Power Generation
Waste Water Injection Wells – Transient Analysis: Modeled a pumping system designed to inject non-hazardous waste water from a power plant into two deep bore injection wells. Analyzed 14 transient scenarios considering pump starts, pump shutdowns, and valve closures. Sized an air vacuum valve to prevent over-pressurization.
Site Water Supply System – Transient Analysis: Completed a surge assessment of a Site Water Supply System to provide design guidance on surge mitigation. Two different scenarios were considered; a single pump trip and a single discharge valve closure. A second phase was added to this project to include a pump start and pump trip scenarios using a controlled pump speed to determine an acceptable pump starting rate and shut down rate.
Cooling Tower Vacuum Breaker Valves – Transient Analysis: Converted a preexisting steady state model to a transient model and conducted a transient hydraulic analysis of a 14-cell cooling tower to determine effective sizing for various combinations of vacuum breaker air release valves.
Geothermal Injection Field – Steady State: Developed a hydraulic model of a geothermal injection field, to evaluate the impact of changing pipeline sizes throughout the system.
Hydropower Optimization Study – Transient Analysis: Performed multiple phases of transient hydraulic analysis with a hydropower company to guide the design process, developing a system intended to increase the power output of a Pelton turbine hydro generation system.
Fuel Oil Transfer System – Transient Analysis: Analyzed transient pressures and flow characteristics for multiple operational scenarios to ensure sufficient pressure is supplied to skids to prevent pump trips.
Circulating Cooling Water System – Transient Analysis: Performed a review of transient calculations for a circulating cooling water system and an auxiliary cooling water system.
Hydropower System – Transient/Custom Analysis: Analyzed new cases for valve closure times and wavespeeds to determine where improved efficiency could be expected in future system designs.
Fuel Oil Transfer System, Energy Center 2 – Transient Surge Analysis: Developed and analyzed a model of a power plant fuel oil transfer system. The results of the analysis determined an appropriate gas accumulator pre-charge pressure such that the pump skid suction pressure would not fall below required operational conditions. The use of the gas accumulators also results in a smooth reduction in the pump suction pressure during start-up, rather than a sharp pressure oscillation associated with a water hammer transient.
Fuel Oil Transfer System, Energy Center 1 – Transient Surge Analysis: Analyzed a fuel oil system to ensure that it could still maintain sufficient supply pressure to operate a combustion turbine under a specific pump trip scenario.
Cooling Water System, Power Company – Transient Surge Analysis: Analysis of power generating plant main cooling water system to determine maximum pressures under a variety of transients including pump trip, pump start and valve closure.
Cooling Water System, Power Company – Transient Surge Analysis: Analyzed a range of start and shutdown operating cases related to potential modifications to the condenser cooling discharge. Analyzed a circulating cooling water system. Updated an existing model to reflect current as-built conditions and reviewed transient surge behavior under various conditions.
Cooling Tower System, Power Company – Steady State Analysis: Modeled a cooling tower bypass from riser branch through the orifice and sparger to size the orifice, obtain design head loss, and predict sparger flow distribution.
Cooling Tower Supply & Distribution System, Power Company – Steady State Analysis: Modeled the supply and distribution system for the cooling towers serving a power plant to determine the maximum possible elevation that would provide the required minimum sprayer pressure to allow the customer to optimize their re-fit design.
Hydrogen Transfer System, Power Station (New Zealand) – Steady State Analyses: Determined transfer time required for hydrogen blowdown from high pressure supply to low pressure storage tanks using a combination of steady state compressible flow runs and associated time transient calculations. Also determined required relief valve capacity during blowdown to keep system within maximum specified pressure limits.
Cooling System, Power Generating Station – Transient Surge Analysis: Detailed study of main cooling system behavior during a variety of transients involving combinations of pump startup/trip and associated valve closure/opening, including influence of vacuum breaker/air release valving.
Condenser Water System, Power Plant – Transient Surge Analysis: Evaluated pressure transients after pump trip for different line sizes to assess whether line sizes could be decreased at a new power plant.