The computational efficiency of Monte Carlo breakage of articles using serial and parallel processing : a comparison

This paper presents a GPU-based parallelized and a CPU-based serial Monte-Carlo method for breakage of a particle. We compare the efficiency of the graphic card’s graphics processing unit (GPU) and the general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), in a simulation using Monte Carlo (MC) methods for processing the particle breakage. Three applications are used to compare the computational performance times, clock cycles and speedup factors, to find which platform is faster under which conditions. The architecture of the GPU is becoming increasingly programmable; it represents a potential speedup for many applications compared to the modern CPU. The objective of the paper is to compare the performance of the GPU and Intel Core i7-4790 multicore CPU. The implementation for the CPU was written in the C programming language, and the GPU implemented the kernel using Nvidia’s CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). This paper compares the computational times, clock cycles and the speedup factor for a GPU and a CPU, with various simulation settings such as the number of simulation entries (SEs), for a better understanding of the GPU and CPU computational efficiency. It has been found that the number of SEs directly affects the speedup factor.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Model based analysis of power plant integrated with a post combustion carbon capture process

It is well recognised that there are two main options for reducing CO2 emissions from fossil-fuelled power generation, namely, improvement of energy efficiency and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Efficient power generation leads to lower fuel consumption, in turn, lower CO2 emission. Post combustion carbon capture as it can be introduced to existing power plants by retrofitting to the plant, which has attracted a lot of academic and industrial attention. A lot of research activities have been carried out to study this capture technology but most of this research focused on the steady state and the balance of the chemical reaction. As the initial investigation on the power plant response with carbon capture is a very important process before the plant is built, the dynamic simulation study can be helpful to provide the necessary guidance for the design of the plant and control system. This thesis reports the modelling and impact analysis of the supercritical power plant with integration of post combustion carbon capture. The work described in this thesis contributes to three aspects: model based dynamic study of capture plant, model based flue gas estimation and the analysis of power plant response caused by the carbon capture. A dynamic modular model of the capture plant has been built based on the mass and thermal balance for the study of plant dynamics. In this model, the methodology based on the average enthalpy has been introduced to solve the relationship between the specific enthalpy and the temperature of amine-water mixture under different conditions. A model based real-time estimation algorithm for the steam required to satisfy the heat duty is also developed in the work presented in this thesis. An accurate flow rate of the flue gas can greatly support the study of the absorption process simulation. An improved coal mill model which provides the estimation of mill status in the normal milling progress is developed in this project. The information provided by this coal mill model can further estimate the flow rate of the flue gas. In addition to supporting the study of carbon capture process, OPC based on-line implementation algorithms are proposed to enhance the mill operation. The heat duty to maintain the reaction temperature in the regeneration process is satisfied by the steam from the power plant in this thesis. Several modification plans have been tested in the simulator to study the different dynamic responses to the power plant caused by the steam extraction, and an approach that is able to meet the heat demand with least impact to the plant dynamics is proposed. As coal fired power plants are obliged to balance their output in response to the changing power demand from the grid, this thesis also provides a control strategy to overcome this power penalty by adding the equivalent power to the power demand