Tradeoff Assessments for Part Load Controlled Cooling Air in Stationary Gas Turbines

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Woelki ◽  
Dieter Peitsch

Abstract The demand for flexible part load operation of stationary gas turbines requires the simultaneous design for sufficient efficiency and lifetime. Both can be addressed by the secondary air system. This paper presents investigations on the concepts of cooling air reduction in off-design, aiming for tradeoffs between fuel burn and turbine blade life. The considered lifetime mechanisms are creep and oxidation. In addition, the effects on emissions from the combustion are outlined. The reference gas turbine is a generic gas turbine in the 300 MW power output segment. The focus is on the first two stages of the four-stage turbine. All simulations are performed by application of a coupled model that essentially connects gas turbine performance with a secondary air system network model. This coupled model is now extended with blade life evaluation and emission models. The results contain tradeoffs for operating points at base and part load. For example, the combined cooling air control of stage 1 rotor blade and stage 2 vane offers savings up to 0.5% fuel flow at 60% of base load in a combined cycle application. This saving is at the expense of creep life. However, some operating points could even operate at higher blade temperatures in order to improve life regarding hot corrosion. Furthermore, generic sensitivities of controlled secondary air supply to cooling layers and hot gas ingestion are discussed. Overall, the presented trades mark promising potentials of modulated secondary air system concepts from a technical point of view.

Author(s):  
Dominik Woelki ◽  
Dieter Peitsch

Abstract The demand for flexible operation of stationary gas turbines, especially at part load, requires the simultaneous design for sufficient efficiency and life time. Both can be addressed by the secondary air system. The here applied concept modulates cooling air supply in off-design. Typically, a reduction of cooling air leads to higher efficiency but shorter turbine life time. This paper presents investigations on such concepts, aiming for trade-offs between fuel burn and turbine blade life. The considered life time mechanisms are creep, which is dominant in rotor blades, and oxidation. In addition, the effects on emissions from the combustion are outlined. The reference gas turbine is a literature-based, generic gas turbine in the 300 MWpower output segment. Regarding cooling air control, the focus is on the first two stages of the four-stage turbine. All simulations are performed by application of component zooming with an appropriate in-house tool: a previously introduced coupled model of the reference gas turbine that essentially connects gas turbine performance with a secondary air system network model. This coupled model is now extended with blade life evaluation and emission models. The results contain trade-offs for different operating points at base and part load. For example, the combined cooling air control of stage 1 rotor blade and stage 2 vane offers several benefits regarding fuel consumption: saving up to Δwfuel,rel = 0.5% in the heat recovery’s kink point operation at 60 % of base load of a combined cycle application. This saving is at the expense of creep life. However, some operating points could even operate at higher blade temperatures in order to improve life regarding hot corrosion. Furthermore, generic sensitivities of controlled secondary air supply to cooling layers and hot gas ingestion at rim seals are discussed. Overall, the presented trades mark promising potentials of modulated secondary air system concepts from a technical point of view.


Author(s):  
Luca Bozzi ◽  
Enrico D’angelo

High turn-down operating of heavy-duty gas turbines in modern Combined Cycle Plants requires a highly efficient secondary air system to ensure the proper supply of cooling and sealing air. Thus, accurate performance prediction of secondary flows in the complete range of operating conditions is crucial. The paper gives an overview of the secondary air system of Ansaldo F-class AEx4.3A gas turbines. Focus of the work is a procedure to calculate the cooling flows, which allows investigating both the interaction between cooled rows and additional secondary flows (sealing and leakage air) and the influence on gas turbine performance. The procedure is based on a fluid-network solver modelling the engine secondary air system. Parametric curves implemented into the network model give the consumption of cooling air of blades and vanes. Performances of blade cooling systems based on different cooling technology are presented. Variations of secondary air flows in function of load and/or ambient conditions are discussed and justified. The effect of secondary air reduction is investigated in details showing the relationship between the position, along the gas path, of the upgrade and the increasing of engine performance. In particular, a section of the paper describes the application of a consistent and straightforward technique, based on an exergy analysis, to estimate the effect of major modifications to the air system on overall engine performance. A set of models for the different factors of cooling loss is presented and sample calculations are used to illustrate the splitting and magnitude of losses. Field data, referred to AE64.3A gas turbine, are used to calibrate the correlation method and to enhance the structure of the lumped-parameters network models.


Author(s):  
A. W. Reichert ◽  
M. Janssen

Siemens heavy duty Gas Turbines have been well known for their high power output combined with high efficiency and reliability for more than 3 decades. Offering state of the art technology at all times, the requirements concerning the cooling and sealing air system have increased with technological development over the years. In particular the increase of the turbine inlet temperature and reduced NOx requirements demand a highly efficient cooling and sealing air system. The new Vx4.3A family of Siemens gas turbines with ISO turbine inlet temperatures of 1190°C in the power range of 70 to 240 MW uses an effective film cooling technique for the turbine stages 1 and 2 to ensure the minimum cooling air requirement possible. In addition, the application of film cooling enables the cooling system to be simplified. For example, in the new gas turbine family no intercooler and no cooling air booster for the first turbine vane are needed. This paper deals with the internal air system of Siemens gas turbines which supplies cooling and sealing air. A general overview is given and some problems and their technical solutions are discussed. Furthermore a state of the art calculation system for the prediction of the thermodynamic states of the cooling and sealing air is introduced. The calculation system is based on the flow calculation package Flowmaster (Flowmaster International Ltd.), which has been modified for the requirements of the internal air system. The comparison of computational results with measurements give a good impression of the high accuracy of the calculation method used.


