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In combination with a bottoming cycle, operated with a pure fluid in transcritical mode, the usage of a zeotropic mixture as a working fluid appears to be exergetically favorable for power cycle efficiency in cascaded two-stage organic Rankine cycles (CORC). A CORC is set up and initially tested with cyclopentane and propane as working fluids in its high temperature and low temperature cycle, respectively. A thermal oil cycle serves as the heat source and is powered electrically with a maximum heat flow of 158 kW. The design of this experimental setup allows for a rapid replacement of individual components and for a wide range of conditions in terms of fluids and thermodynamic states. The components of all cycles and the measurement and control technology are described in detail. A testing procedure is presented, followed by a discussion of the measurement results, where it is shown that the intended concept of two cascaded organic Rankine cycles is operational and that the measured data are consistent.
Thermodynamic simulation and experimental validation of a cascaded two-stage organic Rankine cycle
(2015)
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is an established thermodynamic process that converts waste heat to electric energy. Due to the wide range of organic working fluids available the fluid selection adds an additional degree of freedom to the early design phase of an ORC process. Despite thermodynamic aspects such as the temperature level of the heat source, other technical, economic and safety aspects have to be considered. For the fluid selection process in this paper, 22 criteria were identified in six main categories while distinguishing between elimination and tolerance criteria. For an ORC design, the suggested method follows a practical engineering approach and can be used as a structured way to limit the number of interesting working fluids before starting a detailed performance analysis of the most promising candidates. For the first time the selection process is applied to a two-stage reference cycle which uses the waste heat of a large reciprocating engine for cogeneration power plants. It consists of a high temperature and a low temperature cycle in which the condensation heat of the high temperature (HT) cycle provides the heat input of the low temperature (LT) cycle. After the fluid selection process the detailed thermodynamic cycle design is carried out with a thermodynamic design tool that also includes a database for organic working fluids. The investigated ORC cycle shows a net thermal efficiency of about 17,4% in the high temperature cycle with Toluene as the working fluid and 6,2% in low temperature cycle with iso-Butane as the working fluid. The electric efficiency of the cogeneration plant increases from 40,4% to 46,97% with the both stages of the two-stage ORC in operation.
Undergraduate students in engineering often have little exposure to the world of scientific publishing and the culture of sharing research work. While the beneficial exchange between research and teaching is well promoted, while the benefits of conference participation for students have already been surveyed and while courses on scientific writing are readily available, the concept of mini-conferences as part of the curriculum combines all three aspects into one. Therefore, the course "Engineering Conferences" was developed and installed as a mandatory part of a master program for engineering students. The idea is to go beyond simply teaching the standards of academic writing and skills for using scientific publications. By using a learner-centered approach, the students are engaged in typical activities around an active attendance of a real conference. Based on their bachelor thesis, they write a paper complying with common academic standards, submit the paper and review submissions of their fellow students. They also produce a poster and defend their work in a poster session held publicly on campus. This contribution is based on the experience from the first four terms teaching the course. It explains the didactic rationale behind the concept and individual teaching modules, it comprises the collection of useful resources for teaching and organizing scientific publishing and it includes the consequences drawn from course evaluation results.
The ability to understand and predict the pressure losses of orifices is important in order to improve the air flow within the secondary air system. This experimental study investigates the behavior of the discharge coefficient for circular orifices with inlet cross flow which is a common flow case in gas turbines. Examples of this are at the inlet of a film cooling hole or the feeding of air to a blade through an orifice in a rotor disk. Measurements were conducted for a total number of 38 orifices, covering a wide range of length-to-diameter ratios, including short and long orifices with varying inlet geometries. Up to five different chamfer-to-diameter and radius-to-diameter ratios were tested per orifice length. Furthermore, the static pressure ratio across the orifice was varied between 1.05 and 1.6 for all examined orifices. The results of this comprehensive investigation demonstrate the beneficial influence of rounded inlet geometries and the ability to decrease pressure losses, which is especially true for higher cross flow ratios where the reduction of the pressure loss in comparison to sharp-edged holes can be as high as 54%. With some exceptions, the chamfered orifices show a similar behavior as the rounded ones but with generally lower discharge coefficients. Nevertheless, a chamfered inlet yields lower pressure losses than a sharp-edged inlet. The obtained experimental data were used to develop two correlations for the discharge coefficient as a function of geometrical as well as flow properties.
