Implementation and experimental validation of a modeling tool for humid air turbine saturators

This work presents the re-engineering of the TRANSAT 1.0 code which was developed to perform off-design and transient condition analysis of Saturators and Direct Contact Heat Exchangers. This model, now available in the 2.0 release, was originally implemented in FORTRAN language, has been updated to C language, fully coded into MATLAB/Simulink environment and validated using the extensive set of data available from the MOSAT project, carried out by the Thermochemical Power Group of University of Genoa. The rig consists of a fully instrumented modular vertical saturator, which is controlled and monitored with a LABVIEW computer interface. The simulation software showed fair stability in computation and in response to step variation of the main parameters driving the thermodynamic evolution of the air and water flows. Overall the model proved to be reliable and accurate for energy systems simulations. - Highlights: → TRANSAT is able to simulate saturator behavior with good accuracy. → Including thermal loss estimation the error on water temperature is less than 1%. → Enhanced numerical stability was achieved. → The computational speed is largely increased without loss of accuracy. → TRANSAT 2.0 is ready to be used as a design tool for pressurized saturation towers.