IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2019i1p50-d300260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cryogenic Cavitation Mitigation in a Liquid Turbine Expander of an Air-Separation Unit through Collaborative Fine-Tuned Optimization of Impeller and Fairing Cone Geometries

Author

Listed:
  • Peng Song

    (School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China)

  • Jinju Sun

    (School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China)

Abstract

An air-separation unit (ASU) uses atmospheric air to produce essential pure gaseous and liquid products for many industrial sectors but requires intensive power consumption. In recent years, cryogenic liquid turbine expanders have been used to replace the traditional J-T valves in air-separation units to save energy. In this paper, an effective design optimization method is proposed to suppress swirling flow and mitigate cavitation in liquid turbines. A flexible tuning of the impeller and fairing cone geometries is simultaneously realized, where the optimization variables are identified via a geometric sensitivity study. A novel objective function is deliberately established by allowing both swirling flow and cavitation characteristics, driving the optimizer to search for deswirling and cavitation-resistant geometries. A kriging surrogate model with an adaptive sampling strategy and a cooperative co-evolution algorithm (CCEA) are incorporated to solve the highly nonlinear optimization problem, where the former reduced the costly evaluations but simultaneously maintained the model prediction accuracy and enabled the aim-oriented global searching (the latter decomposes the problem into several readily solved sub-problems that could be solved in parallel at a high-convergence rate). The optimized impeller and fairing cone geometries were quite favorable for suppressing swirling flow and mitigating cavitation. The impeller cavitation was significantly reduced, with the maximal vapor volume fraction reduced from 0.365 to 0.17 at the blade surface; the diffuser tube high-swirl flow was significantly deswirled and the intensive vapor fraction around the centerline largely reduced, with the maximal vapor volume fraction in the diffuser tube reduced from 0.387 to 0.121. As a result, the isentropic efficiency of the liquid turbine expander was improved from 88.4% to 91.43%.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng Song & Jinju Sun, 2019. "Cryogenic Cavitation Mitigation in a Liquid Turbine Expander of an Air-Separation Unit through Collaborative Fine-Tuned Optimization of Impeller and Fairing Cone Geometries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2019:i:1:p:50-:d:300260
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/1/50/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/1/50/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Galván Sergio & Rubio Carlos & Jesús Pacheco & Solorio Gildardo & Carbajal Georgina, 2013. "Optimization methodology assessment for the inlet velocity profile of a hydraulic turbine draft tube: part II—performance evaluation of draft tube model," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 729-749, April.
    2. Kumar, Pardeep & Saini, R.P., 2010. "Study of cavitation in hydro turbines--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 374-383, January.
    3. Sergio Galván & Carlos Rubio & Jesús Pacheco & Crisanto Mendoza & Miguel Toledo, 2013. "Optimization methodology assessment for the inlet velocity profile of a hydraulic turbine draft tube: part I—computer optimization techniques," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 53-72, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniels, S.J. & Rahat, A.A.M. & Tabor, G.R. & Fieldsend, J.E. & Everson, R.M., 2020. "Shape optimisation of the sharp-heeled Kaplan draft tube: Performance evaluation using Computational Fluid Dynamics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 112-126.
    2. Jain, Sanjay V. & Patel, Rajesh N., 2014. "Investigations on pump running in turbine mode: A review of the state-of-the-art," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 841-868.
    3. Sun, Longgang & Xu, Hongyang & Li, Chenxi & Guo, Pengcheng & Xu, Zhuofei, 2024. "Unsteady assessment and alleviation of inter-blade vortex in Francis turbine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    4. Laouari, Ahmed & Ghenaiet, Adel, 2021. "Investigation of steady and unsteady cavitating flows through a small Francis turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 841-861.
    5. Yu, An & Zou, Zhipeng & Zhou, Daqing & Zheng, Yuan & Luo, Xianwu, 2020. "Investigation of the correlation mechanism between cavitation rope behavior and pressure fluctuations in a hydraulic turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 1199-1208.
    6. Fu, Tao & Deng, Zhiqun Daniel & Duncan, Joanne P. & Zhou, Daqing & Carlson, Thomas J. & Johnson, Gary E. & Hou, Hongfei, 2016. "Assessing hydraulic conditions through Francis turbines using an autonomous sensor device," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1244-1252.
    7. K., Subramanya & Chelliah, Thanga Raj, 2023. "Capability of synchronous and asynchronous hydropower generating systems: A comprehensive study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    8. Chen, Weisheng & Xiang, Qiujie & Li, Yaojun & Liu, Zhuqing, 2023. "On the mechanisms of pressure drop and viscous losses in hydrofoil tip-clearance flows," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    9. Kan, Kan & Binama, Maxime & Chen, Huixiang & Zheng, Yuan & Zhou, Daqing & Su, Wentao & Muhirwa, Alexis, 2022. "Pump as turbine cavitation performance for both conventional and reverse operating modes: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    10. Zaher Mundher Yaseen & Ameen Mohammed Salih Ameen & Mohammed Suleman Aldlemy & Mumtaz Ali & Haitham Abdulmohsin Afan & Senlin Zhu & Ahmed Mohammed Sami Al-Janabi & Nadhir Al-Ansari & Tiyasha Tiyasha &, 2020. "State-of-the Art-Powerhouse, Dam Structure, and Turbine Operation and Vibrations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-40, February.
    11. Tang, Qinghong & Yu, An & Wang, Yongshuai & Tang, Yibo & Wang, Yifu, 2023. "Numerical analysis of vorticity transport and energy dissipation of inner-blade vortex in Francis turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 634-648.
    12. Zhang, Yuning & Liu, Kaihua & Xian, Haizhen & Du, Xiaoze, 2018. "A review of methods for vortex identification in hydroturbines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1269-1285.
    13. Binama, Maxime & Su, Wen-Tao & Li, Xiao-Bin & Li, Feng-Chen & Wei, Xian-Zhu & An, Shi, 2017. "Investigation on pump as turbine (PAT) technical aspects for micro hydropower schemes: A state-of-the-art review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 148-179.
    14. Lam, Wei-Haur & Bhatia, Aalisha, 2013. "Folding tidal turbine as an innovative concept toward the new era of turbines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 463-473.
    15. Teran, Leonel Alveyro & Larrahondo, Francisco Jose & Rodríguez, Sara Aida, 2016. "Performance improvement of a 500-kW Francis turbine based on CFD," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 977-992.
    16. Thapa, Biraj Singh & Dahlhaug, Ole Gunnar & Thapa, Bhola, 2015. "Sediment erosion in hydro turbines and its effect on the flow around guide vanes of Francis turbine," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1100-1113.
    17. Liu, Xin & Luo, Yongyao & Wang, Zhengwei, 2016. "A review on fatigue damage mechanism in hydro turbines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-14.
    18. Velásquez, Laura & Posada, Alejandro & Chica, Edwin, 2023. "Surrogate modeling method for multi-objective optimization of the inlet channel and the basin of a gravitational water vortex hydraulic turbine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(PB).
    19. Muhirwa, Alexis & Cai, Wei-Hua & Su, Wen-Tao & Liu, Quanzhong & Binama, Maxime & Li, Biao & Wu, Jian, 2020. "A review on remedial attempts to counteract the power generation compromise from draft tubes of hydropower plants," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 743-764.
    20. Wang, Huan & Li, Wenfeng & Hou, Yaochun & Wu, Peng & Huang, Bin & Wu, Kelin & Wu, Dazhuan, 2023. "Recognition of the developing vortex rope in Francis turbine draft tube based on PSO-CS2," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2019:i:1:p:50-:d:300260. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.