This paper deals with the design of a micro-scale ORC plant for teaching and research including the development of an automated control concept. The aim is to provide a safe and environmentally acceptable micro-scale heat engine, which can be developed, implemented and used in university labs for the education of students as well as for small research projects. The test rig allows the support of several learning outcomes on a multi-disciplinary level particularly for the implementation and simulation of small power systems. Special attention was given to the organic working fluid characteristics and its selection process. In addition to the above-mentioned performance goals, favourable safety properties and low global warming potential were decisive in the selection of the novel organic fluid called 3M™ Novec™ 649. The performance and the fluid behaviour of Novec 649 in a micro-scale power cycle are of major interest and the research goal for the test rig presented in this paper. Due to the expected power output of 1 kW, a scroll expander was chosen as the generator drive for the micro plant. In order to design the major parts of the ORC, the thermodynamic simulation software EBSILON®Professional was used. The supply temperature was set to 140 °C. As a result of the simulation, feasible expander inlet pressures spread from 5.5 bar to 8.5 bar. This leads to thermal efficiencies of the ORC in the order of 5 %. Adding a recuperator to the cycle system decreases the operating pressure range but in the end, the thermal efficiency can be increased by 1.5 %-points up to 6.2 %. Finally, an automated control concept is introduced, where the pump is controlled via the fill level measurement system.
The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is an established thermodynamic process that converts waste heat to electric energy. Due to the wide range of organic working fluids available the fluid selection adds an additional degree-of-freedom to the early design phase of an ORC process. Despite thermodynamic aspects such as the temperature level of the heat source, other technical, economic, and safety aspects have to be considered. For the fluid selection process in this paper, 22 criteria were identified in six main categories while distinguishing between elimination (EC) and tolerance criteria (TC). For an ORC design, the suggested method follows a practical engineering approach and can be used as a structured way to limit the number of interesting working fluids before starting a detailed performance analysis of the most promising candidates. For the first time, the selection process is applied to a two-stage reference cycle, which uses the waste heat of a large reciprocating engine for cogeneration power plants. It consists of a high temperature (HT) and a low temperature (LT) cycle in which the condensation heat of the HT cycle provides the heat input of the LT cycle. After the fluid selection process, the detailed thermodynamic cycle design is carried out with a thermodynamic design tool that also includes a database for organic working fluids. The investigated ORC cycle shows a net thermal efficiency of about 17.4% in the HT cycle with toluene as the working fluid and 6.2% in LT cycle with isobutane as the working fluid. The electric efficiency of the cogeneration plant increases from 40.4% to 46.97% with the both stages of the two-stage ORC in operation.
High heat losses via exhaust gas and coolant in internal combustion engines (ICE) are the basis for numerous investigations regarding downstream processes for power generation. The most promising concepts are Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) and Steam Rankine Cycles (SRC). In previous work of the Center of Innovative Energy Systems, Düsseldorf (Germany), the technical and economic feasibility of a low pressure SRC has been investigated and the advantages in comparison to organic Rankine cycles are highlighted. A distinctive feature of the cycle is the use of the ICE coolant heat for evaporation, which limits the cycles maximum steam pressure to values below atmospheric pressure. This work presents first results of a test rig with data reconciliation according to DIN 2048 to validate the simulation results and design calculations. As a basis for the experimental investigations, a gas fired CHP plant was selected. The design of the test rig is optimized for the operation in the laboratory, where the coolant heat is emulated by a tempering device and the exhaust heat of the CHP plant is emulated by a gas burner. With the designed test rig, it is possible to control the volume flow and the temperatures of the coolant and exhaust gas, so that different load conditions of the gas fired CHP plant can be investigated. For initial tests, the turbine in the SRC is replaced by a throttle to achieve the pressure drop of the turbine. The experimental results show, that the exhaust and coolant heat of a 36 kWel CHP plant can be emulated and the performance expectations of the cycle can be met in stable steady-state conditions. Based on the measurement results and the turbine design calculations an electric power output of the cycle of 3.8 kW will be possible, which results in a cycle efficiency of about 6.5 % and an increase of the electrical power output of the CHP plant of about 10 %. The results show that the plant concept is technically feasible and, with further optimization, also represents an alternative to ORC plants in terms of increasing the efficiency of a cogeneration plant.
