scholarly journals Keeping it Cool

2001 ◽  
Vol 123 (08) ◽  
pp. 48-52
Author(s):  
Michael Valenti
Keyword(s):  
Mass Flow ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Laser Scattering ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Air Inlet ◽  
Turbine Efficiency ◽  
Air Turbine ◽  
Evaporative Cooling System

This article provides details of various aspects of air cooling technologies that can give gas turbines a boost. Air inlet cooling raises gas turbine efficiency, which is proportional to the mass flow of air fed into the turbine. The higher the mass flow, the greater the amount of electricity produced from the gas burned. Researchers at Mee Industries conduct laser scattering studies of their company’s fogging nozzles to determine if the nozzles project properly sized droplets for cooling. The goal for turbine air cooling systems is to reduce the temperature of inlet air from the dry bulb temperature, the ambient temperature, to the wet bulb temperature. The Turbidek evaporative cooling system designed by Munters Corp. of Fort Myers, Florida, is often retrofit to turbines, typically installed in front of pre-filters that remove particulates from inlet air. Turbine Air Systems designs standard chillers to improve the performance of the General Electric LM6000 and F-class gas turbines during the hottest weather.

Relative Cooling With Liquid for Gas Turbines: Part I — A Solution for Exceeding 2000 K at Turbine Inlet

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandu Constantin ◽  
Dan Brasoveanu
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Liquid Cooling ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Turbine Inlet ◽  
Cooling Methods ◽  
Current Operating

Abstract The thermal efficiency of gas turbines is critically dependent on the temperature of burnt gases at turbine inlet, the higher this temperature the higher the efficiency. Stochiometric combustion would provide maximum efficiency, but in the absence of an internal cooling system, turbine blades cannot tolerate gas temperatures that exceed 1300 K. Therefore, for this temperature, the thermal efficiency of turbine engine is 40% less than theoretical maximum. Conventional air-cooling techniques of turbine blades allow inlet temperatures of about 1500 K on current operating engines yielding thermal efficiency gains of about 6%. New designs, that incorporate advanced air-cooling methods allows inlet temperatures of 1750–1800 K, with a thermal efficiency gain of about 6% relative to current operating engines. This temperature is near the limit allowed by air-cooling systems. Turbine blades can be cooled with air taken from the compressor or with liquid. Cooling systems with air are easier to design but have a relatively low heat transfer capacity and reduce the efficiency of the engine. Some cooling systems with liquid rely on thermal gradients to promote re-circulation from the tip to the root of turbine blades. In this case, the flow and cooling of liquid are restricted. For best results, cooling systems with liquid should use a pump to re-circulate the coolant. In the past, designers tried to place this pump on the engine stator and therefore were unable to avoid high coolant losses because it is impossible to reliably seal the stator-rotor interface. Therefore it was assumed that cooling systems with liquid could not incorporate pumps. This is an unwarranted assumption as shown studying the system in a moving frame of reference that is linked to the rotor. Here is the crucial fact overlooked by previous designers. The relative motion of engine stator with respect to the rotor is sufficient to motivate a cooling pump. Both the pump and heat exchange system that is required to provide rapid cooling of liquid with cold ambient air, could be located within the rotor. Therefore, the entire cooling system can be encapsulated within the rotor and the sealing problem is circumvented. Compared to recent designs that use advanced air-cooling methods, such a liquid cooling system would increase the thermal efficiency by 8%–11% because the temperatures at turbine inlet can reach stoichiometric levels and most of the heat extracted from turbine during cooling is recuperated. The appreciated high reliability of the system will permit a large applicability in aerospace propulsion.

scholarly journals Field Experiments and Technical Evaluation of an Optimized Media Evaporative Cooler for Gas Turbine Power Augmentation

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Behdashti ◽  
M. Ebrahimpour ◽  
B. Vahidi ◽  
V. Omidipour ◽  
A. Alizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Cooling Capacity ◽  
Combined Cycle ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Humidity Effect ◽  
Media Type ◽  
Evaporative Cooling System

