The Department of Technical Thermodynamics of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering was represented by Prof. H.-J. Kretzschmar and Dr.-Ing. S. Herrmann at the 48th Power Plant Technology Colloquium 2016 in Dresden. In a poster contribution on "Simulation of transient power plant processes based on the new IAPWS guideline for the spline-based table look-up method (SBTL) ", they presented a new internationally binding guideline of the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) for the accurate and at the same time very fast calculation of the material properties of water and steam.

The SBTL method was developed by Mr. M. Kunick as part of his cooperative doctoral project between the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the TU Dresden. It is already being used in a variety of applications, for example for numerical flow analysis with the CFD software TRACE from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), for the simulation of power plant processes with the thermal circuit diagram calculation programs KRAWAL from SIEMENS PG and EBSILON Professional from STEAG Energy Services and for the safety analysis of nuclear reactors with RELAP-7 from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). As a result of the conference, further collaborations on the use of the SBTL method, e.g. in the CFD program ANSYS, were initiated with interested parties at the poster.

Dr.-Ing. Schneider, a research associate of Prof. Kratzsch at the Institute of Process Engineering, Process Automation and Measurement Technology, presented the results of his work to date on the topic of "Investigations into the need for flexibility in conventional power plants to compensate for dynamic residual loads".

The overall objective of the project is to develop a generally valid procedure for the integration of thermal storage in thermal energy plants with different rated outputs. This will enable thermal power plants in particular to flexibly adapt electricity production to the requirements of the European interconnected grid. The current investigations into the necessary flexibility measures are based on a smoothing of the feed-in curves of a reference plant derived from the load profile analysis. The differences between the smoothed and unsmoothed hydrographs are used to determine the storage capacities required to ensure a smoothed operation of the thermal energy plant while simultaneously providing the required dynamic load demand from the grid. The project is being carried out as part of the Graduate College "New Systems for Resource Conservation" at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and is funded by the European Social Fund.

The Power Plant Technology Colloquium is one of the most important scientific events focusing on modern energy and power plant technology. Representatives from industry, science and politics meet annually to discuss current issues in the field of energy and power plant technology.

Authors: M. Kunick, Dr.-Ing. S. Herrmann, Prof. Dr.-Ing. A. Kratzsch