Striving for smaller losses in turbomachinery has led to many advancements in the design of seals. Modern sealing concepts such as brush seals hold a great potential to increase the efficiency of both flight engines and stationary turbines. At the same time, in order to maintain stable operating conditions of the rotor, swirl-induced forces must be kept at a minimum in the sealing channels. Therefore, the influence of the permeable and flexible bristle pack of brush seals on the flow around the rotor surface must be known. In this paper the swirl flow in the cavities of two different seal geometries is studied experimentally and numerically. A conventional three-tooth labyrinth serves as a reference. A second seal arrangement with a bristle pack upstream of two teeth is compared with the reference labyrinth. The swirl is evaluated experimentally from total and static pressure measurements in various axial and circumferential positions. Additionally, the axial swirl distribution is calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Here, the numerical model of the brush seal is based on the porous medium approach and is calibrated using the experimental values of the leakage and the bristle clearance by adjusting the thickness of the bristle pack. The calibrated CFD model is then used to study the impact of the brush seal on the swirl component of the sealing flow. The observed significant decrease of the swirl by the brush seal shows good agreement with the experimental data. The impact of changes in bristle pack clearance on the swirl is also investigated and compared with experimental evidence. The aim is to show that the brush seals have a natural tendency to interrupt seal swirl. They can therefore be used for swirl control in order to create a beneficial impact on the dynamic stability of turbomachines.
A 3-stage model of a low pressure steam turbine has been equipped with extensive instrumentation to assess aerodynamic performance and for validation of numerical methods. Emphasis was placed on detailed measurements at the inlet and exit of the last stage guide vane. Two configurations were examined – the first used a guide vane with lean in the last stage and a the second used a guide vane combining both lean and sweep. The experimental results from the two configurations have been compared with data from various design methods, ranging from through-flow to 3D multistage viscous simulations with mixing planes. Despite the challenges in modelling complex rotating blades in a wet steam environment, good agreement between the numerical and experimental results was obtained, and the new stator vane combining lean and sweep achieved the desired increase in reaction at the hub section.
In the dynamic testing of jet engines the evaluation of loads on the mount structure is vital for comparison with finite element calculations of such testing. Measuring these loads with the help of strain gauges applied to the structure becomes difficult if the mount is overdetermined and thus not every strain gauge can be assigned to a single load direction. In this study, the overdetermined mount structure of the BR715 engine was examined at one of the three mounting points between the Boeing 717 airframe and the engine, where loads in five directions were reacted. Firstly, the dependence of five measured strains upon known static load conditions at the mounting point had to be determined. For this purpose a static calibration test was carried out where defined forces and moments in known directions were applied to the structure while the output from five strain gauges was measured accordingly. The result was the desired relationship between loads and strains in terms of a matrix, which yields the corresponding load condition of the examined mounting point if multiplied with a set of strains. The same calibration procedure was carried out with a finite element model of the mount, where direct comparison to dynamic load results from the model itself was possible. With this model the validity of the above method was shown as well as possible errors which may occur while evaluating dynamic test results. The method was found to give satisfactory results even for dynamic loading, although some inertia forces disturb the signals in dynamic testing. Finally, the results from an actual dynamic engine test were processed into loads and then compared to the simulated loads from a finite element model of the engine. Good agreement was found and the indication of any remaining discrepancies was used to update the model for an even better representation of the dynamic test loads.
An international, collaborative investigation is undertaken to evaluate the relative merits and limitations of various numerical methods and experimental measurement techniques, specifically for the analysis of flapping-wing propulsion. A finite aspect-ratio configuration is extensively investigated, both quantitatively and qualitatively, in a low-speed wind tunnel. Direct force measurements are made, as well as time-accurate and time-averaged laser Doppler velocimetry and unsteady flow visualization. The reduced frequency, mean angle of attack, aspect ratio and Reynolds number are varied in the experiments. The experiment is numerically simulated using flatplate theory, two and three-dimensional panel codes, and two and three-dimensional Euler and Navier- Stokes solvers. The ability of each of the methods to capture important aspects of the flow physics are evaluated through comparisons with each other and the experimental data. Additionally, the comparisons indicate areas where further research is needed. The collaborative effort provides a survey of available capabilities and provides a fixed set of flappingwing data for others to compare against.