How can fluids (liquid, gas and their mixtures) be used to produce and store energy?
Except for solar PV cells, all current electricity sources rely on manipulating a fluid: such processes are also at the heart of thermal engines, AC/heat pumps, as well as many energy storage systems. The aim of this course is to understand and describe these systems by applying the following steps :
1) Establish the conservation equations (of mass, energy…) these fluids follow;
2) Identify the physical processes relevant to these equations, such as turbulence or phase change;
3) Predict these phenomena from theoretical considerations and experimental observations;
4) Apply the results of these steps to the design of fluid systems, but also to predicting their behavior in case of an accident (such as a leak or a loss of electrical power).
These notions will mainly be illustrated in the case of nuclear energy : it is a source of many examples and as it pioneered the use of exotic fluids (high-pressure liquid or gas, molten metals) and the analysis of accidents.
We will apply the steps above first to single-phase fluids (liquid or gas), then to two-phase liquid/steam mixtures. The resulting methods can be applied to a wide range of applications, from the first understanding of physical phenomena and and initial sketch of a new system with a few Excel formula to the design of advanced experiments and to advanced HPC (“High Performance Computing”) simulations on millions of CPU cores.
Course language: French
ECTS credits: 4
Mise à jour : 14 avril 2020
- Teaching coordinator: Gerschenfeld Antoine
- Teaching coordinator: Leclaire Benjamin
- Teaching coordinator: Thoraval Marie-Jean