Section: Application Domains

Energy

We will develop modelling and design tools, as well as dedicated platforms, for Rankine cycles using complex fluids (organic compounds), and for wave energy extraction systems.

Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) use heavy organic compounds as working fluids. This results in superior efficiency over steam Rankine cycles for source temperatures below 900 K. ORCs typically require only a single-stage rotating component making them much simpler than typical multi-stage steam turbines. The strong pressure reduction in the turbine may lead to supersonic flows in the rotor, and thus to the appearance of shocks, which reduces the efficiency due to the associated losses. To avoid this, either a larger multi stage installation is used, in which smaller pressure drops are obtained in each stage, or centripetal turbines are used, at very high rotation speeds (of the order of 25,000 rpm). The second solution allows to keep the simplicity of the expander, but leads to poor turbine efficiencies (60-80%) - w.r.t. modern, highly optimized, steam and gas turbines - and to higher mechanical constraints. The use of dense-gas working fluids, i.e. operating close to the saturation curve, in properly chosen conditions could increase the turbine critical Mach number avoiding the formation of shocks, and increasing the efficiency. Specific shape optimization may enhance these effects, possibly allowing the reduction of rotation speeds. However, dense gases may have significantly different properties with respect to dilute ones. Their dynamics is governed by a thermodynamic parameter known as the fundamental derivative of gas dynamics

where $\rho$ is the density, $c$ is the speed of sound and $s$ is the entropy. For ideal gas $\Gamma =(\gamma +1)/2>1$. For some complex fluids and some particular conditions of pressure and temperature, $\Gamma$ may be lower that one, implying that ${(\partial c/\partial \rho )}_s<0$. This means that the acceleration of pressure perturbations through a variable density fluids may be reversed and become a deceleration. It has been shown that, for $\Gamma <<1$, compression shocks are strongly reduced, thus alleviating the shock intensity. This has great potential in increasing the efficiency. This is why so much interest is put on dense gas ORCs.

The simulation of these gases requires accurate thermodynamic models, such as Span-Wagner or Peng-Robinson (see [66]). The data to build these models is scarce due to the difficulty of performing reliable experiments. The related uncertainty is thus very high. Our work will go in the following directions:

1. develop deterministic models for the turbine and the other elements of the cycle. These will involve multi-dimensional high fidelity, as well as intermediate and low fidelity (one- and zero-dimensional), models for the turbine, and some 0D/1D models for other element of the cycle (pump, condenser, etc) ;

2. validation of the coupling between the various elements. The following aspects will be considered: characterization of the uncertainties on the cycle components (e.g. empirical coefficients modelling the pump or the condenser), calibration of the thermodynamic parameters, model the uncertainty of each element, and the influence of the unsteady experimental data ;

3. demonstrate the interest of a specific optimization of geometry, operating conditions, and the choice of the fluid, according to the geographical location by including local solar radiation data. Multi-objective optimization will be considered to maximize performance indexes (e.g. Carnot efficiency, mechanical work and energy production), and to reduce the variability of the output.

This work will provide modern tools for the robust design of ORCs systems. It benefits from the direct collaboration with the SME EXOES (ANR LAbCom VIPER), and from a collaboration with LEMMA.

Wave energy conversion is an emerging sector in energy engineering. The design of new and efficient Wave Energy Converters (WECs) is thus a crucial activity. As pointed out by Weber [120], it is more economical to raise the technology performance level (TPL) of a wave energy converter concept at low technology readiness level (TRL). Such a development path puts a greater demand on the numerical methods used. The findings of Weber also tell us that important design decisions as well as optimization should be performed as early in the development process as possible. However, as already mentioned, today the wave energy sector relies heavily on the use of tools based on simplified linear hydrodynamic models for the prediction of motions, loads, and power production. Our objective is to provide this sector, and especially SMEs, with robust design tools to minimize the uncertainties in predicted power production, loads, and costs of wave energy.

Following our initial work [76], we will develop, analyse, compare, and use for multi-fidelity optimization,non-linear models of different scales (fidelity) ranging from simple linear hydrodynamics over asymptotic discrete nonlinear wave models, to non-hydrostatic anisoptropic Euler free surface solvers. We will not work on the development of small scale models (VOF-RANS or LES) but may use such models, developed by our collaborators, for validation purposes. These developments will benefit from all our methodological work on asymptotic modelling and high order discretizations. As shown in [76], asymptotic models foe WECs involve an equation for the pressure on the body inducing a PDE structure similar to that of incompressible flow equations. The study of appropriate stable and efficient high order approximations (coupling velocity-pressure, efficient time stepping) will be an important part of this activity. Moreover, the flow-floating body interaction formulation introduces time stepping issues similar to those encountered in fluid structure interaction problems, and require a clever handling of complex floater geometries based on adaptive and ALE techniques. For this application, the derivation of fully discrete asymptotics may actually simplify our task.

Once available, we will use this hierarchy of models to investigate and identify the modelling errors, and provide a more certain estimate of the cost of wave energy. Subsequently we will look into optimization cycles by comparing time-to-decision in a multi-fidelity optimization context. In particular, this task will include the development and implementation of appropriate surrogate models to reduce the computational cost of expensive high fidelity models. Here especially artificial neural networks (ANN) and Kriging response surfaces (KRS) will be investigated. This activity on asymptotic non-linear modelling for WECs, which has had very little attention in the past, will provide entirely new tools for this application. Multi-fidelity robust optimization is also an approach which has never been applied to WECs.

This work is the core of the EU OCEANEranet MIDWEST project, which we coordinate. It will be performed in collaboration with our European partners, and with a close supervision of European SMEs in the sector, which are part of the steering board of MIDWEST (WaveDragon, Waves4Power, Tecnalia).