Course syllabus

Course-PM

KVM071 Design of industrial energy equipment lp3 VT21 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment

  

Contact details

Main teacher and examiner:

Magnus Rydén (MR), magnus.ryden@chalmers.se  

Project and lab supervisors:

Nasrin Nemati (NN), nasrinn@chalmers.se

Mariane Vigoureux (MV), marvigo@chalmers.se

 

Course purpose

The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of and training in thermal design of industrial energy equipment. The level of understanding should be such that the students in their professional role as engineers should be able, individually and in teams, to select and assess energy equipment, and if necessary, to design basic equipment with respect to dimensioning, materials selection, construction and economic performance. Equipment addressed in the course includes steam boilers, heat exchangers, heat pumps and gas turbines with heat recovery. The course aims to be practical and focus is on heuristically derived methods for design. The main learning tool is design projects, which are performed in teams of two students. It also includes laboratory exercises performed in groups.

 

Course design

The course starts with an introduction to general challenges and design strategies for energy equipment, aiming for good understanding of the trial-and-error concept using heuristic approach for preliminary design. The course then focuses on design projects and exercises, organized as projects conducted by small groups of students. As part of the exercises professional design tools are used and/or demonstrated.

A study visit to a boiler manufacturer is included to reinforce the professional aspect of design work and visualize large components and their production, and an industrial size heat pump plant is visited in the framework of a laboratory exercise. An experimental laboratory exercise about boiling is also performed. This is done in order to shed light on the critical heat transfer mechanisms during boiling.

The course contains the following main parts. i) Boiler design – boiler types, construction, furnace design, radiative heat transfer, convective heat transfer, water circulation, convection section design. ii) Heat exchanger design – main types, construction, heat transfer and pressure drop theory for tube-and-shell and plate heat exchangers, tube-and-shell and plate heat exchanger design, professional design software. iii) Heat pump design – types, selection theory, cycle design, boiling and condensation heat transfer theory in particular for shell and tube heat exchangers, refrigerant properties and selection, professional design software. iv) Industrial gas turbines – gas turbine types, heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), construction and design, supplementary firing, gas turbine selection theory, assessment of economic performance of combined heat and power (CHP) designs.

 

Learning objectives

The learning objectives of the course are as follows:

  1. apply general design strategies for industrial energy equipment
  2. assess the feasibility of the design and dimensions of an industrial energy equipment
  3. write technical reports where designs are assessed, and the design assumptions made are justified and evaluated
  4. understand and apply heat transfer theory for gas radiation, condensation and boiling
  5. perform the necessary calculations to select an appropriate gas turbine for an industrial combined heat and power (CHP) application and thermally design the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG)
  6. perform thermal design of an industrial power boiler for a given process heat demand
  7. perform thermal design of a heat pump plant, considering multi-stage configurations, gas super-heating, compressor selection and selection of working fluid
  8. perform thermal design of tube-and-shell and plate heat exchangers, considering the balance between heat transfer and pressure drop, and evaluating the influence of fouling
  9. be aware of commercial process design engineering software and their basic features and limitations

 

Lectures

The course has 11 lectures. Lecture material will be uploaded on the course homepage on the course 24 hours before the lecture, at the latest. Lectures and lecture handouts should be treated as course material and can be subject to examination.

Unfortunately, during spring 2021 lectures on site at Chalmers is practically prohibited. Instead, remote learning will have to be applied. Compact 45-minute versions of each lecture will be recorded and uploaded on the course home page. Each such lecture will be followed by a 45-minute scheduled question and answer session arranged in Zoom. The live sessions will include additional material and discussion about one or more selected question from each recorded lecture, as well as allowing for discussion and questions.

 

 

Title

Day

Time

Room

L1

Introduction and design strategies

   Follow-up session

19/1

8-9

9-10

NA

L2

Boilers and boiler design

   Follow-up session

19/1

10-11

11-12

NA

L3

Radiation in furnaces and furnace design

   Follow-up session

20/1

8-9

9-10

NA

L4

Heat exchangers I – fundamentals

   Follow-up session

27/1

8-9

9-10

NA

L5

Heat exchangers II – main types and design

   Follow-up session

29/1

8-9

9-10

NA

L6

Boiling and condensation

   Follow-up session

3/2

8-9

9-10

NA

L7

Evaporator and condenser design

   Follow-up session

12/2

8-9

9-10

NA

L8

Heat pump design

   Follow-up session

16/2

8-9

9-10

NA

L9

Heat pump working fluids

   Follow-up session

16/2

10-11

11-12

NA

L10

Design of industrial GT-CHP plants

   Follow-up session

17/2

8-9

9-10

NA

L11

Summary, questions and answers

   Follow-up session

9/3

8-9

9-10

NA

 

Project exercises

The course has 5 project exercises. Students are asked to form groups of two by using tools made available on the course homepage. There are 36 h of scheduled time for consultation with supervisors, but students may also need to perform additional work on their own.

Due to the current circumstances, the project exercises and consultations unfortunately will have to be arranged via Zoom. The students may use computers available at Chalmers or own computers with MATLAB and MS Office. For occasions when advanced software (Aspen Engineering Suite) is needed the for remote access to Chalmers computers will be arranged.

