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By Dave Schowalter and Ahmad Haidari, Fluent Inc.
View the pdf of this Supplement
Temperature contours on a flame surface, and
vorticity magnitude on the centerline of a burner,
simulated using the LES turbulence model
The twenty-first century will be one of great challenge for the
power generation industry. During the last century, the
mass distribution of electric power improved the quality of
life for the industrialized world. By an ironic twist, however, that
same quality of life has been threatened by the impact of industrial
power generation. The release of pollutants such as NOx,
SOx, particulates, and mercury, and an increased threat of global
warming from greenhouse gases, are now of primary concern
to nations worldwide. Additionally, in the developing world, particularly
in Asia, there are rapidly growing economies with an
accompanying need for power and fuel. The great challenge of
the twenty-first century will be to extend a high standard of
living to the developing world, while reducing environmental
impact.
Bubbles in a fluidized bed, simulated using the
Eulerian granular multiphase model
Low NOx burner
Courtesy of GE Energy
Temperature contours in a
solid oxide fuel cell
Fluent is proud to be involved in a number of projects related
to advanced power generation technology. In this supplement,
several examples are presented that show how CFD has
become a necessary and critical technology for the power industry
of the future. For renewable power generation, CFD is being
used to design hydropower systems that protect river ecosystems
(p. S7) and to estimate wind power resources in Spain’s
mountainous regions (p. S6). At Fluent, models have been developed
to estimate wind turbine wake effects (p. S4) using new,
cost-saving methods. In the nuclear power arena, FLUENT is
becoming an indispensable tool both for understanding accident
scenarios at existing nuclear power plants and for designing
the next generation of plants with passive safety systems.
Articles describe how it is playing a key role in the development
of advanced nuclear reactors in the U.S. (p. S10), and how it has
been used to simulate breeder reactor safety in Germany (p. S8).
New technologies are being pursued for fossil fuels as well. For
coal gasification, a joint project with the US Department of
Energy has led to the development of numerical models for gasification
simulations (p. S11). This work will help advance fossil
fuel power generation, and lead to fundamentally cleaner and
more efficient power production. The control of emissions continues
to be an important area of study, and the efforts of one
group to develop a burner with a cleaner exhaust profile are
described in an article on p. S12. Finally, the inlet expansion
leading to emissions control equipment featured on the supplement
cover is the subject of an article that illustrates how
FLUENT can be used to optimize combined heat and power
plant equipment by improving efficiency through flow distribution
enhancement (p. S3).
Hopefully, this informative supplement will provide some
insight into Fluent’s lead role in advancing the state of the art in
power generation for the coming century.
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