an inviscid discrete adjoint method and encompasses a fast look-up table (LuT) approach to accurately deal with real-gas flows. The turbine geometry is defined by adopting state-of-the-art parameterization techniques (NURBS), enabling to handle both global and local control of the shape of interest. A preconditioned steepest descent method has been chosen as gradient-based optimization algorithm to efficiently search for the nearest minimum. The potential of the optimization approach is first verified by application on the redesign of an existing converging–diverging turbine nozzle operating in thermodynamic regions characterized by relevant real-gas effects. A significant efficiency improvement and a more uniform flow at the blade outlet section are achieved, with expected beneficial effects on the aerodynamics of the downstream rotor. The optimized configuration is also assessed by means of high-fidelity turbulent simulations, which point out the capability of the present inviscid approach in optimizing supersonic turbine cascades with very limited computational burdens. Finally, the newly developed real-gas adjoint method is compared against adjoints based on ideal equations of state on the same design problem. Results show that the performance gain obtained by a fully real-gas optimization strategy is by far higher than that achieved with simplified approaches in case of ORC turbines. This proves the relevance of including accurate thermodynamic models in all steps of ORC turbine design.

Efficient Computation of Thermoacoustic Modes in Industrial Annular Combustion Chambers Based on Bloch-Wave Theory

Abstract: Most annular combustors feature a discrete rotational symmetry so that the full configuration can be obtained by copying one burner–flame segment a certain number of times around the circumference. A thermoacoustic model based on the Helmholtz equation then admits special solutions of the so-called Bloch type that can be obtained by considering one segment only. We show that a significant reduction in computational effort for the determination of thermoacoustic modes can be achieved by exploiting this concept. The framework is applicable even in complex cases including a non-homogeneous temperature field and a frequency-dependent, spatially distributed flame response. A parametric study on a three-dimensional combustion chamber model is conducted using both the full scale chamber simulation and a one-segment model with the appropriate Bloch-type boundary conditions. The results for both computations are compared in terms of mode frequencies and growth rates as well as the corresponding mode shapes. This comparison demonstrates the benefits of the Bloch-wave based analysis. It is further shown that even the effect of circumferential asymmetries can be assessed based on computations of one burner–flame segment only by resorting to spectral perturbation theory.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Waste Heat Recovery in a Cruise Vessel in the Baltic Sea by Using an Organic Rankine Cycle: A Case Study

Abstract: 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 l ...

A New Approach to the Gray-Box Identification of Wiener Models With the Application of Gas Turbine Engine Modeling

Abstract: In this paper, a new approach is presented for the gray-box identification of Wiener models (WM); and to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, it is used to estimate the dynamic behavior of a two-shaft industrial gas turbine (GT) The Wiener models, which have attracted a considerable attention due to their low computational demand and high accuracy, represent modeling techniques based on system identification These models are composed of a linear dynamic part interconnected with a nonlinear static element, and the unknown parameters of these two parts are generally determined by black-box identification approaches However, another identification method known as “gray-box identification” can also be employed, which uses the existing information about the static or dynamic behavior of a system to achieve the unknown parameters of the Wiener model In this study, an innovative approach for improving the Wiener model’s capability of predicting the dynamic behavior of nonlinear systems is presented with the assumption that the static behavior of the examined system is known In the proposed model called the enhanced Wiener model (EWM), the parameters of the linear dynamic part are allowed to vary with the operating conditions; and thus, this model provides a higher flexibility in estimating the dynamic behavior of the examined system compared to the conventional Wiener models The EWM consists of a static nonlinear block and a linear dynamic block with varying parameters Since gas turbine engines are essentially nonlinear in both the steady and transient conditions, the modeling of a gas turbine can be a suitable case for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed model In this regard, in order to estimate the parameters of a two-shaft industrial gas turbine, five multi-input single-output (MISO) EWMs with a special structure are employed in which the parameters of the dynamic part of each EWM is determined by an adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed model, the EWM results are compared with the result obtained by common system identification approaches like Wiener, Hammerstein, Wiener–Hammerstein, nonlinear autoregressive exogenous (NARX), and ANFIS models The simulation results reveal that the proposed EWM not only is more flexible and effective in predicting the dynamic behavior of the examined gas turbine than the block-structured models, but it also outperforms the NARX and ANFIS models in estimating the static behavior of the gas turbine

