This represents two different areas, but they are connected together
through the same process, i. e., an excellent understanding of system functions and
integration.
A plant design can mean any change to a current design to fix a
problem, improve the function, or create a new product design. Plant design occurs in
three phases; 1) the conceptual phase is the "system analysis" phase where the
theoretical designs and/or changes are created and the pros and cons of the design are
established. Feasibility studies and cost evaluations are also performed in this phase.
The final products of the system analysis are the proposed new design(s) and/or design
change(s), which have the best cost and benefit to the customer; 2), the "detailed
design" phase produces the final design product. The conceptual design is developed
into a final detailed design package. All facets of engineering are involved in the
detailed design development. The detailed design package includes design specifications,
design drawings, design procedures, design requirements, quality assurance requirements,
start-up specification and requirements, and, if required, licensing requirements; and 3),
the "design implementation" phase takes detailed design package and provides an
implementation plan which includes purchase of materials and/or equipment, start-up and/or
retest requirements and procedures, and an implementation schedule which includes
estimated construction costs and schedules.
Power plant simulation requires the understanding of human, equipment,
and system behavior. The understanding of human behavior is necessary to ensure that
correct timely actions are model correctly. The understanding of equipment behavior is
required to model the response of the equipment to other associated elements, i. e., the
change in pump performance because of changes in pressure drop or electrical load. The
understanding of system behavior and system integration is require since a number of
system are usually interrelated and the performance change in one system will change the
performances of other associated systems. The understanding of all these elements will
result in a successful simulation. Typically, a simulation uses a computer software
package that is compatible to the application being simulated. For example, a steady-state
fluid flow simulation may be solved with KYPIPE, or a transient two-phase situation may be
simulated with RELAP5, a structural simulation may be accomplished with ANSYS or ALGOR.
All these efforts have one thing in common; the user must be familiar with the software
and know how to model the application. EDA has the experience in developing detailed
models of many different situations with validated results, which will help the client
solve his problem.