Virtual pilot plants: What is the goal and what technology development is needed?
Within the coal utilization industry, moving virtual reality from a visualization tool to a design tool has the potential to reduce design time and cost, improve plant design and operation, and reduce the risk associated with new technologies. The goal of developing this technology is to enable an engineering design team based in disparate geographical locations to interact simultaneously with the virtual pilot plant and to see immediately the effect on performance of their design changes. In order to promote this capability, the US Department of Energy has identified virtual demonstrations as one of the key supporting technologies needed for the development of Vision 21 plants. This will require that many computational intensive technologies be enhanced and closely integrated: computer aided design/engineering (CAD/CAE), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis, intelligent process control, systems analysis, information management, and advanced visualization. Virtual pilot plants will create a design environment that will be a low-cost alternative to a physical pilot plant, allowing changes in plant operation and design to be rapidly and inexpensively tested. Following construction, the virtual environment will be used as the front-end of a total information system containing all of the design, construction, operation, research scale, pilot scale, and economic information available on the system. The information will be intuitively accessible by going to the place of interest in the virtual plant and entering the dimension of interest. The goal of the virtual demonstration will be to provide easily accessible information at any level of detail to anyone who needs it from policy maker to operating engineer.
- Research Organization:
- Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20034307
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 25th International Technical Conference on Coal Utilization and Fuel Systems, Clearwater, FL (US), 03/06/2000--03/09/2000; Other Information: PBD: 2000; Related Information: In: 25th international technical conference on coal utilization and fuel systems: Proceedings, by Sakkestad, B.A. [ed.], 969 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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