Modelling of power plants 25

I Fuel
storage I

I
] THT ]~ Valveposition
Fuelvalve
I
~ ~ 1 THT 1 ~ T~Exhaust
Atmosphere Compressor Combust
chamberion Gasturbine header
I I
I MT I Shat~ I MT I
Figure 2.7 Model with an input control terminal

2.2.2.4 Gas turbine components

Gas turbines have become increasingly important in power generation, because
of the outstanding efficiency achievable by combined cycle plants. The essential
components are:

• the gas turbine

• the compressor
• the combustion chamber.

Model structuring is generally simple, as sketched in Figure 2.7, where ICT

denotes an input control terminal, that is a control port where a command signal is
issued.
Internal modelling of basic components is, however, a non-trivial task, especially
because it is often very important not only to predict power release of the turbo-
alternator but also concentration of pollutants to the atmosphere. This is discussed in
the next section.

2.2.3 Aggregation of submodels

Reuse of models for different case studies is enhanced by modularity, structuring
of elementary models as non-causal systems and standardisation of physical ports
(or terminals). However, it is common practice to repeat plant or subsystem designs
from one power unit to another. For instance, we may store in a library the model
of an economiser, which may result from aggregation of a block scheme like that
of Figure 2.3. Of course, by aggregating model objects internal physical terminals
disappear (they saturate with one another) so that the global model of the economiser
(including its enclosure) may look as in Figure 2.8.
Reusing an aggregate model implies that the model structure and model equations
are not accessible to the user (they cannot be changed when using the aggre-
gate); what are specific to a given instance of the aggregate model are the model