Physical and numerical modeling of the external fluid mechanics of OTEC pilot plants

Technical Report · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6549179

Singarella, P N; Adams, E E

This study examined the near field external fluid mechanics of symmetrical OTEC pilot plant designs (20 to 80 MWe) under realistic deep water conditions. The objective was to assess the environmental impact of different plant configurations and to determine if pilot plants can be expected to operate without degrading the thermal resource available for power production. Physical modeling studies were conducted to investigate the variation of near field plume dynamics and the sensitivity of recirculation to different pilot plant designs. Experiments were conducted in a thermally stratified 12m x 18m x 0.6m basin, at an undistorted length scale ratio of 1:300, which allowed the upper 170m of the ocean to be studied. Measurements included temperature, dye concentration and visual observation from photographs. Both mixed and non-mixed discharge concepts were investigated. Discharge port design included two, four or eight discrete circular ports, with significant variations in the MWe/port ratio, issuing either horizontally or vertically. A range of ambient uniform current speeds was investigated while an ambient density profile, representative of potential sites off of Hawaii and Pureto Rico, was chosen. A previously calibrated integral jet model was tested against experimental observation to develop a valid, predictive tool that would facilitate study of conditions that were not modeled with the present experimental set-up. The model was modified to more accurately represent the dynamics of the OTEC discharge in the near field. The potential environmental impact of the discharge plume from an OTEC plant over a broad range of realistic conditions was assessed through additional sensitivity simulations. Results indicate that little recirculation occurs for the designs considered in this study. The recirculation that does occur appears to be the result of plume upwash in the lee of the plant and, possibly, internal wake effects on the plant bow.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-78ET20483
• OSTI ID: 6549179
• Report Number(s): MIT-EL-82-018; COO-4683-10; ON: DE83005237
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140400 -- Solar Energy-- Environmental Aspects
140800* -- Solar Energy-- Ocean Energy Systems
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA
ENTRAINMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID MECHANICS
INFORMATION
JETS
MECHANICS
NUMERICAL DATA
OCEAN THERMAL POWER PLANTS
PLUMES
POWER PLANTS
REYNOLDS NUMBER
SCALE MODELS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SIMULATION
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
STRUCTURAL MODELS
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
THEORETICAL DATA
THERMAL POWER PLANTS