We all take for granted that if we press the switch, the lights turn on; that to charge our phone we just need to plug-in the charger and that food is always safely stored in our fridge. but what would happen in the event of a blackout? are we really conscious of how much we rely on electricity? could we survive without it, even for a few days?The current electricity network is strongly centralised, with electricity generated in large power plants and distributed through transmission networks to the final consumers. With increasing energy demand and renewable energies entering the scene, centralised systems have proven to be very stiff: lacking the flexibility to adapt to sudden demand fluctuations and being unable to deal with strong peaks, with the consequent risk of blackouts.Small, decentralised energy systems can be placed closed to the consumers, avoiding distribution losses and adding flexibility to the network. In particular, small cogeneration units can simultaneously generate heat and electricity; thus, also fulfilling our heating requirements and increasing energy efficiency. However, when there is no or little heat demand (e.g. during the summer), the heat produced by the cogeneration engines cannot be utilised and they need to be shut down. This is the reason why small-scale cogeneration cycles are rarely seen and have not been widely adopted yet.This PhD focuses on the injection of water in a specific small-scale cogeneration technology, the micro gas turbine (mGT) cycle. Thanks to water injection, the production of heat and electricity is decoupled; therefore, the operation of the units is not anymore dependant on the heating demand and they can be used any time during the year. The objective of this thesis is to analyse the numerical, experimental and economic aspects of the so-known micro Humid Air Turbine cycle. The aim is to bring mGTs closer to the market so as to contribute to a more secure, future energy network, where blackouts are avoided at all times. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis focuses on the study of flow and heat transfer in porous media in both laminar and turbulent flow regimes, by using Volume Averaged Reynolds Navier Stokes (VARNS) approach. The main concern is to investigate the possibility of using porous media for the gas turbine blade cooling. Very recently, using this technique in blade cooling, particularly with internal cooling, has motivated many researchers due to an effective enhancement in the blade cooling. In this study turbulence is represented by using the Launder-Sharma low-Reynolds-number k-Îμ turbulence model, which is modified via proposals by Nakayama and Kuwahara (2008) and Pedras and de Lemos (2001) for extra source terms in the turbulent transport equations to account for the porous structure, which is treated as rigid and isotropic. Due to the changing of the effective porosity as the clear fluid region is approached, the porosity and additional source term in the macroscopic Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations are relaxed across a thin transitional layer at the edges of the porous media. This is achieved by utilizing exponential damping relations to consider these changes. The Local Thermal Equilibrium (LTE) (one-energy equation) model is used for the thermal analysis in porous media. In order to investigate the validity of the extended model, laminar and turbulent flow in different cases, fully developed and developing flows, have been considered. For laminar flows, fully developed plane channel flows with one and two porous layers, a channel with a single porous block and partially filled porous channel flows have been examined for the purpose of validating the extra drag terms in the momentum equations. For the validation purpose for turbulent flows in porous media, the extended model has been tested in homogeneous porous media, turbulent porous channel flows, turbulent solid/porous rib channel flows, and repeated turbulent porous baffled channel flows. Results of all laminar cases show excellent qualitative agreements with the available numerical calculations and experimental data. Results of all turbulent cases show that the extended model returns generally satisfactory accuracy through the comparisons with the available data, except for some predictive weaknesses in regions of either impingement or adverse pressure gradients, both of which are largely due the underlying eddy-viscosity model formulation employed. Thus, from all results, it can be confirmed that the extended model is promising for engineering applications.

abstract: Next generation gas turbines will be required to produce low concentrations of pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and soot. In order to design gas turbines which produce lower emissions it is essential to have computational tools to help designers. Over the past few decades, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has played a key role in the design of turbomachinary and will be heavily relied upon for the design of future components. In order to design components with the least amount of experimental rig testing, the ensemble of submodels used in simulations must be known to accurately predict the component's performance. The present work aims to validate a CFD model used for a reverse flow, rich-burn, quick quench, lean-burn combustor being developed at Honeywell. Initially, simulations are performed to establish a baseline which will help to assess impact to combustor performance made by changing CFD models. Rig test data from Honeywell is compared to these baseline simulation results. Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence models are both used with the presumption that the LES turbulence model will better predict combustor performance. One specific model, the fuel spray model, is evaluated next. Experimental data of the fuel spray in an isolated environment is used to evaluate models for the fuel spray and a new, simpler approach for inputting the spray boundary conditions (BC) in the combustor is developed. The combustor is simulated once more to evaluate changes from the new fuel spray boundary conditions. This CFD model is then used in a predictive simulation of eight other combustor configurations. All computer simulations in this work were preformed with the commercial CFD software ANSYS FLUENT. NOx pollutant emissions are predicted reasonably well across the range of configurations tested using the RANS turbulence model. However, in LES, significant under predictions are seen. Causes of the under prediction in NOx concentrations are investigated. Temperature metrics at the exit of the combustor, however, are seen to be better predicted with LES. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Mechanical Engineering 2012

