Sharif Digital Repository

The economical operations of power plants and environmental awareness are the major factors affecting the importance of control in boiler-turbine units. In this paper, a multivariable nonlinear model of boiler-turbine unit is considered. Drum pressure, electric output and water level of drum (as output variables) are adjusted at desired values by manipulation of valve positions for fuel, steam and feed-water flow rates (as input variables). Nonlinear dynamics of the unit is investigated through the concepts of bifurcation and limit cycles behaviour. In the presence of harmonic disturbances, some coefficients of the dynamic model, fuel and steam flow rates play as the bifurcation parameters.... 

Stable control of water level of drum is of great importance for economic operation of power plant steam generator systems. In this paper, a linear model of the boiler unit with time varying parameters is used for simulation. Two transfer functions between drum water level (output variable) and feed-water and steam mass rates (input variables) are considered. Variation of model parameters may be arisen from disturbances affecting water level of drum, model uncertainties and parameter mismatch due to the variant operating conditions. To achieve a perfect tracking of the desired drum water level, two sliding mode controllers are designed separately. Results show that the designed controllers... 

Steam-assisted gravity drainage is one of the most promising strategies to develop huge heavy oil and bitumen accumulations. Like the other thermal processes, this method aims at reducing oil viscosity by increasing the temperature. But in an economical point of view, it requires a great volume of steam for injection. Moreover, early breakthrough of steam and high steam-oil ratio makes it uneconomical, especially in long production time. In this study, a new method, two wells cyclical steam-assisted gravity drainage is compared with a conventional steam-assisted gravity drainage process. Well configuration in two wells cyclical steam-assisted gravity drainage is the same as the... 

The catalyst's performance and deactivation in a Midrex® industrial fixed bed reactor were investigated for the combined steam and dry reforming of natural gas using a one-dimensional heterogeneous model. The results demonstrate that there is a strong tendency for the catalyst's deactivation by carbon formation originating from methane decomposition. However, kinetic modelling of the combined reforming process shows that only a fraction of the catalyst in the industrial reactor is required for the reactions to reach an equilibrium state in the reformer. Hence, as the catalyst is deactivated at the reactor entrance area, the reaction zone gradually moves forward and still allows for... 

In advanced combined-cycle power plants, significant improvements in the thermodynamic performance are mainly achieved by the development of more efficient gas-turbine systems. This paper evaluates the effect of selected decision variables in the steam system for optimization of Thermal Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (TCCGT) power plant using an iterative exergoeconomic. The design variables were the thermodynamic parameters that establish the configuration both of the steam and gas systems. The design data of an existing plant (Damavand power plant in Tehran-Iran) is used. Two different objective functions are proposed: one minimizes the total cost of production per unit of output, and the... 

Many bitumen reservoirs contain shale layers of varying thickness, lateral extent, and frequency. These shale layers, depending on their size, vertical and horizontal locations, and continuity throughout the reservoir, may act as a flow barrier and severely reduce vertical permeability of the pay zone and slow down the steam-assisted gravity drainage steam chamber development. Therefore, to improve productivity in these reservoirs, understanding of the effects of reservoir heterogeneities has become necessary. This work presents numerical investigation of the effects of shale barriers on steam-assisted gravity drainage performance when applied to produce mobile heavy oil. The most concern of... 

Total site integration offers energy conservation opportunities across different individual processes. It also helps for design as well as optimization of the central utility system. It gives massive energy-saving opportunities. The large industrial CHP sites generate heat and power simultaneously. These sites have different steam levels at different pressures which are used for power generation via steam turbines and also directly for satisfying process heat demand. There are many sites requiring cooling demand in hot seasons. In this article, integration of a LiBr/water absorption chiller in a CHP site has been investigated until its cooling demand is satisfied. Low pressure steam at 3 bar... 

Deposition of dissolved impurities and corrosion in steam generators is a significant problem in the operation of nuclear power plants. Impurities and corrosion products usually accumulate in the secondary sides of steam generators (SG) and form deposits on the SG surfaces. A high level of impurity concentration close to the SG heating surface causes the corrosion process to occur with more intensity. The aim of this study is to estimate the most probable locations of impurity concentration and deposition in a SG. Equations representing the convection and diffusion in the liquid phase close to the heated surface (the viscous sub layer) are derived. Based on the mass balance of impurities in... 

A compartment model was developed to describe the flow pattern of gas within the dense zone of a tapered membrane-assisted fluidized-bed reactor (TMAFBR), in the bubbling mode of operation for steam reforming of methane under wall heat flux. The parameters of the developed model (i.e., number of compartments for the bubble and emulsion phases) were determined using the experimental data reported elsewhere [Adris AM, Lim CJ, Grace JR. The fluidized bed membrane reactor system: a pilot scale experimental study. Chem Eng Sci 1994; 49:5833-43.] and good agreements were obtained between model predictions and corresponding experimental data. The developed model was then utilized to predict the... 