Modeling and Experimental Investigation of an Oil-Free Microcompressor-Turbine Unit for an Organic Rankine Cycle Driven Heat Pump

Abstract: Domestic heating and cooling will more and more have to rely on heat pumps (HPs) in order to support a more rational use of primary energy consumption. The HP market is mainly dominated by electrically driven vapor compression cycles and by thermally driven sorption processes. The drawback of electrically driven vapor compression cycle is their dependence on an electrical grid and the fact that they increase the winter or summer electricity peak demands. Hence, a thermally driven vapor compression cycle would offer substantial advantages and flexibility to the end user for heating and cooling applications. This paper presents the investigation of an oil-free compressor-turbine unit (CTU) used for a thermally driven HP (TDHP) based on the combination of a HP compression cycle and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). The CTU consists of a radial inflow turbine and a centrifugal compressor of the order of 2 kW each, directly coupled through a shaft supported on gas lubricated bearings. The CTU has been tested at rotor speeds in excess of 200 krpm, reaching compressor and turbine pressure ratios up to 2.8 and 4.4, respectively, and isentropic efficiencies around 70%. Comparisons between the experimental data and predictions of models, that are briefly described here, have been carried out. A sensitivity analysis based on the experimentally validated models shows that tip clearance, for both compressor and turbine, and surface roughness of the compressor are key parameters for further improving performance.

An Evaluation of Combustion and Emissions Performance With Low Cetane Naphtha Fuels in a Multicylinder Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine

Abstract: Future projections in global transportation fuel use show a demand shift towards diesel and away from gasoline. At the same time greenhouse gas regulations will drive higher vehicle fuel efficiency and lower well-to-wheel CO2 production. Naphtha, a contributor to the gasoline stream and requiring less processing at the refinery level, is an attractive candidate to mitigate this demand shift while lowering the overall greenhouse gas impact. In this work, low cetane and high volatility gasoline-like fuels have shown potential to achieve high fuel efficiency with low engine-out emissions in a production commercial vehicle engine.This study investigates the combustion and emissions performance of two low cetane naphtha fuels (Naphtha 1: RON59; Naphtha 2: RON69) and one ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) in a model year (MY) 2013, six-cylinder, heavy-duty diesel engine. The engine is equipped with a single-stage variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) and a fuel injection system that is capable of 2500 bar fuel injection pressure. The engine has a stock geometric compression ratio of 18.9. To date, most studies in this area have been conducted using single-cylinder research engines. Aramco aims to better understand the implications on hardware and software design in a multi-cylinder engine with a production engine air system.Engine testing was focused on the Heavy-Duty Supplemental Emissions Test (SET) “B” speed over a load sweep from 5 to 15 bar BMEP. At each operating point, NOx sweeps were conducted over wide ranges (e.g., 0.2 → 3 g/hp-hr) to understand the implications of fuel reactivity as well as other properties on combustion behavior under both high temperature mixing-controlled combustion and low temperature premixed combustion.At 10–15 bar BMEP, mixing-controlled combustion dominates the engine combustion process. Under a compression ratio of 18.9, cylinder pressure and temperature are sufficiently high to suppress the reactivity (cetane number) difference between ULSD and the low cetane naphtha fuels. As a result, the three test fuels showed similar ignition delay under high temperature and pressure conditions. Nevertheless, naphtha fuels still exhibited notable soot reduction compared to ULSD. Under mixing-controlled combustion, this is likely due to their lower aromatic content and higher volatility. At 10 bar BMEP, Naphtha 1 generated less soot than Naphtha 2 since it contains less aromatics and is more volatile. When operated at light load, in a less reactive thermal environment, the lower reactivity naphtha fuels led to longer ignition delays than ULSD. As a result, the soot benefit of naphtha fuels was enhanced. Overall, naphtha fuels and ULSD had similar fuel efficiency.Utilizing the soot benefit of the naphtha fuels, engine-out NOx was calibrated from the production level of 3–4 g/hp-hr down to 2–2.5 g/hp-hr over the twelve non-idle SET steady-state modes. At this reduced NOx level, naphtha fuels were still able to maintain a soot advantage over ULSD and remain “soot-free” (smoke ≤ 0.2 FSN) while achieving diesel-equivalent fuel efficiency.Finally, partially premixed compression ignition (PPCI) low temperature combustion (LTC) operation (NOx ≤ 0.2 g/hp-hr; smoke ≤ 0.2 FSN) was achieved with both of the naphtha fuels at 5 bar BMEP through a late injection approach with high injection pressure. Under high EGR dilution, Naphtha 2 showed an appreciably longer ignition delay than Naphtha 1, resulting in a soot reduction benefit. Early injection PPCI operation cannot be attained with the stock engine compression ratio due to excessive pressure rise rates. Although the late injection PPCI operation offered a significant NOx benefit over mixing-controlled combustion operation, it led to lower fuel efficiency with undesirably late combustion phasing. This points the research towards a lower engine compression ratio and an air system upgrade to promote high efficiency PPCI LTC operation.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Off-Nominal Component Performance in a Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle

Abstract: Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation (BMPC) is testing a supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton system at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. The Integrated System Test (IST) is a simple recuperated closed Brayton cycle with a variable-speed turbine-driven compressor and a constant-speed turbine-driven generator using S-CO2 as the working fluid designed to output 100 kWe. The main focus of the IST is to demonstrate operational, control, and performance characteristics of an S-CO2 Brayton power cycle over a wide range of conditions. Therefore, the IST was designed to operate in a configuration and at conditions that support demonstrating the controllability of the closed S-CO2 Brayton cycle. Operating at high system efficiency and meeting a specified efficiency target are not requirements of the IST. However, efficiency is a primary driver for many commercial applications of S-CO2 power cycles. This paper uses operational data to evaluate component off-nominal performance and predict that design system operation would be achievable.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

An Investigation of Condensation Effects in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Compressors

Abstract: Supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) power cycles have demonstrated significant performance improvements in concentrated solar and nuclear applications. These cycles promise an increase in thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency of up to 50% over conventional gas turbines [1] and have become a priority for research, development and deployment. In these applications the CO2 is compressed to pressures above the critical value using radial compressors. The thermodynamic state change of the working fluid is close to the critical point and near the vapor-liquid equilibrium region where phase change effects are important. This paper presents a systematic assessment of condensation on the performance and stability of centrifugal compressors operating in S-CO2. The approach combines numerical simulations with experimental tests to assess the relative importance of two-phase effects on the internal flow behavior

An Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Airfoil Polars for Use in Darrieus Wind Turbines—Part I: Flow Curvature Effects

Abstract: A better comprehension of the aerodynamic behavior of rotating airfoils in Darrieus Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) is crucial both for the further development of these machines and for improvement of conventional design tools based on zero or one-dimensional models (e.g. BEM models).When smaller rotors are designed with high chord-to-radius (c/R) ratios so as not to limit the blade Reynolds number, the performance of turbine blades has been suggested to be heavily impacted by a virtual camber effect imparted on the blades by the curvilinear flow they experience.To assess the impact of this virtual camber effect on blade and turbine performance, a standard NACA0018 airfoil and a NACA0018 conformally transformed such that the airfoil’s chord line follows the arc of a circle, where the ratio of the airfoil’s chord to the circle’s radius is 0.25 were considered. For both airfoils, wind tunnel tests were carried out to assess their aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients for Reynolds numbers of interest for Darrieus VAWTs.Unsteady CFD calculations have been then carried out to obtain curvilinear flow performance data for the same airfoils mounted on a Darrieus rotor with a c/R of 0.25. The blade incidence and lift and drag forces were extracted from the CFD output using a novel incidence angle deduction technique.According to virtual camber theory, the transformed airfoil in this curvilinear flow should be equivalent to the NACA0018 in rectilinear flow, while the NACA0018 should be equivalent to the inverted transformed airfoil in rectilinear flow.Comparisons were made between these airfoil pairings using the CFD output and the rectilinear performance data obtained from the wind tunnel tests and XFoil output in the form of pressure distributions and lift and drag polars.Blade torque coefficients and turbine power coefficient are also presented for the CFD VAWT using both blade profiles.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Thermodynamic and Economic Analysis and Multi-Objective Optimization of Supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycles

