THERMAL SYSTEMS
Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: ARTURO PAGANOExpected Learning Outcomes
The goal of the course is to provide the students with a detailed theoretical and application-oriented knowledge, enabling them to design and dimension the main thermal plants, specifically in the following contexts:
- thermal plants and technologies for steam production and for heat generation and distribution, for civil and industrial applications and for power generation;
- refrigeration plants and technologies, for civil and industrial applications;
- analysis and characterization of the thermal energy needs for the heating and cooling of buildings;
- heating, ventilation and air conditioning sytems (HVAC sytems) for buildings.
Course Structure
Lectures will be given in classroom or, if conditions would require it, they will be available on-line or in mixed modality.
Students must attend at least 70% of the course lectures. It is mandatory the subscription to the course on the webpage on studium.unict.it.
Required Prerequisites
Contents of the courses of applied thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid machines design.
Detailed Course Content
1. Review of the contents of the course of Applied Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer (Fisica Tecnica), mainly on thermodynamic cycles for power generation and for cooling and on heat exchangers.
2. Fuels, combustion process and combustion products: thermal energy, exhaust flue gases, ashes and main pollutants.
3. Furnaces and heat generators for industrial applications and for power generation. Technologies and combustion equipment for heat generators.
4. Steam compression and absorption refrigeration systems and heat pumps for civil and industrial uses. Notes on cryogenic plants.
5. Principles of cogeneration.
6. Characteristics of the building envelope and related regulatory prescriptions concerning the building envelope and its heating system. Ventilation of confined spaces and principles of human comfort.
7. Heating systems and HVAC (Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems for civil environments: principles and sizing criteria.
Textbook Information
Textbook 1 - Boilers for Power and Process, K. Rayaprolu, CRC Press - Taylor & Francis, 2009
Textbook 2 - Thermal Power Plant - Design and Operaration, D.K. Sarkar - Elsevier, 2015
Textbook 3 - Aria Umida - Climatizzazione ed involucro edilizio, L. Bellia, P. Mazzei, F. Minichello, D. Palma - Liguori Editore, 2006
Textbook 4 - Refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps, G.F. Hundy, A.R. Trott, T.C. Welch, ed. Butterworth-Heinemann (Elsevier).
Textbook 5 - La ventilazione per una migliore qualità dell’aria, A. Magrini, M. Ozel-Ballot, 2ed - EPC libri, 2005.
Textbook 6 - Benessere termico e qualità dell'aria, G. Moncada Lo Giudice, M. Coppi - Ed. Masson 1997.
Course Planning
Subjects | Text References | |
---|---|---|
1 | Boiler Technology: Boiler classification criteria and design variables; general structure and energy analysis of a boiler. Schematic of the furnace-boiler set-up. | Text 1 and 2 |
2 | Two-phase flows and the Nukiyama curve for pool and flow boiling: Departure from Nucleate Boiling and Critical Heat Flux. Evaluation of heat transfer coefficients. | Text 1 and 2, course material |
3 | Optimal and safe boiler operations. Natural and forced circulation schemes. Subcritical and supercritical boilers. | Text 1 and 2, course material |
4 | Water treatments for boilers: feedwater treatments and boiler water conditioning. | Text 1 and 2 |
5 | Fuel constituents: Proximate Analysis and Ultimate Analysis. Fundamental phases of the combustion process for coals. Evaluation of stoichiometr combustion air and of excess air. Flue gas analysis. | Text 1, course material |
6 | Fuels classification and relevant characteristics of coals, oil, natural gas, waste and derived fuels, biomasses. Fuel ash and related issues: erosion, slagging and fouling, corrosion. Ash related design criteria for furnaces and boilers. | Text 1, course material |
7 | Technologies and firing equipment for boiler furnaces 1/2: Stocker-fired furnaces for boilers - mass burning stockers and spreader stockers; burners for oil and gas fired boilers and related furnace schemes; design criteria for Low-NOx burners; duct burners for Heat Recovery Steam Generators, HRSGs. | Text 1 and 2 |
8 | Technologies and firing equipment for boiler furnaces 2/2: Pulverized Fuel boilers and related boiler structures, milling technology; Fluidized Bed Combustion technologies and issues related to inbed desulfurization; Bubbling Fluidized Bed Combustors, BFBCs; Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustors, CFBCs, cyclone technologies and related boiler design schemes. | Text 1 and 2 |
9 | Optimal design of the boiler heating surfaces and related fuel and energy recovery issues. Dust collecting equipment and flue gas DeNOx and DeSOx treatments. | Text 1, course material |
10 | Refrigeration systems and Heat Pumps: fundamental thermodinamic cycles and advanced solutions | Text 4, Course material |
11 | Refrigeration systems and Heat Pumps: technologies and main components | Text 4, Course material |
12 | Energy analysisis of buildings. Transmittance evaluation and measurement, limitations imposed by the Italian legislation concerning: a) opaque elements; b) thermal bridges; c) transparent elements. | Course material, CENED tables, Text 3 |
13 | Energy analysis of the building envelope 2/2 - Dynamical behaviour of the building envelope and related performances; Strategies for controlling solar radiation; Thermal-hygrometric perfomances. | Course material, Text 3 |
14 | Legislative framework for Indoor Air Quality, IAQ . Natural and mechanical ventilation. Thermal comfort analysis and related building design issues. | Course material, Text 5, Text 6 |
15 | HVAC systems: thermodynamics of humid air and psycrometric diagrams | Course material, Text 3 |
16 | HVAC systems: basic components and related processes; HVAC system classification | Course material, Text 3 |
17 | HVAC systems: total air HVAC systems | Course material, Text 3 |
18 | HVAC systems: primary-secondary air mixed HVAC systems | Course material, Text 3 |
19 | HVAC systems: design test and exercises | Course material |
20 | Technologies for air conditioning: single and multi split autonomous air conditioner | Course material, Text 3 |
21 | Technologies for air conditioning: air distribution network, air grids and diffusers, water distribution network, fancoils | Course material |
22 | Domestic heating systems: types of heaters, distribution network | Course material |
23 | Presentation and use of a software tool for the energy analysis and classification of the performance of the building envelope and thermal plants. | Course material |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
The written part of the exam is organised in theoretical questions, structured in order to allow a synthetic answer, and in practical calculation and/or design problems of components and thermotechnical systems.
To guarantee equal opportunities and in compliance with the laws in force, students enrolled in CInAP can agree with the teacher any compensatory and/or dispensative measures, based on the educational objectives and specific needs. It is also possible to contact the CInAP reference teacher of DICAR.
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
- Describe the general structure of a boiler or of the furnace-boiler set-up
- Discuss the terms accounted in the energy balance equation of a boiler
- Discuss the Nukiyama curve for pool or flow boiling
- Schematize the main natural and forced circulation schemes for boilers
- Discuss the fundamental phases of coal combustion
- Fuel ash and related issues: erosion, slagging and fouling, corrosion
- Ash related design criteria for furnaces and boilers
- Detailed description of the main firing technologies (stocker-fired, burners for oil, gas and pulverized coal; bubbling/circulating fluidized bed combustors; duct burners for heat recovery steam generators)
- Advanced cycles and related plant schemes for refrigerators and heat pumps
- Technologies and main components for refrigeration and heat pumps
- Energy analysisis and related legislative issues for the design of building envelopes: static transmittance of opaque elements, thermal bridges and transparent elements; dynamical behaviour of the envelope components
- Indoor air quality, indoor thermal comfort and related design issues
- HVAC systems: basic components and related processes; HVAC system classification
- HVAC systems: calculation of total air HVAC systems and of primary-secondary air mixed HVAC systems