Modelling and dynamic simulation of processes with ‘MATLAB’. An application of a natural gas installation in a power plant

In this paper, it is proposed to incorporate the analysis of the dynamic performance of the process into the design and engineering stage of projects as a means of analysing and resolving this type of problem. The following contributions are made with this objective in mind:(a)The barriers in the way of dynamic analysis are identified.(b)Software tools which make dynamic analysis accessible during the design and engineering phase of the project are proposed. To achieve this goal, modelling and mathematical simulation are used, with the following features: •strict modelling of mass, momentum and energy conservation equations as well as state equations, and•utilisation of the ‘Matlab-Simulink’ package as the base-software tool.(c)The procedure and tool proposed for dynamic analysis during the design phase should enable these studies to be carried out at a reasonable cost and time for regular industrial projects, and not just for large research projects or nuclear power plants.To complete this paper, we apply our method to a natural gas installation in a power plant. The model is applied to study the transients of a natural gas supply line to a steam-electric power plant. The results of the model have been validated with the actual data on the boiler trip obtained from the distributed control system of a steam-electric power plant.