Oxy-Fired SCO2 Radial Turbine Design

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As Fossil fuel plants continue to be the most common means of generating electric power; some challenges that must be considered with design of a power plant include energy efficiency, noise reduction, reduced “land footprint” as well as lowering emissions.

Companies and research organizations are now exploring different types of power cycles including the SCO₂ “Allam” cycle which promises compact sizes, integrated carbon capture, and high efficiencies. However, the Allam cycle is still in a premature phase due to technological barriers that currently hinder its full-scale development. These challenges include the employment of a predominantly Supercritical CO₂ working fluid for which no established turbine design practice exists. What is known, however is that a radial turbine typically has a simpler construction and fewer stages compared to an axial turbine, making it a good candidate for such high fluid density.

SoftInWay was an early adopter of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO₂) as a working fluid; and as a result, is in a unique position where its software capabilities are well equipped to account for the temperature, power density, and pressure requirements of a SCO₂ turbine. AxSTREAM is the only software solution that can be used for the full design of turbomachinery including: axial, centrifugal, and mixed-flow turbines, compressors, pumps, and fans. Currently more than 450 companies worldwide use AxSTREAM® for their turbomachinery projects. AxSTREAM is also trusted by universities across the globe to help students learn and develop their skills in mechanical engineering with a special emphasis on turbomachinery design, analysis, and optimization.

In this webinar led by Tala El Samad, a PhD candidate at Cranfield University, a thermodynamic analysis of a mid-range cycle (100 MW) with a lower turbine inlet temperature (900^oC) is examined. Thermodynamic parameters from the cycle, with a net electric efficiency of 49.1%, will be used for the design of a multi-MW-scale turbine by employing both meanline turbomachinery modelling tools and higher fidelity, 3D CFD techniques. Parametric studies will be performed in the initial, preliminary and meanline aerodynamic design phases to investigate the effect of key factors such as rotational speed, flow angles, and sizing on the turbine’s performance. SoftInWay’s AxSTREAM software platform will be used throughout the design steps.

Topics covered include:

Generating different turbine designs through inverse task calculations.
Performance analysis of selected turbine designs and off-design calculations
CFD analysis of the flowpath and performance parameter calculations.
Assessment of stresses on turbines.

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Guest Presenter: Tala El Samad, PhD candidate at Cranfield University

Tala El Samad is a PhD candidate writing up her PhD thesis on the design of a radial turbine for use in a mid-size, oxy-combustion, supercritical CO₂ power cycle. She holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Balamand, Lebanon and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Masdar Institute (Khalifa University), United Arab Emirates. During her Masters study, she researched biodiesel production from transesterification of waste cooking oil. She worked with the government body Tadweer (the Center of Waste Management in Abu Dhabi) on a multi-partnership pilot campaign involving Al Raha International School, facilities management provider Khidmah and waste management company Averda, for waste cooking oil collection and recycling to biodiesel. She has co-authored 5 journal publications, presented in various conferences and is a co-author of a sono-chemical biodiesel reactor patent.