Book Description

Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) power cycles show promise for a wide range of applications, such as concentrating solar power, next-generation nuclear reactors, and waste-heat recovery. Models capable of predicting the design-point, off-design, and part-load performance of SCO2 power cycles are necessary for evaluating cycle designs. These models should be flexible in order to accommodate the range of designs under consideration and computationally efficient in order to enable timely optimization studies, possibly while considering cycle performance on an annual or life-cycle basis. This document reports on the development of a modeling framework that accommodates these requirements and is capable of predicting the performance of recuperated and recompression cycle configurations. The modeling framework is in Fortran and is flexible with respect to component-level specifics, such as the type of compressor used in the cycle or the method used to represent the off-design performance of the turbine. Optimization routines are integrated into the models, allowing exploration of optimal component and system designs or optimal operating strategies for a given system design. The optimal design-point and off-design performance of various cycle designs is predicted using turbomachinery models based on the radial compressors and turbines that are currently being investigated by Sandia National Laboratory for use in SCO2 applications. A range of heat rejection (low-side) temperatures are considered and results indicate that operating the cycles at warmer low-side temperatures requires a corresponding increase in low-side pressure in order to maximize thermal efficiency. The relationship between low-side temperature and pressure suggests that inventory control (i.e., actively controlling the low-side pressure) is a favorable control mechanism, especially if the power plant is expected to operate away from its design point for significant periods of time. For cycles designed to operate at warmer heat rejection temperatures (e.g., a dry-cooled design in an arid climate), the benefits of recompression are reduced and a simple recuperated cycle may be favorable. The optimal SCO2 Brayton cycle design depends on the application being considered, and the developed modeling framework provides the consistent performance predictions that are required for further application-specific analyses.