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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
Thermodynamics Laboratory, University of Lige, Campus du Sart Tilman, B49, B-4000 Lige, Belgium
Technische Universitt Mnchen, Institute for Energy Systems, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching, Germany
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 24 May 2010
Received in revised form 2 August 2010
Accepted 5 January 2011
Keywords:
Organic Rankine Cycle
Waste heat recovery
ORC
Volumetric expander
Dynamic modeling
Control strategy
a b s t r a c t
Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) are particularly suitable for recovering energy from low-grade heat
sources. This paper describes the behavior of a small-scale ORC used to recover energy from a variable
ow rate and temperature waste heat source. A traditional static model is unable to predict transient
behavior in a cycle with a varying thermal source, whereas this capability is essential for simulating
an appropriate cycle control strategy during part-load operation and start and stop procedures. A
dynamic model of the ORC is therefore proposed focusing specically on the time-varying performance
of the heat exchangers, the dynamics of the other components being of minor importance. Three different
control strategies are proposed and compared. The simulation results show that a model predictive control strategy based on the steady-state optimization of the cycle under various conditions is the one
showing the best results.
2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Interest in low-grade heat recovery has grown dramatically in
the past decades. An important number of new solutions have been
proposed to generate electricity from low temperature heat
sources and are now applied to such diversied elds as solar thermal power, biological waste heat, engine exhaust gases, and
domestic boilers. The potential for exploiting waste heat sources
from engine exhaust gases or industrial processes is particularly
promising [1], but these can vary in terms of ow rate and temperature over time, which complicates the regulation of waste heat
recovery (WHR) devices.
Among the proposed solutions, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)
system is the most widely used. Its two main advantages are the
simplicity and the availability of its components. In such a system,
the working uid is an organic substance, better adapted than
water to lower heat source temperatures. Unlike the traditional
Rankine power cycles, local and small scale power generation is
made possible by ORC technology.
WHR ORCs have been studied in a number of previous works:
Badr et al. [2], Gu et al. [3], Dai et al. [4], used simple thermodynamic models with constant pump and expander efciencies to
Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 4 366 48 22; fax: +32 4 366 48 12.
E-mail address: squoilin@ulg.ac.be (S. Quoilin).
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.01.015
2184
Nomenclature
A
c
CS
FF
h
h
H
Kp
M
_
M
N
Nrot
p
Q_
q_
r
rv,in
s
T
t
U
v
V
V_
w
W
X
x
x
area, m2
specic heat, J/(kg K)
control signal
lling factor,
heat transfer coefcient, W/(m2 K)
specic enthalpy, J/(kg K)
transfer function,
proportional gain,
mass, kg
mass ow rate, kg/s
number of nodes
rotating speed, rpm
pressure, Pa
heat power, W
heat ux, W/m2
ratio,
internal built-in volume ratio,
complex Laplace variable,
temperature, C
time, s
heat transfer coefcient, W/(m2 K)
specic volume, m3/kg
volume, m3
volume ow rate, m3/s
specic work, J/kg
amount of work, J
capacity fraction,
vapor quality,
axial distance, m
[15] and Kane [13], and a dynamic model of a WHR ORC using a
turbine was proposed by Wei et al. [16]. However, to the authors
knowledge, the dynamic modeling of a small-scale ORC using volumetric expander has never been proposed. In addition, the behavior and the regulation of such a cycle under variable heat source
conditions has never been studied.
This paper aims at proposing a dynamic model of a small-scale
ORC using a volumetric expander. This model is then used to optimize the working conditions and to address the issue of the control
strategy for variable waste heat sources.
