• Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom
• Soft Skills

The goal of the course is providing the students with the knowledge and the competence to understand inherently, design preliminarily (i.e. employing only paper, pencil and a calculator), model accurately (i.e. employing also a computer and a simulation code), and optimize conventional and unconventional power plants from energy, economic, environmental and technical perspectives. The goal is pursued by way of traditional teaching methods as well as of innovative ones including mandatory and non-mandatory small-group activities.

Regarding conventional power plants, the student will be able to:

• describe the modelling approaches for the working fluids, the main equipment (like heat exchangers and turbomachines) and the single as well as overall process;
• explain the typical choices of the design parameters for working fluids, operating conditions, main equipment, and processes;
• sketch the cycles and the processes on selected thermodynamic charts as well as on the process flow diagrams (also referred to as layouts);
• compute and comment the typical performances and irreversibilities of the main equipment and the processes.

Moreover, regarding conventional and unconventional power plants, he/she will be able to:

• select the most promising layouts for diverse hot sources and/or cold sinks;
• size with a good approximation the main equipment (like heat exchangers and turbomachines);
• predict the performances in on- and off-design operation of the main equipment and the processes;
• mitigate the typical irreversibilities of the main equipment and the processes.

Lastly, he/she will be able to:

• improve autonomously and continuously the detailed knowledge in power plants;
• read and understand generic industrial processes other than power plants;
• develop new concepts for power plants and industrial processes.

The course covers the electricity generation in power plants, focusing in particular on the inherent relation among working fluids, thermodynamic cycles and main equipment. Thermodynamic and technical aspects are addressed in details, whereas economic, management, environmental, and strategic aspects are presented as necessary. Despite most of the course is dedicated to large-scale fossil-fueled power plants, other technologies, such as Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) and micro-cogeneration, are outlined; in any case, the developed concepts may be applied to generic industrial processes.

The course comprises lectures, numerical exercise hours, computer lab hours on the 5 assigned project works (developing own or employing existing simulation codes), and technical visits at equipment manufacturers and power plants (if possible). Part of the course (1 credit) is provided as innovative learning, through mandatory project works solved by students in teams, for which guidelines are anyhow provided, and optional assigned homeworks solved also in teams, which are anyhow discussed in class with the participation of the students.

The specific topics are as follows, some of which provided by way of the group activities.

1. Working fluids: Thermodynamic properties. Ideal gases and real fluids (vapors and liquids); phase change; combustion and fuels; influence on the design of turbomachines, heat exchanger, and power plant (conventional and unconventional cycles, open and closed cycles).

2. Power plants: Second-law analysis. Energy as well as entropy balances of diverse power plants (open and close, fossil and renewable); physical meaning of entropy; matching of the heat source and the cycles; irreversibilities; first and second-law performances.

2.a. Advanced steam power plants. Historical evolution of pulverized-coal power plants; focus on ultra-supercritical power plants; second-law analysis; control logics, plant governing, and emission abetment; clean coal technologies and future developments.

2.b. Advanced gas turbines and combined cycle. Historical evolution and state-of-the-art of gas turbines; second-law analysis and future developments.

2.c. Closed gas cycles. Applications; generalized theory; analysis of the recuperator; partial-load governing; full-load and partial-load performances.

2.d. Nuclear power plants. Overview of nuclear reactors; choice of nuclear source, moderating fluid, cooling fluid and thermodynamic cycle; overview of nuclear power plants; choice of operational parameters for selected technologies.

3. Turbomachinery: One-dimension analysis. Geometries and definitions; stage optimization by way of free variable, objective functions and constraints; velocity triangles and limits related to transonic and supersonic flows; effect of geometrical parameters on stage efficiency; similitude theory and influence of the working fluid on the geometry and performance.

Class notes will be provided at the beginning of the course, presentations will be published just before the classes as well as the computer lab hours, and specific readings (in addition to the bibliography listed below) will be suggested throughout the course.

The prerequisite knowledge convers the topics in classic thermodynamics, fluid machines and energy systems.

The exam comprises both a written examination and an oral examination. The written examination covers lectures, exercises and projects. The written examination includes 2 exercises requiring a complete numerical solution and 4 questions requiring a theoretical argumentation. The numerical exercises are structured in a sequence of tasks, each graded singularly. The written examination assesses the capability to:

• sketch cycles and diagrams of conventional and unconventional power plants,
• explain the choices for the design parameters,
• size the equipment,
• predict the performances,
• quantify the irreversibilities.

The oral examination covers lectures and computer labs; in particular, written technical reports describing the solution and commenting the results of the 5 assigned project works must be presented at the oral examination. The oral examination assesses the capability to:

• sketch cycles and diagrams of conventional and unconventional power plants,
• describe the modelling approaches,
• justify the typical performances,
• mitigate the irreversibilities.

The final grade is generated in a sequence of steps. First, the written examination grade is in 30ths and is expressed with decimals. The minimum written examination grade to proceed to the oral examination is 15.00. The oral examination generates a grade variation within ±5.00 with respect to the written examination grade. Bonus points may be gained with non-mandatory activities and added at last. Merit grade (laude) is only upon examiner’s evaluation at the oral examination.

The oral examination calendar is published after the written examination grades are published. All publication are online and announced by email. Examinee can choose an oral examination appointment on their preference from the available ones by signing up online. Importantly, the oral examination must be taken in the same session as the written examination.

If the oral examination calendar of a given session includes the written examination of the following session, students can take the new written examination before taking the oral examination and decide whether to hand it; in case they do, the new written examination grade overrides the previous. This happens for the January-February as well as June-July sessions, but not for the September session.

Important, students must be enrolled in the examination session in order to take the written examination. No enrolment no examination!