87299 - Energy Systems T

Academic Year 2024/2025

  • Docente: Lisa Branchini
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: ING-IND/08
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Energy Engineering (cod. 0924)

Learning outcomes

The students will achieve the knowledge on the basic thermodynamics and the fluid dynamics of fluid machinery. Main outcomes are:

  • Brayton cycle gas turbine power plant. Optimization of efficiency and specific work as a function of compression ratio and maximum temperature.
  • Steam power plants with reheat and regeneration. Thermodynamic optimization of efficiency and work ad a function of main operating quantities.
  • Gas-steam combined cycle power plants.
  • Steam turbines.

Course contents

Ideal gas and real gas: step-by-step compression. Enthalpy and specific heat as function of the temperature: calculation codes. Step-by-step expansion. Enthalpy and specific heat of a gas mixture. Lower heating value and higher heating value experimentally evaluated and by means of standard enthalpies of formation.

Analytic determination of the energy balance within a non-adiabatic combustion chamber. Combustion effectiveness and combustion chamber efficiency. combustion: theory air, real air and air excess.

Brayton cycle gas turbine plant. Layout of a Brayton cycle gas turbine plant. Operating principle of compressor, turbine and combustion chamber. Work and efficiency trend as a function of compression ratio, polytropic efficiency and TIT (cp=constant). T,s diagram. Thermodynamic optimization of gas turbine performance under hypothesis of ideal fluid. Equations governing the operation of a gas turbine in case of real gas. Comparison between ideal and real performances of a Brayton cycle gas turbine plant. Influence of TIT, polytropic efficiency and compression ratio on real performance.

Steam power plants. Basic layout an operating principle. Heat exchange diagram for the condenser and criticisms related to the decrease in condenser pressure. Acid dewpoint. T-s and h-s diagrams. Compression work of a liquid. Effect of the condenser pressure decrease on the thermodynamic efficiency. Layout of a steam plant with reheat, T-s diagram. Optimization of the reheating pressure of a steam group. Quality trend at the outlet of the steam turbine as function of the reheating pressure. Layout of a steam plant with one regeneration level, operating principle and T-s diagram. Thermodynamic optimization following the adoption of one regeneration level in a steam group (degree of regeneration). Mixing and surface heat exchangers: architectural and performance differences. Layout of a steam plant with three regeneration levels. T-s diagram. Energy balances at the regenerative heat exchangers. Produced power and efficiency.

The steam generator. Layout and operating principle. Water side and gas side lines. The problem of boiler bank temperature. The Ljungstrom exchanger and link with regeneration. Burners disposition. The combustion temperature (graphic determination). The heat load. Efficiency of the steam generator (direct and indirect evaluation). The degree of shielding and its increase with the potential of the steam generator.

Gas-steam combined cycle power plants. One pressure level combined cycle: T,s diagram and operating principle. Heat exchange diagram T,Q and T,q. Energy balances for the combined cycle heat exchangers. Analytical expression of the conversion efficiency. Recovery efficiency as a function of the ratio between the low pressure mass flow and flow to the condenser.

The condenser. One and multiple pass tube and shell side layout. Speed of cooling water in pipes and its influence on global heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. Constructive measures to increase the performance of a condenser by increasing the global heat transfer coefficient.

Numerical exercises on gas turbine, steam cycle, combined gas and steam power plants.

Turbomachines. Equations of fluid motion in fixed channels. The speed of sound and flow regimes. Compressible fluid flow equations. The Hugoniot equations. Converging channel and converging-diverging channel. Eulero's equation and equation with the differences of kinetic energy for a rotor row. Degree of reaction.

 

The impulse and reaction stages: the velocity triangles, the maximum work. 

The De Laval Turbine scheme and operating principle. De Laval Turbine limitations on the enthalpy change.

Two velocity stages turbine: scheme and operating principle. The velocity triangles. Work and maximum work evaluation for a two velocity stages turbine.

The reaction turbine, scheme and operating principle.  

Readings/Bibliography

  1. Lecture notes

  2. Lectures notes available on Unibo web platform VIRTUALE, https://virtuale.unibo.it/

  3. Book: " Sistemi Energetici e Macchine a Fluido" G: Negri di Montenegro, M. Bianchi A. Peretto-Pitagora Editore.

Teaching methods

Classroom Lectures. Students are encouraged to attend classes in order to improve their final learning outcomes. The course attendance is not mandatory and it does not have influence on the final examination score

Assessment methods

The assessment methods is intended to check the students outcomes with emphasis on the the full achievements of:

1. Thermo-dynamics principles applied to energy transfer or conversion in the fluid machinery presented

2. Knowledge of fluid machinery layouts, working principle and applications areas

3. Accuracy and robustness in the analytical derivation of equations and relations with focus on the clear and clean statement of goals, hypothesis and results achieved

The assessment of the learning outcomes will be performed through an oral examination (1 hour approximately) including, typically, two open-end questions.

The minimum score is 18/30, the maximum is 30/30 with honors.

The minimum score is not achieved if large deficiencies in learning outcomes are exhibited: i.e., missing main hypothesis, miss any knowledge of machinery working principles and/or working cycles, etc.

Examinations schedule is available in advance on the University of Bologna web site AlmaEsami. Students willing to take the exam must join to the exam student list on the web site AlmaEsami.

Students are required to show their own ID before taking the exam

Teaching tools

Course is given by teaching classes and students are encouraged to attend in order to improve the learning process and learning outcomes.

Office hours

See the website of Lisa Branchini

SDGs

Affordable and clean energy Sustainable cities Climate Action

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.