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Active Combustion Throttle

Black, Nathaniel Benjamen (2008) Active Combustion Throttle. Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

As environmental awareness increases, cleaner burning fuels are desired for use in power plants. Fuels such hydrogen, methane and syngas are cleaner and leaner burning, which causes combustion instabilities. The Active Combustion Throttle (ACT) project is sponsored by the Department of Energy's National Energy Technologies Laboratory (NETL) and aspires to create a valve capable of modulating the flow of fuel administered to gas turbines by +/- 10%. Development of such a valve will require an integrated valve and actuator design that can withstand the harsh environment of a power plant as well have a closed loop feedback control system in order to avoid combustion instabilities. In this thesis, an in-depth survey of current actuator and valve technologies revealed there are not any commercially available integrated valve assemblies capable of performing such a task. Two valve designs and one actuator design were devised to meet a list of specifications from NETL. Both valve designs as well as the actuator design underwent a rigorous battery of electromagnetic, stress, thermal, finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses using contemporary mechanical, electrical and physical theory and commercially available computer-aided design (CAD) programs. Prototype valve designs were designed, machined, cold flow tested and approved for further prototype design and testing. Initial cold flow testing revealed that both valve designs had linear ranges, were quick opening and demonstrated adequate flow coefficients (Cv). Further testing will continue to refine the valve designs in preparation for creating integrated valve/actuator assemblies for more aggressive testing.The primary contribution of this thesis are the two valve designs and actuator design that have thus far proven to be capable of fulfilling the requirements set forth by NETL for the ACT project. Further research and analyses of these designs will provide more robust prototype valve and actuator assemblies for eventual live testing at NETL. The framework provided by this thesis will allow those involved with the project to make changes to the current designs as needed since the same analyses can be more efficiently executed for subsequent changes throughout the remaining stages of development.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Black, Nathaniel Benjamenunsichtbaremann@gmail.com
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee ChairVipperman, Jeffrey Sjsv@pitt.eduJSV
Committee MemberMiller, Mark Cmcmllr@pitt.eduMCMLLR
Committee MemberClark, William Wwclark@pitt.eduWCLARK
Date: 8 September 2008
Date Type: Completion
Defense Date: 2 April 2008
Approval Date: 8 September 2008
Submission Date: 7 April 2008
Access Restriction: 5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Swanson School of Engineering > Mechanical Engineering
Degree: MSME - Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Thesis Type: Master's Thesis
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: electromagnetic actuator; throttle valve
Other ID: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04072008-045914/, etd-04072008-045914
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2011 19:34
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 13:38
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/6852

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