• Energy Research
• 7. Clean energy close
• CN close
• GB close
• ES close
• EU close

Abstract In a passive nuclear plant, the main control room must provide self-support functions for 72 h after an accident occurs. In this isolation mode, the heat generated by indoor occupants and equipment should be removed by using concrete walls that are 610 mm thick, and the finned ceiling made of concrete should maintain thermal habitability. However, the finned ceiling design has not been studied in normal buildings, and the cooling storage effect of plate-shaped fins is usually ignored during the design phase. In this study, a novel parametric resistance–capacitance thermal network is proposed to simulate the thermal performance of different fin-plate layout forms in the case of an accident. An experiment was conducted on a 1200 mm × 1200 mm × 610 mm fin-concrete module for 72 h to validate the model under constant air temperature conditions. Based on the model, multi-objective optimization was conducted to obtain optimal solution sets by using a radial basis function approximation model. The results show that the optimal performance indicators can be classified into unsteady and quasi-steady states, in which the dominant factors for heat transfer include the heat transfer area and the thickness of the finned plate, respectively. Further, the optimal solution sets for different convection and heating conditions obtained through an optimization process are used to design a fin layout based on actual temperature control demands and cooling storage.

In grounding fault of DC system, overvoltage will appear on equipment nodes in converter station. Due to different operation mode and equipment type, it is very different from overvoltage in AC system. Based on Shanghaimiao–Linyi​ ±800kV Ultra High Voltage Direct Current (UHVDC) transmission project, this paper studies the converter station overvoltage characteristics under the conditions of DC pole line grounding, DC bus grounding and converter transformer valve side grounding fault, then analyzes the influence of smoothing reactor, filter capacitor and grounding pole line on overvoltage. In grounding fault at DC pole line near the converter station, the maximum overvoltage occurs on the inductance of DC filter, which is 592.75kV; In grounding fault at the top of the high voltage converter valve, the maximum overvoltage occurs on the neutral bus, which is 272.17kV. Increasing the inductance or capacitance of the smoothing reactor and filter capacitor, shortening the length of grounding electrode wire can significantly reduce the amplitude and steepness of overvoltage. The calculation results provide a reference for the internal overvoltage suppression of DC converter station with layered access at the inverter side.

Wind turbine gearboxes are required to operate under adverse operational conditions over a long service lifetime. Unfortunately, gearbox designers are yet to achieve the reliability anticipated by wind turbine manufacturers and operators. The poor understanding of variable loading conditions has resulted in the majority of wind turbine gearboxes being unable to reach their expected service lifetime of 20-25 years. This has led to an increasing need to investigate the fundamental issues associated with the degradation of wind turbine gearbox materials during operation in order to improve existing designs and optimise future ones. This paper investigates the various challenges that need to be addressed in order to achieve a noteworthy increase in the operational service lifetime of large-scale industrial wind turbine gearboxes.

The steady-state phase distribution and the structural parameters have been taken as the input for the nuclear physics calculation in the ADS windowless spallation target. The distribution of the extreme large power density of the heat load is imported back as the source term in the energy equation. Then temperature distribution is obtained based on the flow process and heat transfer. The preliminary results show that the temperature distribution reaches the steady-state and its shape is like the broken wings of the butterfly. This is very important for the further design and optimization of the ADS windowless spallation target. So the two-way coupling simulation of the heat transfer process is successfully performed between the computational fluid dynamics and the nuclear physics simulation.