Greek symbols
e
effectiveness
g
efciency
u
level fraction
q
density, kg/m3
s
time constant, s
Subscripts and superscripts
corr
correlated
cd
condenser
cf
cold uid
em
eletromechanical
ev
evaporator
ex
exhaust
exp
expander
i
relative to cell i
in
internal
f
working uid
hf
hot uid
hr
heat recovery
l
liquid
optim
optimum
pp
pump
ref
reference
s
swept
su
supply
tp
two-phase
v
vapor
v
volumetric
w
wall
2185
Ai
A
;
N1
V
;
N1
Mw;i
Mw
N1
dM i
_ N1
_ 1M
M
dt
i Vi
Mi q
with
q i
qi qi1
2
Aq
_
dh
_ dh A dp dQ
M
dt
dx
dt dx
The heat exchanger is spatially discretized according to the nite volumes method, in the form of:
i
Vi q
dhi
_ i hi1 hi Q_ i Ai dp
M
dt
dt
cw M w
3. Dynamic modeling
Vi
dT w;i
A q_ f ;i q_ hf ;i
dt
q_ f ;i U f ;i T f ;i T w;i
q_ hf ;i U hf ;i T hf ;i T w;i
2186
The heat transfer coefcient on the hot uid side is set to a constant value. The heat transfer coefcient on the working uid side
is set to three different values depending on the uid state in the
cell. In order to avoid any inconsistency, the transition between
two different heat exchange coefcients is performed on a non null
quality width by interpolating between the two coefcients. The
transition between the liquid and the two-phase coefcient, for
example, is interpolated for 0.05 < x < 0.05, x being dened by:
h hl
hv hl
10
q_ i q_ i1
Q_ Ai
2
11
Table 2
Expander model parameters.
Parameter
Value
Parameter
Value
rv,in
FF
Nrot,max
4.05
0.6
5500 rpm
Vs
Nrot,min
108 cm3
550 rpm
w1 hsu hin
12
w2 v in pin pex
13
_ exp M
_ w1 w2 g
W
mech
14
hex hsu
_ exp
W
_
M
15
For given rotational speed and uid ow rate, the expander imposes the evaporating pressure [15]. This is computed by:
_ FF qsu V s Nrot
M
60
16
Table 1
Evaporator model parameters.
Parameter
Value
Parameter
Value (W/m2 K)
A
Vhf
Vf
Mw
N
3 m2
9.8 l
5.8 l
20 kg
10
Uhf
Uf,l
Uf,tp
Uf,v
1000
260
900
360
Dynamic behavior of the cycle with variable heat source temperature and ow rate being the main focus of this paper, the temperature and ow rate of the heat sink are assumed to be constant
_ cf cst; T cf ;su cst). This assumption entails only limin time (i.e. M
ited variations of the working conditions on the condenser, compared to the evaporator. It allows avoiding a dynamic model of
the condenser, and has the benecial effect of reducing the computational effort.
The condenser scheme is shown in Fig. 5. It is modeled by a constant pinch point value, dened by:
17
2187
W net gcycle
t2
Q_ eV dt
24
t1
t2
Q_ eV dt ehr
t1
t2
Table 3
Condenser model parameters and inputs.
Parameter
Value
Parameter
Value
Pinchcd
_ cd
M
10 K
0.5 kg/s
Vtank
Tcf,su
20 l
25 C
Table 4
Pump model parameters.
Parameter
Value
Parameter
V_ su;pp;max
a0
a2
0.25 l/s
gem,pp
0.93
0.2
a1
a3
d/
1
_ ex;cd M
_ su;pp
M
dt qf ;l V tank
25
t1
Value
26
4. Control strategy
The goal of this work is to dene a control strategy for a smallscale ORC working with a heat source that varies in terms of temperature and mass ow.
The rst step is to optimize the working conditions of the cycle
for a given static heat source. As a general rule, the following statements should be taken into account:
0.9
0.11
0.06
18
ein;pp
19
An empirical law provided by Vetter [20] is tted by a thirdorder polynomial in the form of:
20
X pp
v su;pp M_ pp
V_ su;pp;max
21
22
W net
t2
t1
_ exp W
_ pp dt
W
23
Fig. 6. WHR effectiveness, cycle efciency and overall efciency.
2188
Table 5
Parameters of the PI controllers.
Parameter
Pump PI controller
Expander PI controller
Kp
b
ti
0.7
1
2s
2
1
3s
Z
1
CS K p b e e track dt
ti
27
where e is the error between the present value and the set
point, both scaled between 0 and 1, b is the set point weight on
the proportional action, Kp is the proportional gain, and ti is the
integral time constant.
The control signal saturates at 0 and at 1. The variable track is
dened as the difference between CS and its saturated value, in order to avoid integral windup. Kp, b and ti are parameters to be
tuned. This is done manually, with the aim of minimizing the stabilization time towards a steady-state of the system. The following
parameters (Table 5) are obtained.
Three different control strategies are dened and are described
hereunder.
4.1. Constant evaporating temperature
The most common control strategy is to dene a constant evaporating temperature and superheating. In this case, it is not possible to know a priori which constant evaporating temperature will
be optimal for the process. This regulation strategy requires two
measurements: Tev and DTex,ev. It is presented in Fig. 7.
