Identification and FMEA analysis of working fluid properties for OTEC plants

Abstract

In OTEC low vaporization temperature organic fluid used as the working fluid. So to obtain an efficacious output, the selection of working fluid must be accurate. It’s entirely depends upon the properties of the fluid. So there should be a focus on the fluid property and probability of failure should also take into account while selecting a fluid. In this study, the required properties of the OTEC working fluid are discussed and analysis of failure mode also performed by the application of FMEA method. FMEA method gives a prioritize list of working fluid properties for failure study and this prioritize list consist of the failure mode and their associated measured quality characteristics or key output variables. Then a prioritize list is also developed for the criteria, Thermal efficiency, exergy effciency and cost. By the pairwise comparison, a mapping of the individual property is created with respect to each criterion.

Keywords:

• OTEC
• Working fluid
• Failure mode and effects analysis
• Organic fluid
• MCDM
• Renewable Energy

Mathematics Subject Classification 2010:

• 60B15