Submitted by BENJAMIN KUNTE null (benjamin.kunte@gmail.com) on 2015-12-21T20:22:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Benjamin_Dissertation_Final_Version.pdf: 2440898 bytes, checksum: 129503961064a9371fbb24f9408bfbc6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Cássia Adriana de Sant ana Gatti (cgatti@marilia.unesp.br) on 2015-12-22T13:12:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Benjamin_Dissertation_Final_Version.pdf: 2440898 bytes, checksum: 129503961064a9371fbb24f9408bfbc6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-22T13:12:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Benjamin_Dissertation_Final_Version.pdf: 2440898 bytes, checksum: 129503961064a9371fbb24f9408bfbc6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-18 / Os métodos mais promissores para reduzir gases de efeito estufa, bem como combater o iminente esgotamento das reservas de energia fóssil, são: a) o uso de combustíveis alternativos obtidos a partir da biomassa, como o biogás ou gás de síntese (syngas); b) o aumento da eficiência do sistema através da redução da percentagem de energia útil perdido para o ambiente. Enquanto a otimização da eficiência de uma determinada máquina da central elétrica, por exemplo, turbina a gás ou compressor, é um desenvolvimento muito demorado, a cogeração pode rápida e significativamente aumentar a eficiência global da central. Neste trabalho, análise termodinâmica, econômica e de emissões de um sistema de cogeração baseado em uma microturbina a gás de 200 kW combinado com uma caldeira de recuperação são conduzidas. Além disso, a operação de biogás e syngas é comparada com a operação de gás natural para investigar a pertinência destes dois combustíveis alternativos para o uso em micro turbinas a gás. A central de cogeração proposta mostrou-se tecnicamente viável para todos os combustíveis, porque a microturbina selecionada é disponível em várias versões, específicas para cada combustível, com sistemas de injeção de combustível otimizados. A central apresentou eficiências energéticas globais de 50,9%, 48,6% e 47,9% para operação com gás natural, biogás e syngas, respectivamente. Devido aos preços muito elevados do gás natural e do syngas, a central de cogeração apresentou viabilidade econômica apenas no caso de operação com biogás, com curtos períodos de retorno de aproximadamente 2,8 anos e alta economia anual esperada. Além disso, o biogás tem a maior eficiência ecológica e, portanto, apresentou-se como a melhor alternativa aos combustíveis fósseis. / The most promising methods to reduce greenhouse gases as well as counteract against the imminent depletion of fossil fuels are: a) the use of alternative fuels obtained from biomass, such as biogas or bio-syngas; b) enhancing the power plant efficiency by decreasing the percentage of useful energy lost to the environment. Whereas efficiency optimisation of a particular machine in a power plant, e.g. gas turbine or compressor, is a very longsome development, cogeneration can quickly and significantly increase the overall efficiency of a power plant. In this work, energetic, exergetic, emissions and economic analyses of a cogeneration system consisting of a 200 kW micro gas turbine combined with a heat recovery steam generator are introduced and conducted. Furthermore, biogas and syngas operation are compared to natural gas operation, to investigate the adequacy of these two alternative fuels for use in micro gas turbines. The proposed cogeneration plant proved to be technically feasible for all fuels, because the selected micro gas turbine Capstone C200 is available in various, fuel-specific versions with optimised fuel injection systems. The plant presented overall energetic efficiencies of 50.9%, 48.6% and 47.9% for natural gas, biogas and syngas operation, respectively. Due to very high natural gas and syngas prices, the cogeneration plant presented economic feasibility only in case of biogas operation, with short payback periods of approximately 2.8 years and high expected annual saving. Moreover, biogas has the highest ecologic efficiency and was therefore found to be the best alternative to fossil fuels.

