Phase change analysis of an underwater glider propelled by the ocean's thermal energy

The phase change characteristic of the power source of an underwater glider propelled by the ocean＇s thermal energy is the key factor in glider attitude control. A numerical model has been established based on the enthalpy method to analyze the phase change heat transfer process under convective boundary conditions. Phase change is not an isothermal process, but one that occurs at a range of temperature. The total melting time of the material is very sensitive to the surrounding temperature. When the temperature of the surroundings decreases 8 degrees, the total melting time increases 1.8 times. But variations in surrounding temperature have little effect on the initial temperature of phase change, and the slope of the temperature time history curve remains the same. However, the temperature at which phase change is completed decreases significantly. Our research shows that the phase change process is also affected by container size, boundary conditions, and the power source＇s cross sectional area. Materials stored in 3 cylindrical containers with a diameter of 38ram needed the shortest phase change time. Our conclusions should be helpful in effective design of underwater glider power systems.

Design Optimization of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion(OTEC)Considering the Off-Design Condition

The comprehensive optimization of thermodynamic and economic performances is significant for the engineering application of ocean thermal energy conversion(OTEC).Motivated by this,this paper develops a thermo-economic OTEC model and conducts a sensitivity analysis of the OTEC system concerning its thermodynamic and economic performances.Specifically,the impact of warm-seawater temperature and cold-seawater pumping depth on the net thermal efficiency and the total investment cost are investigated.The results indicate that,an increase in warm-seawater temperature and cold-seawater pumping depth can improve the net thermal efficiency and a higher installed capacity is beneficial to the system economics.Building on these,a design optimization method with considering the on-design and off-design conditions is proposed in this paper,and the dynamic variation of warm-seawater temperature are considered in this method.In multi-objective optimization procedure,with the objective functions being the average net thermal efficiency and unit power cost within the operational cycle,the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm Ⅱ(NSGA-Ⅱ) is employed to maximize the net thermal efficiency and minimize the unit power investment cost,resulting in the Pareto front.The net thermal efficiencies of OTEC systems using ammonia and R245fa as working fluids are 4.13% and 3.8%,respectively.This represents an improvement of 19.4% and 57.0%,respectively,compared to traditional optimization methods that do not account for off-design conditions.

Review of enhancement for ocean thermal energy conversion system

Ocean thermal energy conversion(OTEC)is a renewable energy source that uses differences in ocean water temperature between warm surface and cold depth to generate electricity.It is an essential link in the carbon neutrality chain and one of the rising sectors of the ocean energy.This paper provides an overview of studies on closed thermodynamic cycles and the numerous difficulties that OTEC technology faces.A description of the thermodynamic cycles incorporating mixed or pure working fluids,as well as the implications of different working fluids on cycle efficiency were also studied.Changes in condensing and evaporating temperatures induced by variations in heat resources affect the efficiency of cycles with pure working fluids.Several strategies,such as intermediate extraction regeneration and heat recovery of ammonia-depleted solution can increase the thermal efficiency with mixed working fluids.In addition,the impact of the ejector on the cycle’s performance is examined.Finally,the efficiency-improving strate-gies are described and summarized.Thermodynamic efficiency can increase using suitable working fluids and taking steps to maximize the rate of ocean thermal energy.To establish which approach is the most effective,different methods have been evaluated and compared under identical operating conditions.

ESTIMATION OF THEORETICAL POTENTIAL AND EXPLOITABLE QUANTITY OF CHINA'S OCEANIC THERMAL ENERGY

Two estimaton methods are used to calculate the theoretical reservoir potential of China's oceanic thermal energy. One is based on the measured temperature difference between the surface water and the deep water, the other on the net radiation energy income from solar insolation either measured or deduced. The results from these two methods are compared and examined. Then, the maximum amount of the exploitable thermal energy is calculated based on the assumption of a Carnot cycle efficiency. In the process of estimation, such factors as water depth, seasonal water temperature variation and geographic location have been taken into account.The theoretical reservoir capacity and the exploitable quantity of the thermal energy of China's four seas are thus estimated separately.

Optimal Offering Strategy of Virtual Power Plant with Hybrid Renewable Ocean Energy Portfolio

This paper proposes a hybrid ocean energy sys-tem to form a virtual power plant(VPP)for participating in electricity markets in order to promote the renewable ocean energy utilization and accommodation.In the proposed system,solar thermal energy is integrated with the closed-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion(OTEC)to boost the temperature differences between the surface and deep seawater for efficiency and flexibility improvements,and the thermodynamic effects of seawater mass flow rates on the output of solar-boosted OTEC(SOTEC)are exploited for deploying SOTEC as a renewable dispatchable unit.An optimal tidal-storage operation model is also developed to make use of subsea pumped storage(SPS)with hydrostatic pressures at ocean depths for mitigating the intermittent tidal range energy in order to make the arbitrage in the electricity market.Furthermore,a two-stage coordinated scheduling strategy is presented to optimally control seawater mass flow rates of SOTEC and hydraulic reversible pump-turbines of SPS for enhancing the daily VPP profit.Comparative studies have been investigated to confirm the superiority of the developed methodology in various renewable ocean energy and electricity market price scenarios.

Assessment of the stiffened panel performance in the OTEC seawater tank design:Parametric study and sensitivity analysis

Ocean thermal energy conversion(OTEC)is a process of generating electricity by exploiting the temperature difference between warm surface seawater and cold deep seawater.Due to the high static and dynamic pressures that are caused by seawater circulation,the stiffened panel that constitutes a seawater tank may undergo a reduction in ultimate strength.The current paper investigates the design of stiffening systems for OTEC seawater tanks by examining the effects of stiffening parameters such as stiffener sizes and span-over-bay ratio for the applied combined loadings of lateral and transverse pressure by fluid motion and axial compression due to global bending moment.The ultimate strength calculation was conducted by using the non-linear finite element method via the commercial software known as ABAQUS.The stress and deformation distribution due to pressure loads was computed in the first step and then brought to the second step,in which the axial compression was applied.The effects of pressure on the ultimate strength of the stiffener were investigated for representative stiffened panels,and the significance of the stiffener parameters was assessed by using the sensitivity analysis method.As a result,the ultimate strength was reduced by approximately 1.5%for the span-over-bay ratio of 3 and by 7%for the span-over-bay ratio of 6.