scholarly journals The nuclear closed-cycle gas turbine /GT-HTGR/ - A utility power plant for the year 2000

Author(s):  
C. MCDONALD
Author(s):  
Emmanuel O. Osigwe ◽  
Arnold Gad-Briggs ◽  
Theoklis Nikolaidis ◽  
Pericles Pilidis ◽  
Suresh Sampath

One major challenge to the accurate development of performance simulation tool for component-based nuclear power plant engine models is the difficulty in accessing component performance maps; hence, researchers or engineers often rely on estimation approach using various scaling techniques. This paper describes a multi-fluid scaling approach used to determine the component characteristics of a closed-cycle gas turbine plant from an existing component map with their design data, which can be applied for different working fluids as may be required in closed-cycle gas turbine operations to adapt data from one component map into a new component map. Each component operation is defined by an appropriate change of state equations which describes its thermodynamic behavior, thus, a consideration of the working fluid properties is of high relevance to the scaling approach. The multi-fluid scaling technique described in this paper was used to develop a computer simulation tool called GT-ACYSS, which can be valuable for analyzing the performance of closed-cycle gas turbine operations with different working fluids. This approach makes it easy to theoretically scale existing map using similar or different working fluids without carrying out a full experimental test or repeating the whole design and development process. The results of selected case studies show a reasonable agreement with available data.


Author(s):  
L. D. Stoughton ◽  
T. V. Sheehan

A nuclear power plant is proposed which combines the advantages of a liquid metal fueled reactor with those inherent in a closed cycle gas turbine. The reactor fuel is a solution of uranium in molten bismuth which allows for unlimited burn-up with continuous fuel make-up and processing. The fuel can either be contained in a graphite core structure or circulated through an external heat exchanger. The cycle working fluid is an inert gas which is heated by the reactor fuel before entering the turbine. A 15 MW closed cycle gas turbine system is shown to illustrate the application of this reactor.


Author(s):  
Colin F. McDonald

With the capability of burning a variety of fossil fuels, giving high thermal efficiency, and operating with low emissions, the gas turbine is becoming a major prime-mover for a wide spectrum of applications. Almost three decades ago two experimental projects were undertaken in which gas turbines were actually operated with heat from nuclear reactors. In retrospect, these systems were ahead of their time in terms of technology readiness, and prospects of the practical coupling of a gas turbine with a nuclear heat source towards the realization of a high efficiency, pollutant free, dry-cooled power plant has remained a long-term goal, which has been periodically studied in the last twenty years. Technology advancements in both high temperature gas-cooled reactors, and gas turbines now make the concept of a nuclear gas turbine plant realizable. Two possible plant concepts are highlighted in this paper, (1) a direct cycle system involving the integration of a closed-cycle helium gas turbine with a modular high temperature gas cooled reactor (MHTGR), and (2) the utilization of a conventional and proven combined cycle gas turbine, again with the MHTGR, but now involving the use of secondary (helium) and tertiary (air) loops. The open cycle system is more equipment intensive and places demanding requirements on the very high temperature heat exchangers, but has the merit of being able to utilize a conventional combined cycle turbo-generator set. In this paper both power plant concepts are put into perspective in terms of categorizing the most suitable applications, highlighting their major features and characteristics, and identifying the technology requirements. The author would like to dedicate this paper to the late Professor Karl Bammert who actively supported deployment of the closed-cycle gas turbine for several decades with a variety of heat sources including fossil, solar, and nuclear systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel O. Osigwe ◽  
Arnold Gad-Briggs ◽  
Theoklis Nikolaidis ◽  
Pericles Pilidis ◽  
Suresh Sampath

Abstract As demands for clean and sustainable energy renew interests in nuclear power to meet future energy demands, generation IV nuclear reactors are seen as having the potential to provide the improvements required for nuclear power generation. However, for their benefits to be fully realized, it is important to explore the performance of the reactors when coupled to different configurations of closed-cycle gas turbine power conversion systems. The configurations provide variation in performance due to different working fluids over a range of operating pressures and temperatures. The objective of this paper is to undertake analyses at the design and off-design conditions in combination with a recuperated closed-cycle gas turbine and comparing the influence of carbon dioxide and nitrogen as the working fluid in the cycle. The analysis is demonstrated using an in-house tool, which was developed by the authors. The results show that the choice of working fluid controls the range of cycle operating pressures, temperatures, and overall performance of the power plant due to the thermodynamic and heat properties of the fluids. The performance results favored the nitrogen working fluid over CO2 due to the behavior CO2 below its critical conditions. The analyses intend to aid the development of cycles for generation IV nuclear power plants (NPPs) specifically gas-cooled fast reactors (GFRs) and very high-temperature reactors (VHTRs).