abstract: Gas turbine efficiency has improved over the years due to increases in compressor pressure ratio and turbine entry temperature (TET) of main combustion gas, made viable through advancements in material science and cooling techniques. Ingestion of main combustion gas into the turbine rotor-stator disk cavities can cause major damage to the gas turbine. To counter this ingestion, rim seals are installed at the periphery of turbine disks, and purge air extracted from the compressor discharge is supplied to the disk cavities. Optimum usage of purge air is essential as purge air extraction imparts a penalty on turbine efficiency and specific fuel consumption. In the present work, experiments were conducted in a newly constructed 1.5-stage axial flow air turbine featuring vanes and blades to study main gas ingestion. The disk cavity upstream of the rotor, the 'front cavity', features a double seal with radial clearance and axial overlap at its rim. The disk cavity downstream of the rotor, the 'aft cavity', features a double seal at its rim but with axial gap. Both cavities contain a labyrinth seal radially inboard; this divides each disk cavity into an 'inner cavity' and a 'rim cavity'. Time-averaged static pressure at various locations in the main gas path and disk cavities, and tracer gas (CO2) concentration at different locations in the cavities were measured. Three sets of experiments were carried out; each set is defined by the main air flow rate and rotor speed. Each of the three sets comprises of four different purge air flow rates, low to high. The mass flow rate of ingested main gas into the front and aft rim cavities is reported at the different purge air flow rates, for the three experiment sets. For the present stage configuration, it appears that some ingestion persisted into both the front and aft rim cavities even at high purge air flow rates. On the other hand, the front and aft inner cavity were completely sealed at all purge flows. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Engineering 2015

Resumo: O setor elétrico brasileiro vem continuamente passando por crises energéticas; os consumidores, indústrias que dependem de energia para exercerem as suas atividades passaram a valorizar e a buscar fontes alternativas, confiáveis e ecologicamente adequadas com o objetivo de garantir o fornecimento de eletricidade de forma econômica, possibilitando desta maneira uma certa independência energética. Neste contexto, este trabalho tem a finalidade de selecionar sistemas de cogeração utilizando ciclos combinados com conjuntos a gás associadas a caldeira de recuperação sem queima suplementar e turbina a vapor, assim como realizar o levantamento das curvas de produção de energia e eficiência para os ciclos obtidos. Foram utilizados os parâmetros técnicos e construtivos das turbinas a gás e a vapor de uma mesma empresa fabricante, e através das curvas obtidas é possível selecionar o ciclo combinado mais adequado para cada situação desejada, tanto do ponto de vista energético quanto do ponto de vista econômico. / Abstract: The electric Brazilian sector is continually subject to energy crisis, the industrial consumers, that depends on energy to do its activities, is nowadays up to valorize and to look for alternative, trustful and environmental appropriate sources with the objective of guaranteeing the supply of electricity in an economic way and warranting a certain energy independence. In this context, this work has the purpose of selecting cogeneration systems based on using combined cycles with gas turbines associated to heat recovery steam generators without supplementary burners and steam turbines, as well as accomplishing the rising of the curves of production of energy and efficiency for the obtained cycles. The technical and constructive parameters of the gas and steam turbines were considered from the same manufacturing company, and through the obtained curves it is possible to select the more appropriate cycle for each process requirement, in the energy and economic point of view. / Orientador: Júlio Santana Antunes / Coorientador: José Luz Silveira / Banca: José Antonio Perrella Balestieri / Banca: Valdir Apolinario de Freitas / Mestre

The main goal of my thesis is to carry out thermic calculations for adjusted conditions of electric and heat energy consumption. The power of the generator is 330 MW. In the proposal, you can find combustion trubines type GE 9171E. Steam-gas power plant is designed to combust metallurgical gases. Effort of the thesis focuses also on giving a new informations about trends in combinated production of electric and heat energy.

Two new methods for the simulation of gas turbine fuel systems, one based on an inter-component volume (ICV) method, and the other based on the iterative Newton Raphson (NR) method, have been developed in this study. They are able to simulate the performance behaviour of each of the hydraulic components such as pumps, valves, metering unit of a fuel system, using physics-based models, which potentially offer more accurate results compared with those using transfer functions. A transient performance simulation system has been set up for gas turbine engines based on an inter-component volume (ICV). A proportional- integral (PI) control strategy is used for the simulation of engine control systems. An integrated engine and its control and hydraulic fuel systems has been set up to investigate their coupling effect during engine transient processes. The developed simulation methods and the systems have been applied to a model turbojet and a model turboshaft gas turbine engine to demonstrate the effectiveness of both two methods. The comparison between the results of engines with and without the ICV method simulated fuel system models shows that the delay of the engine transient response due to the inclusion of the fuel system components and introduced inter-component volumes is noticeable, although relatively small. The comparison of two developed methods applied to engine fuel system simulation demonstrate that both methods introduce delay effect to the engine transient response but the NR method is ahead than the ICV method due to the omission of inter-component volumes on engine fuel system simulation. The developed simulation methods are generic and can be applied to the performance simulation of any other gas turbines and their control and fuel systems. A sensitivity analysis of fuel system key parameters that may affect the engine transient behaviours has also been achieved and represented in this thesis. Three sets of fuel system key parameters have been introduced to investigate their sensitivities, which are, the volumes introduced for ICV method applied to fuel system simulation; the time constants introduced into those first order lags tosimulate the valve movements delay and fuel spray delay effect; and the fuel system key performance and structural parameters.

