Thermodynamic, Exergoeconomic and Multi-Objective Analyses of Supercritical N 2 O-He Recompression Brayton Cycle for a Nuclear Spacecraft Application

Xinyu Miao, Haochun Zhang (), Qi Wang, Wenbo Sun and Yan Xia
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Xinyu Miao: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Haochun Zhang: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Qi Wang: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Wenbo Sun: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Yan Xia: Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100081, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-31

Abstract: Detailed thermodynamic, exergoeconomic, and multi-objective analysis are performed for a supercritical recompression Brayton cycle in which the advanced working medium mixture of nitrous oxide and helium (N 2 O–He) is utilized for power generation. The thermodynamic and exergoeconomic models are propitious based on the standard components’ mass and energy conservation, exergy balance equation, and exergy cost calculation equation. An investigation of the sensitivity parametric is considered for judging the impact of crucial decision variable parameters on the performance of the proposed Brayton cycle. The proposed cycle’s performance is evaluated by systematic analysis of the thermal efficiency ( η th ), exergy efficiency ( η ex ), total cost rate ( C . total ), levelized cost of electricity ( LCOE ), and the total heat transfer area ( A total ). Furthermore, multi-objective optimization is adopted from the viewpoint of the first and second laws of exergoeconomics to find the optimum operating parameters and to improve the circular’s exergoeconomic performance. The final results illustrate that the optimization calculation is based on the fact of the exergoeconomics method; the whole system produces electrical power of 0.277 MW with C . total of USD 18.37/h, while the η th , η ex , A total , and LCOE are 49.14%, 67.29%, 165.55 m 2 and USD 0.0196/kWh, respectively. It is concluded that the work exergy destruction for the reactor and turbine is higher than that of other components; then, after the multi-objective optimization analysis, the η th and η ex improved by 2.08% and 5.07%, respectively, and the C . total , A total , and LCOE decreased by 13.99%, 0.01%, and 5.13%, respectively.

Keywords: recompression Brayton cycle; supercritical N 2 O-He; exergy analysis; sensitivity analysis; exergoeconomic; multi-objective optimization (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: 2022
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