This paper discusses an optimized media type evaporative cooling system called Outdoor Movable Media cooler which has been recently implemented on two 160 MW, V94.2 gas turbines of Kerman combined cycle power plant, Iran. The air cooling system can be applied to retrieve the lost power generation capability of gas turbine during hot months. System description is completely presented and optimizations such as making a movable media cooler are described. The moving ability of this system eliminates the power loss related to the conventional media coolers. Furthermore, experimental work including evaluation of humidity effect on the air filters operation is discussed and the results are presented. The cooling system performance curve shows the system capability of cooling the inlet air up to 19°C at the design condition. This cooling capacity leads to power augmentation up to 14% which is noteworthy in responding to the electricity demand in hot months, when air-conditioning loads are maximized. Considering several parameters, a cost analysis is done finally and payback period of the system is calculated.

scholarly journals Innovative Turbine Intake Air Cooling Systems and Their Rational Designing

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 6201
Author(s):  
Andrii Radchenko ◽  
Eugeniy Trushliakov ◽  
Krzysztof Kosowski ◽  
Dariusz Mikielewicz ◽  
Mykola Radchenko
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Maximum Rate ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Cooling Capacity ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Thermal Loads ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Air Cooling System

The efficiency of cooling ambient air at the inlet of gas turbines in temperate climatic conditions was analyzed and reserves for its enhancing through deep cooling were revealed. A method of logical analysis of the actual operation efficiency of turbine intake air cooling systems in real varying environment, supplemented by the simplest numerical simulation was used to synthesize new solutions. As a result, a novel trend in engine intake air cooling to 7 or 10 °C in temperate climatic conditions by two-stage cooling in chillers of combined type, providing an annual fuel saving of practically 50%, surpasses its value gained due to traditional air cooling to about 15 °C in absorption lithium-bromide chiller of a simple cycle, and is proposed. On analyzing the actual efficiency of turbine intake air cooling system, the current changes in thermal loads on the system in response to varying ambient air parameters were taken into account and annual fuel reduction was considered to be a primary criterion, as an example. The improved methodology of the engine intake air cooling system designing based on the annual effect due to cooling was developed. It involves determining the optimal value of cooling capacity, providing the minimum system sizes at maximum rate of annual effect increment, and its rational value, providing a close to maximum annual effect without system oversizing at the second maximum rate of annual effect increment within the range beyond the first maximum rate. The rational value of design cooling capacity provides practically the maximum annual fuel saving but with the sizes of cooling systems reduced by 15 to 20% due to the correspondingly reduced design cooling capacity of the systems as compared with their values defined by traditional designing focused to cover current peaked short-term thermal loads. The optimal value of cooling capacity providing the minimum sizes of cooling system is very reasonable for applying the energy saving technologies, for instance, based on the thermal storage with accumulating excessive (not consumed) cooling capacities at lowered current thermal loads to cover the peak loads. The application of developed methodology enables revealing the thermal potential for enhancing the efficiency of any combustion engine (gas turbines and engines, internal combustion engines, etc.).

The Study of the Effects of Gas Turbine Inlet Air Cooling on the Heat Recovery Boiler Performance

Volume 1 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ameri ◽  
Hamidreza Shahbaziyan ◽  
Hadi Hosseinzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Mass Flow Rate ◽  
Mass Flow ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Heat Recovery ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Combined Cycle ◽  
Heat Recovery Boiler ◽  
Air Cooling

Heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) are widely used in industrial processes and combined cycle power plants. The quantity and the state of the produced steam depend on the flue gas temperature and its mass flow rate. Two key factors, which affect those parameters, are the ambient temperature and the load of the gas turbines. The output power of the gas turbines degrades considerably in hot days of summer. The use of the inlet air cooling system to eliminate this problem is rapidly increasing. One of the effective methods is cooling the inlet air to the compressor by Evaporative Coolers. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of the evaporative inlet air cooling system on the performance of a heat recovery boiler in a combined cycle power plant. The heat and mass balance of a typical HRSG and its components including the superheaters, evaporators and economizers were calculated. To analyze the effects of the changes in ambient temperature and the flue gas flow, a numerical software has been used. The results have shown that using the evaporative cooler will increase the flue gas mass flow rate to the HRSG. Nevertheless, the exhaust gas temperature control system holds this temperature almost constant. Also, the results show that the produced steam temperature remains almost constant. However, the steam mass flow rate increases. Therefore the output power of the steam turbine of the combined cycle will increase. The effect of the increase in the humidity ratio is shown to be insignificant. In fact, it has negligible effect on the produced steam flow rate and the sulfuric acid dew point.