In this study, experimental data was collected in order to create a test case that can be used to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and the individual models used therein for gas turbine combustor applications. In many cases, the CFD results of gas turbine combustors do not correlate well with experimental results. For this reason, there is a requirement to test the simulation method used before CFD can successfully be used for combustor design. This test case encompasses all the features of a gas turbine combustor such as a swirler, primary, secondary and dilution holes as well as cooling rings. Experiments were performed on the same combustor geometry for both non-reacting and reacting flows. The non-reacting flow experiments consisted of stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements performed at various planes in the three zones of the combustor. Data was collected on planes, both in line with the holes and in between the holes of each zone. For the reacting experiments, the temperatures on the outlet plane were measured using a thermocouple rake, thus a temperature contour plot on the outlet plane was produced. Further, the combustor can was modified with passive inserts, which were tested to determine their influence on the outlet temperature distribution during reacting runs. In this set-up, the outlet velocity profiles were also measured using a Pitot tube during both non-reacting and reacting flows. In addition to the outlet temperature distribution and velocity profiles, images of the flame patterns were captured, which showed the positions of flame tongues, fluctuating flames and steady flames. Carbon burn patterns on the walls of the combustor liner were also captured. From the data collected during the reacting runs, the pattern factor, profile factor, overall pressure loss and pressure loss factor were calculated. The non-reacting experiments performed using the PIV, produced three-dimensional velocity vector fields throughout the combustor. These experiments were performed at various flow rates, which gave an indication of which features of the combustor flow were affected by the flow rate. When comparing the individual PIV images alongside one another, the temporal nature of the combustor flow was also evident. The reacting experiments revealed a hot region of exhaust gas around the outer edge of the exhaust while there was a cooler region in the centre of the outlet flow. The PIV flowfield results revealed the reason for then hot outer ring-like region was due to the path the hot gasses would take. The hot combustor gas from the primary zone diverges outwards in the secondary zone then is further forced to the outside by the dilution recirculation zone. The hot flow then leaves the combustor along the wall while the cooler air from the jets leaves the combustor in the centre. The experiments performed produced a large variety of data that can be used to validate a number of aspects of combustor simulation using CFD. The non-reacting experimental data can be used to validate the turbulence models used and to evaluate how well the flow features were modelled or captured during the non-reacting stage of the combustor simulation process. The typical flow features such as jet penetration depths and the position and size of the recirculation regions are provided for effective comparison. The thermal results presented on the outlet plane of the combustor can be used for comparison with CFD results once combustion is modelled. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

This thesis describes experiments to investigate high-altitude relight of a lean direct injection (LDI) combustor. The features that make LDI technology less polluting in terms of NOx compared to conventional combustors are expected to impede relight performance. Therefore an improved understanding of ignition behaviour is required to ensure that stringent relight requirements can be satisfied. Realistic operating conditions are simulated in a ground-based test facility. The application of laser diagnostics presents particular difficulties due to the large quantities ofliquid fuel that impinge on the combustor walls during relight. Advances are made in the application of planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) to monitor fuel placement in a combustor under these conditions. A novel apparatus is developed to deliver a laser sheet to the combustion chamber while protecting all optical surfaces from contamination. The PLIF images are compared with the cold flow field obtained from CFD modelling. These results indicate that fuel becomes trapped inside the central recirculation zone in highconcentrations. High-speed flame imaging performed simultaneously with the PLIF measurements provides important insights into the motion and breakup of flame during relight. An algorithm developed to track the flame activity reveals that the initial spark kernel is convected downstream, before breaking apart and moving upstream towards a recovery origin close to the fuel injector. Analysis of many ignition events has revealed several distinct modes of ignition failure.