Abstract: Supercritical CO2 Brayton cycles (SCO2BC) offer the potential of better economy and higher practicability due to their high power conversion efficiency, moderate turbine inlet temperature, compact size as compared with some traditional working fluids cycles. In this paper, the SCO2BC including the SCO2 single-recuperated Brayton cycle (RBC) and recompression recuperated Brayton cycle (RRBC) are considered, and flexible thermodynamic and economic modeling methodologies are presented. The influences of the key cycle parameters on thermodynamic performance of SCO2BC are studied, and the comparative analyses on RBC and RRBC are conducted. Based on the thermodynamic and economic models and the given conditions, the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) is used for the Pareto-based multi-objective optimization of the RRBC, with the maximum exergy efficiency and the lowest cost per power ($/kW) as its objectives. In addition, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is chosen to establish the relationship between the input, output, and the key cycle parameters, which could accelerate the parameters query process.It is observed in the thermodynamic analysis process that the cycle parameters such as heat source temperature, turbine inlet temperature, cycle pressure ratio, and pinch temperature difference of heat exchangers have significant effects on the cycle exergy efficiency. And the exergy destruction of heat exchanger is the main reason why the exergy efficiency of RRBC is higher than that of RBC under the same cycle conditions. Compared with the two kinds of SCO2BC, RBC has a cost advantage from economic perspective, while RRBC has a much better thermodynamic performance, and could rectify the temperature pinching problem that exists in RBC. Therefore, RRBC is recommended in this paper. Furthermore, the Pareto front curve between the cycle cost/ cycle power (CWR) and the cycle exergy efficiency is obtained by multi-objective optimization, which indicates that there is a conflicting relation between them. The optimization results could provide an optimum trade-off curve enabling cycle designers to choose their desired combination between the efficiency and cost. Moreover, the optimum thermodynamic parameters of RRBC can be predicted with good accuracy using ANN, which could help the users to find the SCO2BC parameters fast and accurately.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Intermittency Route to Combustion Instability in a Laboratory Spray Combustor

Abstract: In the present study, we investigate the phenomenon of transition of a thermoacoustic system involving two-phase flow, from aperiodic oscillations to limit cycle oscillations. Experiments were performed in a laboratory scale model of a spray combustor. A needle spray injector is used to generate a droplet spray having one dimensional velocity field. This simplified design of the injector helps in keeping away the geometric complexities involved in the real spray atomizers. We investigate the stability of the spray combustor in response to the variation of the flame location inside the combustor. Equivalence ratio is maintained constant throughout the experiment. The dynamics of the system is captured by measuring the unsteady pressure fluctuations present in the system. As the flame location is gradually varied, self-excited high amplitude acoustic oscillations are observed in the combustor. We observe the transition of the system behaviour from low amplitude aperiodic oscillations to large amplitude limit cycle oscillations occurring through intermittency. This intermittent state mainly consists of a sequence of high-amplitude periodic bursts separated by low amplitude aperiodic regions. Moreover, the experimental results highlight that during intermittency, the maximum amplitude of bursts oscillations, near to the onset of intermittency, is as much as three times higher than the maximum amplitude of the limit cycle oscillations. These high amplitude intermittent loads can have stronger adverse effects on the structural properties of the engine than the low amplitude cyclic loading caused by the sustained limit cycle oscillations. Evolution of the three different dynamical states of the spray combustion system (viz. stable, intermittency and limit cycle) are studied in three-dimensional phase space by using a phase space reconstruction tool from the dynamical system theory. We report the first experimental observation of type-II intermittency in a spray combustion system. The statistical distributions of the length of aperiodic (turbulent) phase with respect to the control parameter, first return map and recurrence plot techniques are employed to confirm the type of intermittency.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Feedback Control of Self-Sustained Nonlinear Combustion Oscillations

