FG Thermische Energietechnik
District heating dynamic models arise as an alternative approach to in-situ experimental investigations. The main advantage of dynamic modeling and simulation is the possibility to avoid technical and operational risks that might occur during in-situ experimental investigations (e.g. heat demand is not met, damages in the energy systems etc.). Within this study, the authors present two models for an existing district heating system in Cottbus, Germany. One model is developed using the tool EBSILON Professional, while the other one is developed using the Simscape toolbox for physical modeling in Matlab/Simulink. The models were experimentally validated against measured data from the considered district heating system. The results show that the Simscape model has a better fit and better response than the EBSILON model. Yet, some discrepancies were found between the measured and the simulated data and, therefore, the uncertainties of the models were addressed. A comparative study between both tools is presented. The EBSILON models permit only unidirectional flow, whereas the Simscape toolbox permits reverse flow. Nevertheless, the EBSILON model outperforms the Simscape model in computation time. In addition, this study presents an approach for dynamic thermo-hydraulic modeling of district heating networks. This approach is utilized to examine the role of district heating networks as heat storage as an optimization configuration. The numerical results show less start-ups for additional heat sources. Yet, higher heat losses from the network are observed due to the installation of unburied pipelines.
In the last two decades, a rapid expansion of photovoltaic (PV) power plants of different sizes has taken place. Along with this, the interest from science and industry is growing, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of this technology as well as further developing the efficiency in its production and operation. For planning and operating of PV power plants, valid energy yield forecasts are desirable. These forecasts are also important to draw conclusions for the monitoring of future PV technologies. The analysis, evaluation and processing of meteorological and technical measurement datasets play an essential role.
In this article, high-resolution measurement data sets of a mobile, autarkic test system are analyzed firstly. The measured data are checked for plausibility and validity with the corresponding methods. After this observations and phenomena with meteorological cause are described. In a second step, a practicable procedure for the preparation of the measurement data is presented, in order to make it suitable for further calculations, e.g. identification of photovoltaic module parameters for energy yield calculations. The focus is particularly on the flexibility, adaptability and code performance of the processing procedure. Results, evaluations and outlooks on the methods used, measurement data and selected software packages are made.
As power generation from variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power continues to increase in the future, fewer baseload power plants will be needed. As a result, high operational flexibility is becoming a vital requirement for conventional power plants to allow for the smooth integration of the variable renewable energy sources (v-RES) into the grid. To understand the impact of high operational flexibility (increased cycling) for coal-fired power plant materials, five commercial coal boiler superheater and reheater materials were investigated under isothermal and cyclic conditions for 1000 h each. The candidate alloys investigated were: T91, VM12-SHC, TP347-HFG, DMV304 HCu and DMV310 N. The results (weight change kinetics and metallographic analysis) after exposure at a metal surface temperature of 650 °C clearly showed the impact of increased flexibility on the corrosion and oxidation of the materials. Oxide growth (weight gain), metal loss, oxide spallation, and grain boundary attack were found to be more severe under cyclic conditions than under isothermal conditions.