Development of an Improved Desiccant-Based Evaporative Cooling System for Gas Turbines

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Abbas Zadpoor ◽  
Ali Asadi Nikooyan
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Evaporative Cooling ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Actual Performance ◽  
Evaporative Cooling System ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbine Cycle

The evaporative inlet cooling systems used for inlet cooling of gas turbines during hot summers do not work well in humid areas. However, desiccant wheels can be used to dehumidify the air before passing it trough the evaporative cooler. Since the desiccant wheels work adiabatically, the resulting air is hotter than the air introduced to the wheel and an evaporative cooling system is used to cool down the dehumidified air. Combined direct and indirect evaporative coolers have been already used to investigate the effects of dehumidification on the effectiveness of the evaporation cooling systems. It is shown that a single desiccant wheel does not offer much higher effectiveness compared to the multiple-stage evaporative systems. In this paper, an improved version of the desiccant inlet cooling system is presented. Additional dehumidification and indirect evaporative cooling stages are added to increase the effectiveness of the inlet cooling. A typical gas turbine cycle along with an industrial gas turbine with actual performance curves are used to simulate the thermal cycle in presence of the different inlet cooling systems. The simulations are carried out for three different climatic conditions. The improved and original desiccant-based systems are compared and it is shown that the added stages substantially improve the effectiveness of the desiccant-based inlet cooling.

Exceeding 2000 K at Turbine Inlet: Relative Cooling With Liquid for Gas Turbines — Integrated Systems

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandu Constantin ◽  
Dan Brasoveanu
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Relative Motion ◽  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Turbine Inlet

Thermal efficiency of gas turbines is critically dependent on temperature of burnt gases at turbine inlet, the higher this temperature the higher the efficiency. Stochiometric combustion would provide maximum efficiency, but in the absence of an internal cooling system, turbine blades cannot tolerate gas temperatures exceeding 1300 K. This temperature yields a low thermal efficiency, about 15% below the level provide by stoicthiometric combustion. Conventional engines rely on air for blade and disk cooling and limit temperature at turbine inlet to about 1500 K. These engines gain about 3% compared to non-cooled designs. Gas turbines with state of the art air-cooling systems reach up to 1700–1750 K, boosting thermal efficiency by another 2–3%. These temperatures are near the limit allowed by air-cooling systems. Cooling systems with air are easier to design, but air has a low heat transfer capacity, and compressor air bleeding lowers the overall efficiency of engines (less air remains available for combustion). In addition, these systems waste most of the heat extracted from turbine for cooling. In principle, gas turbines could be cooled with liquid. Half a century ago, designers tried to place the pump for coolant recirculation on the engine stator. Liquid was allowed to boil inside the turbine. Seals for parts in relative motion cannot prevent loss of superheated vapors, therefore these experiments failed. To circumvent this problem, another design relied on thermal gradients to promote recirculation from blade tip to root. Liquid flow and cooling capacity were minute. Therefore it was assumed that liquid couldn’t be used for gas turbine cooling. This is an unwarranted assumption. The relative motion between engine stator and rotor provides abundant power for pumps placed on the rotor. The heat exchanger needed for cooling the liquid with ambient air could also be embedded in the rotor. In fact, the entire cooling system can be encapsulated within the rotor. In this manner, the sealing problem is circumvented. Compared to state of the art air-cooling methods, such a cooling system would increase thermal efficiency of any gas turbine by 6%–8%, because stoichimoetric fuel-air mixtures would be used (maybe even with hydrogen fuel). In addition, these systems would recuperate most of the heat extracted from turbine for cooling, are expected to be highly reliable and to increase specific power of gas turbines by 400% to 500%.