A gas-turbine cogeneration system with a regenerative air preheater and a single-pressure exhaust gas boiler serves as an example for application of CHP Plant. This CHP plant which can provide 30 MW of electric power and 14kg/s saturated steam at 20 bars. The plant is comprised of a gas turbine, air compressor, combustion chamber, and air pre-heater as well as a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The design Parameters of the plant, were chosen as: compressor pressure ratio (rc), compressor isentropic efficiency (ηac), gas turbine isentropic efficiency (ηgt), combustion chamber inlet temperature (T3), and turbine inlet temperature (T4). In order to optimally find the design parameters a... 

Design and optimization of centrifugal compressors, based on main blades configuration of impeller have been vastly discussed in open literature, but less researches have addressed splitters. In this research, the impeller of a commercial turbocharger compressor is investigated. Here, profiles of main blades are not changed while the effect of changing the configuration of splitters is studied. An optimization study is performed to find the best configuration using genetic algorithm over a complete operating curve of the compressor. CFD codes with experimental support are used to predict the compressor performance. Quantumetric tests beside destructive analysis of two impellers are... 

Gas injection process for more oil recovery and in particular CO2 injection is well-established method to increment oil recovery from underground oil reservoirs. CO2 sequestration which takes place during this enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method has positive impact on reducing the greenhouse gas emission which causes global warming. Direct gas injection into depleted oil reservoirs, encounters several shortcomings such as low volumetric sweep efficiency, early breakthrough (BT) and high risk of gas leakage in naturally fractured carbonate oil reservoirs. Carbonated water injection (CWI) has been recently proposed as an alternative method to alleviate the problems associated with gas... 

The proper modeling of radiation is of great importance in numerical simulation of combustion processes. A simple gray weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (WSGG) model has been intensively used in CFD simulations of industrial combustion applications, mainly because of its low computational costs. However, the gray assumption is far from the real behavior of non-gray combustion gases. This could consequently affect the accuracy of temperature field and heat flux distribution predictions. On the other hand, modern non-gray global radiation models such as the standard spectral line-based weighted-sum-od-gray-gases (SLW) model are still computationally expensive for many engineering purposes. To... 

Power plant successful operation is always a function of its constituent sub-systems and components. Due to the current financial constraints in power industry, power plant operators are continuously facing a wide range of challenges when dealing with maintenance scheduling and asset management practices of the plant sub-systems. Knowledge on the roles and criticality of the constituent components on the plant overall performance will help in establishing the plans for its smooth, safe, and economic operation. To ensure making the techno-economical decisions on the maintenance of power plant equipment, this paper focuses on the reliability modeling of the combined cycle power plants (CCPP).... 

The turbine control system is one of the key control loops in the dynamic performance of steam power generation units. In this paper a multivariable PID controller is designed for the governing system of steam turbine power generators. The necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of a strong robust H ∞ dynamic compensator are established in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. This controller is designed in succeeding to the existing proportional controller in a power plant. To reach to this goal, the complete dynamic model of an actual turbine-generator including the governor, turbine and generator, are derived. Simulation results show that proposed controller has good... 

Thermal recovery by steam injection has proven to be an effective means of recovering heavy oil. Forecasts of reservoir response to the application of steam are necessary before starting a steam drive project. Thermal numerical models are available to provide forecasts. However, these models are expensive and consume a great deal of computer time. An alternative to numerical modeling is to use a semi-analytical model. The objective of the current study was to investigate thermal applications of horizontal wells for displacement and gravity drainage processes using analytical modeling as well as reservoir simulation. The main novelties presented in the paper are: a) the transient temperature... 

Carbonated water has been recently proposed as an enhanced oil recovery method for crude oil reservoirs. Interfacial tension (IFT) plays a crucial rule on the displacement of trapped oil ganglia in the porous media. This investigation is designed to systematically assess the dynamic interfacial tension (DIFT) of two different types of crude oils with carbonated water (CW). In addition, the measured experimental data were applied into specified models. The DIFT behavior of acidic and non-acidic crude oil samples/CW and deionized water (DW) are also compared to find the effect of dissolved carbon dioxide in water on IFT. At the next stage, DIFT of all the results were used through three... 

Auto-thermal reforming (ATR), a combination of exothermic partial oxidation and endothermic steam reforming of methane, is an important process to produce syngas for petrochemical industries. In a commercial ATR unit, tubular fixed bed reactors are typically used. Pressure drop across the tube, high manufacturing costs, and low production capacity are some disadvantages of these reactors. The main propose of this study is to offer an optimized radial flow, spherical packed bed reactor as a promising alternative for overcoming the drawbacks of conventional tubular reactors. In the current research, a one dimensional pseudo-homogeneous model based on mass, energy, and momentum balances is... 

The steam reforming of ethylene glycol, a simple model compound for biomass-derived liquids, is considered to be an environmentally green process for producing renewable hydrogen. Both Pt and Ni species are known for their catalytic activity under steam reforming reaction conditions. In this investigation, alumina supported Ni-Pt bimetallic catalysts (X wt% Ni-Y wt% Pt/Al2O3 named XNi-YPt) were employed for steam reforming of ethylene glycol. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, BET, H2-TPR, H₂-Chemisorption, and TEM. It was observed that Ni/Pt ratio strongly affected the redox behavior, BET surface area, and particle size of the samples that in turn affected their catalytic...