1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Strumpf

A study has recently been completed for the Department of Energy on the conceptual design of coal-fired, closed-cycle, gas-turbine power plants that operate at high turbine-inlet temperatures and use air as the cycle fluid. This paper describes the design of one type of heater system for such a power plant — a pulverized coal furnace. Designs are presented for a 1550 F (843 C) turbine inlet temperature cycle that utilizes metallic superalloy heat exchanger tubes and a 1750 F (954 C) turbine inlet temperature cycle that utilizes ceramic heat exchanger tubes. The heaters consist of two sections — a radiant section where heat is transferred primarily by radiation from the pulverized coal luminous flame, and a convective section where heat is transferred primarily by forced convection from the nonluminous combustion gas. To maintain flame stability in the furnace, a minimum power density criterion must be met. This requires modularization of the radiant heaters.


Author(s):  
K. Bammert ◽  
P. Seifert

The tubes for the receiver of a solar power plant are designed taking into account thermal and mechanical loads. The receiver transfers 60 MW of heat to the working medium of a closed cycle gas turbine, the medium being air. It is shown how the stress pattern in the tubes are influenced by the distribution of the locally absorbed heat flux, assuming linearly elastic deformation of the tube material. Criteria for the influence of the partially plastic behavior of the tubes are discussed for different distributions of the intensity of the absorbed heat flux.


Author(s):  
S. Can Gülen

In 1992, United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) program established a target of 60% efficiency for utility scale gas turbine (GT) power plants to be achieved by the year 2000. Although the program led to numerous technology breakthroughs, it took another decade for an actual combined cycle (CC) power plant with an H class GT to reach (and surpass) the target efficiency. Today, another target benchmark, 65% efficiency, circulates frequently in trade publications and engineering journals with scant support from existing technology, its development path as well as material limits, and almost no regard to theoretical (e.g., underlying physics) and practical (e.g., cost, complexity, reliability, and constructability) concerns. This paper attempts to put such claims to test and establish the room left for gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) growth in the next two decades. The analysis and conclusions are firmly based on fundamental thermodynamic principles with carefully and precisely laid out assumptions and supported by rigorous calculations. The goal is to arm the practicing engineer with a consistent, coherent, and self-standing reference to critically evaluate claims, predictions, and other futuristic information pertaining to GTCC technology.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel O. Osigwe ◽  
Arnold Gad-Briggs ◽  
Theoklis Nikolaidis ◽  
Pericles Pilidis ◽  
Suresh Sampath

With renewed interest in nuclear power to meet the world’s future energy demand, the Generation IV nuclear reactors are the next step in the deployment of nuclear power generation. However, for the potentials of these nuclear reactor designs to be fully realized, its suitability, when coupled with different configurations of closed-cycle gas turbine power conversion systems, have to be explored and performance compared for various possible working fluids over a range of operating pressures and temperatures. The purpose of this paper is to carry out performance analysis at the design and off-design conditions for a Generation IV nuclear-powered reactor in combination with a recuperated closed-cycle gas turbine and comparing the influence of carbon dioxide and nitrogen as working fluid in the cycle. This analysis is demonstrated in GTACYSS; a performance and preliminary design code developed by the authors for closed-cycle gas turbine simulations. The results obtained shows that the choice of working fluid controls the range of cycle operating pressures, temperatures and overall performance of the power plant due to the thermodynamic and heat properties of the fluids. The performance results favored the nitrogen working fluid over CO2 due to the behavior CO2 below its critical conditions.


1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin F. McDonald ◽  
Charles R. Boland

Combining the modern and proven power conversion system of the closed-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) with an advanced high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) results in a power plant well suited to projected utility needs into the twenty-first century. The gas turbine HTGR (HTGR-GT) power plant benefits are consistent with national energy goals, and the high power conversion efficiency potential satisfies increasingly important resource conservation demands. Established technology bases for the HTGR-GT are outlined, together with the extensive design and development program necessary to commercialize the nuclear CCGT plant for utility service in the 1990s. This paper outlines the most recent design studies by General Atomic for a dry-cooled commercial plant of 800 to 1200 MW(e) power, based on both nonintercooled and intercooled cycles, and discusses various primary system aspects. Details are given of the reactor turbine system (RTS) and on integrating the major power conversion components in the prestressed concrete reactor vessel.


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