4.2. Optimum evaporating temperature
As shown in Fig. 6, an optimum evaporating temperature can be
obtained for given working conditions. Three inputs are sufcient
to determine this evaporating temperature: the condensation temperature, the heat source temperature and the heat source ow
rate.
However, it is important to base the control system on variables
that are easily measurable. In the systems under consideration
here, the mass ow rate of the heat source is difcult to measure
in a cost-effective way. On the other hand, the working uid ow
rate is easily accessible, either by direct measurement, or by rela_ hf can
tion to the pump speed. Since the superheating is xed, M
_ f , provided that the evaporating temperbe directly correlated to M
ature and the heat source temperature are known.
The optimal evaporating temperature can therefore be correlated to the heat source temperature, to the condensing temperature and to the working uid mass ow rate.
In order to determine this optimum over a broad range of working conditions the model described in Section 3 is implemented in
steady-state in Engineering Equation Solver [22]. The optimum
evaporating temperature is determined using the Golden Section
Search method [23] for 31 working points and for working conditions varying in the following range:
20 6 T cd C 6 40
_ hf kg=s 6 0:15
0:05 6 M
120 6 T hf ;su C 6 300
This range of working conditions is typical of a kW-scaled waste
heat recovery ORC working with a heat source varying from 120 to
300 C.
A linear regression is then performed in order to predict Tev. A
rst order polynomial is preferred to higher order expressions in
order to avoid the Runge phenomenon [24]. Due to the quadratic
character of the relationship between Tev and Thf,su, log(Thf,su) is
used instead. The following relationship is obtained, predicting
the optimal evaporating temperature with R2 = 98.4%:
28
_ corr a0 a1 T hf a2 Nrot a3 T cd
M
29
2
2189
ss1
1
2s1
30
Table 6
Cycle performance.
Control
gcycle (%)
ehr (%)
goverall (%)
Tev = 80 C
Tev = 100 C
Tev = 120 C
Tev,optim
_ corr
M
7.83
9.98
10.50
10.61
9.88
69.29
64.00
56.76
61.93
64.71
5.42
6.40
5.97
6.57
6.40
2190
control strategies, it cannot be used as a predictive model to accurately evaluate the energy recovery potential of a particular conguration. This is due to the various simplifying modeling hypothesis,
such as constant heat transfer coefcients, neglected pressure
drops, and constant pinch value.
Future work will concentrate on the improvement, on the validation, and on the exploitation of the dynamic model. The models
capabilities will be exploited in the context of start and stop procedures, fully automated heat source potential detection, and autonomous decision of starting the WHR system.
References
Fig. 13 shows the uid quality at the expander exhaust for the
third regulation. Fluid superheating is almost never achieved (i.e.
xex,ev < 1 and DTex,ev < 0), which is not acceptable. Important uctuations are also noted.
5.2. Comparison between control strategies
The performance indicators are presented in Table 6 for each
control strategy.
The optimized evaporating temperature strategy is the one
yielding the highest overall efciency (6.6%). The constant evaporating temperature strategy also shows a good efciency for
100 < Tev < 110, but this efciency falls sharply for different evaporating temperatures (Fig. 14).
6. Conclusion
A dynamic model of a small-scale Organic Rankine Cycle has
been developed under the Modelica environment. A discretized
evaporator model has been used and the volumetric expander
model accounts for under and over-expansion losses.
The simulation results show that small-scale ORCs are well
adapted to waste heat recovery with variable heat source ow rate
and temperature. A proper control strategy must however be dened because cycle performance can drop rapidly. An overall waste
heat recovery efciency of 6.6% was obtained for the dened heat
source.
The control of both the expander and the working uid pump is
required in order to take the best prot of variable heat sources.
Three different control strategies were tested: a constant evaporating temperature, an optimized evaporating temperature depending on the actual working conditions, and a pump speed based
on the expander speed. The best results are obtained with the optimized evaporating temperature regulation. This regulation makes
use of a steady-state optimization model of the system run with
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temperature cannot be known a priori. The third regulation strategy was not able to consistently maintain superheating at the expander inlet, resulting in unsteady operation compared with the
two rst strategies.
It should be noted that, although the dynamic model in its presents form is able to compare the relative performance of different
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