Abstract: Detrimental combustion instability is unwanted in gas turbines, aeroengines and rocket motors. It is typically generated due to the dynamic coupling between unsteady heat release and acoustic pressure. To prevent the onset of combustion instability or dampen large-amplitude oscillations, the coupling must somehow be interrupted. In this work, we design and implement a sliding mode controller and observer to mitigate self-sustained combustion oscillations in an open-ended thermoacoustic system. An acoustically compact heat source is confined and modeled by using a modified form of King’s Law. Coupling the heat source model with a Galerkin series expansion of the acoustic pressure provides an approach to evaluate the performance of the sliding mode control. The thermoacoustic systems with different numbers of eigenmodes and actuators are considered. It is found that self-sustained limit cycle oscillations can be successfully produced from small perturbations in the thermoacoustic systems when the actuators are not actuated. Meanwhile, the system we modeled can be proved to be controllable and observable. In order to gain insight on the thermoacoustic mode selection and triggering, the acoustical energy exchange between neighboring eigenmodes are studied and discussed. As the controller-driven actuators are actuated, the limit cycle oscillations are quickly dampened. And both thermoacoustic systems are stabilized. The successful demonstration indicates that the sliding mode controller can be applied to stabilize unstable thermoacoustic systems, even with multiple eigenmodes.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Research on Metamodel-Based Global Design Optimization and Data Mining Methods

Abstract: The turbomachinery cascades design is a typical high dimensional computationally expensive and black box (HEB) problem, for which a meta-model based design optimization and data mining method is proposed and programmed in this work. The method combines an EI-based global algorithm with two data mining techniques of self-organizing map (SOM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA); 3D blade parameterization method and RANS Solver technique. NASA Rotor 37, a typical axial transonic rotor blade, is selected for the research. Firstly, the SOM is employed to explore the interactions between critical performance indicators. Based on SOM analysis, a design optimization with 19 design variables is carried out to maximize the isentropic efficiency of Rotor 37 configuration with constraints prescribed on the total pressure ratio and mass flow rate. An EI-based global algorithm is programmed for above optimization process and the number of CFD evaluations needed amount to only 1/5 of that required when employing a modified differential evolution algorithm as the optimizer. Throughout the optimization the isentropic efficiency is increased by 1.74% and a subsequent analysis of the redesign reveals that the performance of the rotor blade is significantly improved. And then, the ANOVA is employed to explore the correlations among design variables and objective function as well as the constraints. It is confirmed that the shock wave has the most significant influence on the aerodynamic performance of transonic rotor blades, the combination of proper 2D section profiles and 3D radial stacking is effective for improving the performance of rotor blade. Meanwhile, isentropic efficiency and total pressure ratio of transonic compressor blade is found to be in slight trade-off relation due to the effect of 3D sweep in tip sections. Furthermore, an ANOVA-based optimization strategy is tried, which can obtain remarkable optimal designs with much less computational resource. On a whole, it’s demonstrated that the meta-model based design optimization strategy by coupling data mining techniques is promising for solving HEB problems like the design of turbomachinery cascades.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

The Effect of Confinement on the Structure and Dynamic Response of Lean-Premixed, Swirl-Stabilized Flames

Abstract: The effect of flame-wall interaction on the forced response of a lean-premixed, swirl-stabilized flame is experimentally investigated by examining flames in a series of three combustors, each with a different diameter and therefore a different degree of lateral confinement. The confinement ratios tested are 0.5, 0.37 and 0.29 when calculated using the diameter of the nozzle relative to the combustor diameter. Using both flame images and measured flame transfer functions, the effect of confinement is investigated and generalized across a broad range of operating conditions. The major effect of confinement is shown to be a change in flame structure in both the forced and unforced cases. This effect is captured using the parameter Lf,CoHR/Dcomb, which describes the changing degree of flame-wall interaction in each combustor size. The measured flame transfer function data, as a function of confinement, is then generalized by Strouhal number. Data from the two larger combustors is collapsed by multiplying the Strouhal number by the confinement ratio to account for the flow expansion ratio and change in convective velocity within the combustor. Trends at the transfer function extrema are also assessed by examining them in the context of confinement and by using flame images. A change in the fluctuating structure of the flame is also seen to result from an increase in confinement.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