Abstract AP1000® Generation III+ reactor bases its safety concept on passive systems, differently from the previous Generation II reactors. This fact has led the approximations and methodologies previously used for modeling active safety systems to be reviewed and adapted to simulate the physics of passive systems. Diverse studies about the AP1000 containment have demonstrated the difficulty to correctly model the occurring phenomenology. In this paper, an integral AP1000 3D containment GOTHIC model is presented, including the Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS). The model includes the compartments inside and outside the metallic containment liner that influence the thermal–hydraulic behavior. The model is tested against a Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) to assess its thermal–hydraulic performance, assuming a PCS tank malfunction, what is a conservative hypothesis. The pressure and temperature evolution predicted by the 3D containment model is analyzed and compared with a single node Lumped Parameters model, allowing to evaluate some preliminary benefits of 3D modeling for containment safety analysis. The 3D containment model allows to predict the thermal evolution in each containment compartment capturing the heterogeneity of this phenomenon, with higher resolution than the lumped parameters models traditionally used in this kind of analyses. It allows to observe the thermohydraulic conditions locally at any time during the transient.

Short-term generation scheduling is an important function in daily operational planning of power systems. It is defined as optimal scheduling of power generators over a scheduling period while respecting various generator constraints and system constraints. Objective of the problem includes costs associated with energy production, start-up cost and shut-down cost along with profits. The resulting problem is a large scale nonlinear mixed-integer optimization problem for which there is no exact solution technique available. The solution to the problem can be obtained only by complete enumeration, often at the cost of a prohibitively computation time requirement for realistic power systems. This paper presents a hybrid algorithm which combines Lagrangian Relaxation (LR) together with Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to solve the problem in cooperative and competitive energy environments. Simulation studies were carried out on different systems containing various numbers of units. The outcomes from different algorithms are compared with that from the proposed hybrid algorithm and the advantages of the proposed algorithm are briefly discussed.

[EN]A systematic approach is developed for the conceptual optimal design of biomethane production via carbon capture. A hybrid heuristic-mathematical procedure is proposed to determine the optimal technology and operating conditions. The heuristic step consists of a literature-based screening of the available technologies. After the prescreening stage, the technologies selected are amine absorption, pressure swing adsorption (PSA), and membrane separation. The mathematical stage is composed of two steps. First, different alternatives for each technology are modeled based on first principles and rules of thumb. These models are used to select the optimal configuration for each process considered. Second, a superstructure model for biomethane production is developed integrating the pre-selected upgrading technologies to select the optimal process, as well as to determine the optimal operating conditions. Four waste sources are analyzed: cattle manure, swine manure, municipal food waste, and sludge. The results suggest that the best amine is diethanolamine (DEA), the best membrane material is the polyimide, and the suggested zeolite is 13X among the ones studied. Finally, among the three technologies, the overall results show that carbon capture using a PSA system using zeolite 13X results in lower production and investment costs, but very close to the use of membranes. The results indicate that food waste shows the lowest production cost for biomethane 0.36 €/Nm3, due to the largest organic matter content, whereas the investment costs are 67 M€, considering a biogas production rate of 0.035 kg of biomethane per kg of waste and the processing of 311 kt/yr of food waste. Credits or incentives are still needed for biomethane to be competitive with fossil natural gas. Junta de Castilla y León y USAL

Abstract In this study, we develop indices for the overall technical efficiency (OTE) and energy-saving target ratio (ESTR) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate the relative efficiency and energy-saving potential of 30 provinces in China from 1997 to 2014. The results are as follows: (1) the OTE of China is 79.187%, indicating that there is 20.813% potential for improvement. The OTE exhibits decreasing efficiency values from the coastal areas to the inland areas and has clear geographical relationships. The average values of OTE in the east, midland and west are 0.932, 0.694 and 0.703. Theoretically, the total energy savings of CE, HE, ME and BE are 11080.60PJ, 5124.71PJ, 4729.24PJ and 6797.39PJ. (2) Regarding CE, HE, ME and BE, the provinces with the highest comprehensive ranks are Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu, which simultaneously have the greatest energy-saving potentials and energy-saving targets. (3) The HE has the largest average ESTR of 38.357% and the values for BE, CE, and ME are 25.759%, 23.874%, and 22.143%, respectively. The CE category is the greatest in total energy savings (40.171%), which is followed by BE (24.150%), HE (18.384%), and ME (17.293%).