Relative Cooling System: Design and Efficiency

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandu Constantin ◽  
Dan Brasoveanu
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Efficiency ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Weight Ratio ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Aerospace Applications

Cooling systems with liquid for gas turbines that use the relative motion of engine stator with respect to rotor have been called relative cooling systems. This motion actuates the pump for liquid recirculation and the system is encapsulated within the engine rotor. In this manner, the difficult problem of sealing stator/rotor interfaces at high temperature, pressure and relative velocity is circumvented. A first generation of such systems could be manufactured using existing technologies and would boost thermal efficiency of gas turbines by more than 3% compared to the most advanced air-cooling engines. In the end, relative systems would boost temperatures at turbine inlet to stoichiometric levels and therefore increase thermal efficiency of gas turbines by about 8%. Such systems would recover most heat extracted from turbine for cooling and increase the power to size and power to weight ratio of all gas turbines. The appreciated high reliability of this cooling relies on encapsulation within the rotor and will allow widespread use in both ground and aerospace applications.

Important Parameters and Performance Testing of Evaporative Inlet Air Cooling System for Gas Turbines: A User’s Experience

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hemant Gajjar
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Evaporative Cooling ◽  
Performance Testing ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Air Cooling System ◽  
Evaporative Cooling System ◽  
And Performance

Inlet Air Cooling of gas turbine engines for power augmentation has seen increasing application over the past decade. Evaporative inlet air cooling has been particularly preferred by the Gas Turbine operators due to its low cost and ease of installation. Two of the important considerations for a GT operator are the proper selection of the EIAC and, after installation, its proper testing to assure required performance. This paper is based on the experience, as a user, of selecting a inlet air cooling system and then implementing a Fogging type Evaporative Cooling system. It highlights the important parameters related to evaporative cooling system and in particular fogging, and how the site testing can be handled to ensure proper performance. Concepts of ‘Conversion Effectiveness’ and ‘Evaporation Effectiveness’ have also been introduced in this paper.

scholarly journals An Overview of Different Indirect and Semi-Indirect Evaporative Cooling System for Study Potency of Nanopore Skinless Bamboo as An Evaporative Cooling New Porous Material

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-116
Author(s):  
Hendra Wijaksana ◽  
I. Nyoman Suprapta Winaya ◽  
Made Sucipta ◽  
Ainul Ghurri
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Porous Material ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Evaporative Cooling ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Dew Point ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Evaporative Cooling System ◽  
Indirect Evaporative Cooling

The high energy consumption of compressor-based cooling system has prompted the researchers to study and develop non-compressor-based cooling system that less energy consumption, less environment damaging but still has high enough cooling performances. Indirect and semi indirect evaporative cooling system is the feasible non-compressor-based cooling systems that can reach the cooling performance required. These two evaporative cooling systems has some different in construction, porous material used, airflow scheme and secondary air-cooling method used for various applications. This paper would report the cooling performances achieved by those two-cooling systems in terms of cooling efficiency, cooling capacity, wet bulb effectiveness, dew point effectiveness, and temperature drop. Porous material used in indirect and semi-indirect evaporative cooling would be highlighted in terms of their type, size, thickness and any other feature. The introduction of nanopore skinless bamboo potency as a new porous material for either indirect or semi-indirect evaporative cooling would be described. In the future study of nanopore skinless bamboo, a surface morphology and several hygrothermal test including sorption, water vapor transmission, thermal conductivity test would be applied, before it utilizes as a new porous material for direct or semi indirect evaporative cooling.

Upgrade of the Intake Air Cooling System for a Heavy-Duty Industrial Gas Turbine

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Ingistov ◽  
Mustapha Chaker
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Air Cooling ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Ambient Conditions ◽  
Fog Water ◽  
Media Type ◽  
Air Cooling System ◽  
Evaporative Cooling System ◽  
And Performance

This paper describes continued efforts, spanning over number of years at the Watson Cogeneration plant located in Carson California, to improve the intake air cooling system in enhancing power output and performance of the four existing heavy-duty GE 7EA gas turbines. In early 2010, a decision was made to remove the media-type evaporative cooling system from one of the GT units (Unit #4) and rely completely on the high pressure fogging system to cool the compressor inlet air for power augmentation. The reasons and the efforts made for modifying the intake air system are elaborated in this paper including discussion on the results obtained due to implemented changes. Steam turbine condensate at 49 °C is utilized as the fogging water in contrast to the commonly used demineralized water at the ambient conditions. A discussion on the implication of using high temperature fog water is included here.

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