A novel gas turbine simulator for testing hybrid solar-Brayton energy systems

Abstract

A novel gas turbine simulator is developed to establish controllable boundaries for investigating the characteristics of key components in gas turbine based hybrid energy systems under different operating conditions. The gas turbine simulator consists of a compressed air system, an electrical heater, a mass flow controller, a proportional solenoid valve, a dual-flow choked nozzle, and a PLC-based control system. With the proposed control strategy, the fluid parameters, such as temperature, mass flow rate, and pressure, can be automatically regulated to simulate the boundary conditions of a gas turbine under various workloads. Experimental results for both cold and hot states have validated the capabilities of the gas turbine simulator to deliver convergent control results with fast response. The gas turbine simulator has demonstrated considerable performance in stabilizing system boundaries with the precision in terms of pressure control reaching ±0.004 bar for steady states, and ±0.018 bar to ±0.076 bar for transient states with mass flow and temperature perturbations. The gas turbine simulator can also accurately track linear and nonlinear trajectories during operating point migrations, and effectively limit deviations within ±0.037 bar.