Development and a Validation of a Charge Sensitive Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Simulation Tool

Davide Ziviani, Brandon J. Woodland, Emeline Georges, Eckhard A. Groll, James E. Braun, W. Travis Horton, Martijn Van den Broek and Michel De Paepe
Additional contact information
Davide Ziviani: Department of Flow, Heat, and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Gent, Belgium
Brandon J. Woodland: School of Mechanical Engineering, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Emeline Georges: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department, Energy Systems, University of Liege, Liege 4000, Belgium
Eckhard A. Groll: School of Mechanical Engineering, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
James E. Braun: School of Mechanical Engineering, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
W. Travis Horton: School of Mechanical Engineering, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Martijn Van den Broek: Department of Flow, Heat, and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Gent, Belgium
Michel De Paepe: Department of Flow, Heat, and Combustion Mechanics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Gent, Belgium

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-36

Abstract: Despite the increasing interest in organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems and the large number of cycle models proposed in the literature, charge-based ORC models are still almost absent. In this paper, a detailed overall ORC simulation model is presented based on two solution strategies: condenser subcooling and total working fluid charge of the system. The latter allows the subcooling level to be predicted rather than specified as an input. The overall cycle model is composed of independent models for pump, expander, line sets, liquid receiver and heat exchangers. Empirical and semi-empirical models are adopted for the pump and expander, respectively. A generalized steady-state moving boundary method is used to model the heat exchangers. The line sets and liquid receiver are used to better estimate the total charge of the system and pressure drops. Finally, the individual components are connected to form a cycle model in an object-oriented fashion. The solution algorithm includes a preconditioner to guess reasonable values for the evaporating and condensing temperatures and a main cycle solver loop which drives to zero a set of residuals to ensure the convergence of the solution. The model has been developed in the Python programming language. A thorough validation is then carried out against experimental data obtained from two test setups having different nominal size, working fluids and individual components: (i) a regenerative ORC with a 5 kW scroll expander and an oil flooding loop; (ii) a regenerative ORC with a 11 kW single-screw expander. The computer code is made available through open-source dissemination.

Keywords: organic Rankine cycle; charge-based solver; cycle modeling; scroll expander; single-screw expander (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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