Since it was introduced in 1998 to work in conjunction with Thermoflow’s GT PRO^® and GT MASTER^® programs for combined-cycle power plant design, PEACE^® has been used in hundreds of applications. PEACE^® automatically creates preliminary engineering specifications for all plant equipment, based on the heat balance design. These specifications include dimensions, weights and materials, as well as estimates for foundations and labor hours for installation and erection. Using PEACE^® with GT PRO^® and GT MASTER^®, engineers are able to rapidly optimize plant designs from the combined perspective of plant performance and capital cost.

THERMOFLEX^® is a modular, fully flexible heat balance design and simulation tool that has been expanded and improved since its initial release in 1995, and today is among the most reliable and user-friendly programs of its type. By linking to GT PRO^® and GT MASTER^®, THERMOFLEX^® combines the benefits of flexibility with the automated expert logic built into GT PRO^®.

Version 5.0 of THERMOFLEX^® applies the proven functionality of PEACE^® to a range of modular components used in the balance-of-plant (BOP). The combined program facilitates optimization of plant subsystems including piping, pumps, condensers, cooling towers and gas turbine inlet air chillers.

With THERMOFLEX^® Version 5.0, an engineer can assemble any system or subsystem from its elements in a fully flexible fashion, then instruct PEACE^® to size the components and calculate their costs. Alternatively, the engineer can dictate component sizes and instruct the combined program to find the impact of the new sizes on the heat balance, while recalculating the costs.

As an example, an engineer may already have selected a condenser and cooling tower for a power plant, and now wants to optimize the diameter of the cooling water pipes and the selection of the cooling water pumps. For a given pump curve, larger diameter pipes will have lower flow resistance, permitting greater cooling water flow, lower condenser pressure, and enhanced net output and heat rate; but will also increase the capital cost. The combined THERMOFLEX^®/PEACE^® software enables the engineer, in just a few minutes, to calculate the changes in overall plant performance and estimate the changes in cooling water piping costs, thus arriving at the optimum pipe diameter. Perhaps an alternative piping layout would circumvent rocky ground but require greater length and more pipe elbows. The new software can rapidly assess the effect of the piping options on plant performance and cost.

Similarly, the engineer can select a cooling water pump with a larger nominal flow rate or head. The combined THERMOFLEX^®/PEACE^® software will find the new cooling water flow rate, from the intersection of the pump curve with the system resistance curve, and then will calculate the effect on plant gross output, pump auxiliary power consumption, plant net output and overall cost.

The ability to link THERMOFLEX^® subsystems with GT PRO^® or GT MASTER^® models allows engineers to design and optimize subsystems in the fully flexible environment of the new software and integrate these subsystems with larger plant models built in the GT PRO^®/GT MASTER^®/PEACE^® environment.

Licensees of both THERMOFLEX^® and PEACE^® will be able to use all of the new features of the new THERMOFLEX^® Version 5.0 at no additional cost. Licensees of either program will have to license the conjugate program to use the combined features.

About Thermoflow, Inc.

Thermoflow, Inc. has been developing engineering design and simulation software for the power industry since 1987. With over 120,000 hours of development time invested in its products, they are the most comprehensive and mature of their type, and are used by hundreds of major companies around the world.