The problem formulation, with individual input data, will be available for download or handed out at the start of the session, at the latest. The first scheduled sessions for each project includes an introduction by the supervisors. A report is written by each group for each project and they shall be submitted via the course homepage. The report shall include a pdf-document, as well as solutions, e.g. MATLAB-code. Respect the due dates. Missed deadlines results in that reports are placed last in line for review. Feedback will be provided two times and only if previously noted shortcomings are addressed. No approval of delayed project reports will be done during the autumn semester.

 

Project

Theme

P1a, P1b

Boiler design and boiler superheater

P2

Shell and tube heat exchanger

P3

Plate and frame heat exchanger

P4

Industrial heat pump

P5

Gas turbine combined heat and power

 

Number

Project

Date

Time

Room

E1-E2

P1a

22/1

8-12

NA

E3-E4

P1a

26/1

8-12

NA

E5

P1b

29/1

10-12

NA

E6-E7

P2

2/2

8-12

NA

E8-E9

P2

5/2

8-12

NA

E10

P2

10/2

8-10

NA

E11

P3

12/2

10-12

NA

E12-E13

P4

19/2

8-12

NA

E14-E15

P4

26/2

8-12

NA

E16-E17

P5

2/3

8-12

NA

E18

P5

3/3

8-10

NA

 

Laboratory exercises

Experimental laboratory exercise in boiling. The purpose is to demonstrate the critical nature of heat transfer due to boiling in the design of energy equipment. The lab is performed in the chemistry building and takes approximately 2 h. Meeting point is the halls of large equipment, floor 1 in the Chemistry building. The following 8 sessions will be available: on Tuesday, 2/3 from 13-15 (1st session) and 15-17 (2nd session), on Wednesday, 3/3 from 13-15 (3rd session) and 15-17 (4th session), on Friday, 5/3 from 8-10 (5th session) and 10-12 (6th session), and on Tuesday, 9/3 from 13-15 (7th session) and 15-17 (8th session). Sign up to suitable session on the course homepage.

This lab is currently scheduled to go ahead as planned, unless new restrictions are presented by the university administration. Additional time slots may be introduced to reduce crowding. You will be notified in advance if there are changes to this lab.

Industrial laboratory exercise at the heat pump plant Ryaverket, owned and operated by Göteborg Energi AB. The purpose is to perform calculations on a real industrial process and to give an overview of factors such as dimensions and layout of a very large industrial heat pumps. The students in each session will be divided into three groups, with 3-4 students each. 4 hours will be scheduled and report must be submitted by each group. The following 4 sessions are available: on Tuesday, 23/2 from 8-11:45 (1st session) and 13-17 (2nd session) and on Wednesday, 24/2 from 8-12 (3rd session) and 12:45-16:30 (4th session). Sign up to suitable session on the course homepage.

As for the moment, it seems unlikely that this lab will go ahead as planned. If the restrictions and recommendations by the university administration and others are changed everyone will be notified well in advance. If it can not go ahead it may be replaced with an exercise.

Both laboratory exercises (or possibly replacement exercises) are mandatory and approved reports are required to pass the course. Failure to participate will be handled individually for each case, taking the reason behind non-participation into consideration.

 

Other activities

Study visit to Valmet Power AB is compulsory, and is scheduled on Tuesday, 9/2 at 08.00. The purpose is to provide an overview of scale and activates involved in designing and manufacturing components such as boilers and evaporators, as well as insights into the world of the process engineer.

As for the moment, it seems unlikely that this visit can go ahead as planned. If the situation changes everyone will be notified well in advance.

 

Communication between teachers and students

The offices of the teachers are one the 4th floor in the M-building. It is recommended to use ordinary e-mail when contacting the teachers, rather than the messaging service on the course homepage. The supervisors are not obliged to support students outside of scheduled time. Everyone involved in the course will try to do their best to assist you, but please respect that they have other duties to attend to, in addition to teaching. So please try to keep as much communication as possible during scheduled time, of which there is plenty.

 

Links to syllabus on Studieportalen and schedule on TimeEdit

 

Course literature

  • Design of Industrial Energy Equipment – Course compendium

- Available on the course homepage as pdf.

- Paper version distributed for free at the office of the examiner (Magnus Rydén, Division of Energy Technology, 4th floor in M-building). Time slots will be suggested on the course homepage.

  • Project exercises and laboratory instructions

Continuously becomes available for downloading from the course homepage during the course.

 

Examination

  • Written exam (4h). Two thirds of the points are calculations exercises, largely based on work performed during the projects. One third is general knowledge questions about topics discussed during lectures, projects, labs, study visit or in literature. For the grade 3 (Passed), half of the total points must have been obtained, for grade 4 two thirds and for grade 5 five sixths. Aids: “Literature aid” (handed out mid-course), calculator with cleared memory, thermodynamic and thermos-physical tables, English dictionary. (6.0 HEC)

The regular exam is scheduled on 2021-03-17 PM. The resit exams are scheduled on 2021-06-10 PM and 2021-08-25 AM.

It is very likely that at least the regular exam will be arranged digitally. The content and form of exam will be as described above. Detailed instructions will be provided when available. 

  • Approved project and laboratory reports and study visit fulfilled. (1.5 HEC)

These are approved continuously during the course, as the objectives of each activity is met.

Course summary:

Date Details Due