The primary objective of the work being done by The University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) at the CoalFired Flow Facility (CFFF) is to prove the concept of operating a coal-fired power plant equipped with a magnetohydrodynamic MHD topping cycle. The ultimate goal of the MHD power generation program is to bring the MHD process into commercial use. This would involve the design of a full-scale commercial coal-fired power plant with a MHD topping cycle.
The group responsible for the MHD program at UTSI is the Energy Conversion Research and Development Programs (ECP). ECP personnel, anticipating the design effort for a commercial MHD power plant, decided that computer simulation of conventional power plant components subjected to MHD conditions would be useful. To facilitate this simulation, a pre-release version of the Modular Modeling System (MMS) was acquired from The Electric Power Research Institute.
This work involves the development of a MMS model of the three superheater test-sections (TSl, TS2, and TS3) at the CFFF. The dynamic model was then used to design Proportional Integral (PI) controllers for the superheater test-section. It is hoped that this effort will lay the groundwork for future applications of MMS by ECP staff and UTSI students