Étude on Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Power Plant—Next 20 Years

Abstract: In 1992, United States Department of Energy’s Advanced Turbine Systems program established a target of 60% efficiency for utility scale gas turbine power plants to be achieved by the year 2000. Although the program led to numerous technology breakthroughs, it took another decade for an actual combined cycle power plant with an H class gas turbine to reach (and surpass) the target efficiency.Today, another target benchmark, 65% efficiency, circulates frequently in trade publications and engineering journals with scant support from existing technology, its development path as well as material limits, and almost no regard to theoretical (e.g., underlying physics) and practical (e.g., cost, complexity, reliability and constructability) concerns.This paper attempts to put such claims to test and establish the room left for gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) growth in the next two decades. The analysis and conclusions are firmly based on fundamental thermodynamic principles with carefully and precisely laid out assumptions and supported by rigorous calculations. The goal is to arm the practicing engineer with a consistent, coherent and self-standing reference to critically evaluate claims, predictions and other futuristic information pertaining to GTCC technology.© 2015 ASME

Sensor Selection for Aircraft Engine Performance Estimation and Gas Path Fault Diagnostics

Abstract: This paper presents analytical techniques for aiding system designers in making aircraft engine health management sensor selection decisions. The presented techniques, which are based on linear estimation and probability theory, are tailored for gas turbine engine performance estimation and gas path fault diagnostics applications. They enable quantification of the performance estimation and diagnostic accuracy offered by different candidate sensor suites. For performance estimation, sensor selection metrics are presented for two types of estimators including a Kalman filter and a maximum a posteriori estimator. For each type of performance estimator, sensor selection is based on minimizing the theoretical sum of squared estimation errors in health parameters representing performance deterioration in the major rotating modules of the engine. For gas path fault diagnostics, the sensor selection metric is set up to maximize correct classification rate for a diagnostic strategy that performs fault classification by identifying the fault type that most closely matches the observed measurement signature in a weighted least squares sense. Results from the application of the sensor selection metrics to a linear engine model are presented and discussed. Given a baseline sensor suite and a candidate list of optional sensors, an exhaustive search is performed to determine the optimal sensor suites for performance estimation and fault diagnostics. For any given sensor suite, Monte Carlo simulation results are found to exhibit good agreement with theoretical predictions of estimation and diagnostic accuracies.

An Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Airfoil Polars for Use in Darrieus Wind Turbines—Part II: Post-stall Data Extrapolation Methods

Abstract: Accurate post-stall airfoil data extending to a full range of incidences between −180° to +180° is important to the analysis of Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) since the blades experience a wide range of angles of attack, particularly at the low tip-speed ratios encountered during startup.Due to the scarcity of existing data extending much past stall, and the difficulties associated with obtaining post-stall data by experimental or numerical means, wide use is made of simple models of post-stall lift and drag coefficients in wind turbine modeling (through, for example, BEM codes). Most of these models assume post-stall performance to be virtually independent of profile shape.In this study, wind tunnel tests were carried out on a standard NACA0018 airfoil and a NACA 0018 conformally transformed to mimic the “virtual camber” effect imparted on a blade in a VAWT with a chord-to-radius ratio c/R of 0.25.Unsteady CFD results were taken for the same airfoils both at stationary angles of attack and at angles of attack resulting from a slow VAWT-like motion in an oncoming flow, the latter to better replicate the transient conditions experienced by VAWT blades.Excellent agreement was obtained between the wind tunnel tests and the CFD computations for both the symmetrical and cambered airfoils. Results for both airfoils also compare favorably to earlier studies of similar profiles. Finally, the suitability of different models for post-stall airfoil performance extrapolation, including those of Viterna-Corrigan, Montgomerie and Kirke, was analyzed and discussed.Copyright © 2015 by ASME