THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY & EXERGY THERMODYNAMIC COMPONENTS OF A CYCLE POWER PLANT S Matabadal et al

This project is based on the philosophy that Actual Performance Parameters should be less than Design Performance Parameters and therefore the difference between the design performance and actual performance is an indication of Performance Degradation. In this paper, the Thermodynamic Performance Degradation or the decline in design performance of the major components of a Combined Cycle Power Plant was determined using a computational method that was formulated based on Energy analysis using the steady flow energy equation arising out of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Another computational method was developed using Exergy analysis arising out of the Second Law of Thermodynamics from which it can be hypothesized that mechanical degradation is a consequence of irreversible thermodynamic processes which suggests that entropy generation offers a natural measure of degradation. Data required to calculate the Design Thermodynamic Performance Parameters based on the Energy and Exergy Analysis was obtained from the Plant’s Design Heat and Mass Balance diagram since manufacturers do not provide design performance parameters. To calculate the Actual Thermodynamic Performance Parameters based on the Energy and Exergy analysis, Actual Operating Data was obtained from the Combined Cycle Plant under study over a three-month period.