Award Date

1-1-2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Committee Member

Robert F. Boehm

Number of Pages

78

Abstract

A model of a fairly typical, but simplified, solar trough plant has been developed and simulated to determine its thermodynamic performance using the software GateCycle. The energy generation and cycle efficiency of the plant have been examined for the Las Vegas vicinity with conventional wet cooling and conventional dry cooling cases considered separately using this software. TMY2 data are used for this location for this purpose. Similarly, the same studies are carried out for "ideal" cooling systems as a compariSon It turned out that the ideal dry cooling system would significantly outperform the conventional wet cooling system, indicating the possibility of the dry cooling system being able to achieve increased performance levels with component improvements. Then an advanced circular-tube-circular-fin surface and a flattened-tube surface were applied to the air-cooled condenser and simulated. The results of the new models were compared with that of the default model.

Keywords

Cooling; Dry; Estimation; Improvement; Limits; Performance; Plants; Solar; Thermal; Trough

Controlled Subject

Mechanical engineering; Force and energy

File Format

pdf

File Size

1239.04 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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