Concurrent studies of enhanced heat transfer and materials for ocean thermal heat exchangers. Semi-annual progress report, March 1--August 31, 1978. [OSCAR code; OTEC Steady-state and Control System Analysis Routines]

The development of the OSCAR program (OTEC Steady-state and Control System Analysis Routines) to perform dynamic simulations for arbitrarily configured OTEC plants is described. The design goals for OSCAR are presented, and details about the initial plant equipment models are given. These models have two features: relative simplicity but with enough complexity to permit adequate simulation over a wide range of operating conditions. The most significant new work on modeling is for evaporators and condensers, and these results are given in detail. One unit model is not yet included, the turbine model. After presenting the models in some detail, the design details established to date for OSCAR are presented. These details show the expected structure of OSCAR and indicate what each part is to do. The design is not yet frozen. The approach represents the next generation of several earlier and existing efforts at designing and implementing simulation systems. As such it has features which generalize many features of earlier designs to make the system easier to implement and use while still giving greater flexibility in use. The appendix presents the more detailed aspects of the evaporator and condenser modeling.