Author(s):  
Leo R. Burgett ◽  
Tim Mercer

Fuel oil nozzle coking has been a continuing problem for operators of gas turbine power plants. Over the years, several “solutions” to eliminate the coking of the fuel oil have been implemented to improve plant reliability and availability. When the fuel oil nozzle is “coked”, the startup and operation of the gas turbine are impaired and an unscheduled outage is needed to clean the fuel oil nozzle. In 1997, a project was initiated to investigate the coking problem as it affects the operation of the dual fuel burner of the ABB ALSTOM POWER Inc. GT11N1 single burner (SBK) gas turbine. The GT11N1 SBK fuel oil nozzle (see FIGURE 1) was failing to operate properly because of “coked” fuel oil residue on its internal components (stationary and moveable). ABB ALSTOM POWER Inc. teamed with Savannah Electric & Power Company and collected data that indicated adequate nozzle cooling air could reduce the rate of fuel oil coking. A nozzle cooling air system modification was installed on one of the ABB ALSTOM POWER Inc. 11N1 gas turbines at the Savannah Electric & Power Company McIntosh Power Plant. The modification included an AC motor driven air blower to provide cooling air to the fuel oil nozzle after shutdown of the gas turbine. Inspection of the components inside the fuel oil nozzle showed that very little fuel oil oxidation had occurred inside the nozzle during the three-month test period. By improving the fuel oil nozzle cooling air system, the coking problem can be better managed.


Author(s):  
Tadashi Tsuji

Air cooling blades are usually applied to gas turbines as a basic specification. This blade cooling air is almost 20% of compressor suction air and it means that a great deal of compression load is not converted effectively to turbine power generation. This paper proposes the CCM (Cascade Cooling Module) system of turbine blade air line and the consequent improvement of power generation, which is achieved by the reduction of cooling air consumption with effective use of recovered heat. With this technology, current gas turbines (TIT: turbine inlet temperature: 1350°C) can be up-rated to have a relative high efficiency increase. The increase ratio has a potential to be equivalent to that of 1500°C Class GT/CC against 1350°C Class. The CCM system is designed to enable the reduction of blade cooling air consumption by the low air temperature of 15°C instead of the usual 200–400°C. It causes the turbine operating air to increase at the constant suction air condition, which results in the enhancement of power and thermal efficiency. The CCM is installed in the cooling air line and is composed of three stage coolers: steam generator/fuel preheater stage, heat exchanger stage for hot water supplying and cooler stage with chilled water. The coolant (chilled water) for downstream cooler is produced by an absorption refrigerator operated by the hot water of the upstream heat exchanger. The proposed CCM system requires the modification of cooling air flow network in the gas turbine but produces the direct effect on performance enhancement. When the CCM system is applied to a 700MW Class CC (Combined Cycle) plant (GT TIT: 135°C Class), it is expected that there will be a 40–80MW increase in power and +2–5% relative increase in thermal efficiency.


Author(s):  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Innocenti ◽  
Mirko Micio

Reliable design of secondary air system is one of the main tasks for the safety, unfailing and performance of gas turbine engines. To meet the increasing demands of gas turbines design, improved tools in prediction of the secondary air system behavior over a wide range of operating conditions are needed. A real gas turbine secondary air system includes several components, therefore its analysis is not carried out through a complete CFD approach. Usually, that predictions are performed using codes, based on simplified approach which allows to evaluate the flow characteristics in each branch of the air system requiring very poor computational resources and few calculation time. Generally the available simplified commercial packages allow to correctly solve only some of the components of a real air system and often the elements with a more complex flow structure cannot be studied; among such elements, the analysis of rotating cavities is very hard. This paper deals with a design-tool developed at the University of Florence for the simulation of rotating cavities. This simplified in-house code solves the governing equations for steady one-dimensional axysimmetric flow using experimental correlations both to incorporate flow phenomena caused by multidimensional effects, like heat transfer and flow field losses, and to evaluate the circumferential component of velocity. Although this calculation approach does not enable a correct modeling of the turbulent flow within a wheel space cavity, the authors tried to create an accurate model taking into account the effects of inner and outer flow extraction, rotor and stator drag, leakages, injection momentum and, finally, the shroud/rim seal effects on cavity ingestion. The simplified calculation tool was designed to simulate the flow in a rotating cavity with radial outflow both with a Batchelor and/or Stewartson flow structures. A primary 1D-code testing campaign is available in the literature [1]. In the present paper the authors develop, using CFD tools, reliable correlations for both stator and rotor friction coefficients and provide a full 1D-code validation comparing, due to lack of experimental data, the in house design-code predictions with those evaluated by CFD.


Author(s):  
Thomas P. Schmitt ◽  
Herve Clement

Current trends in usage patterns of gas turbines in combined cycle applications indicate a substantial proportion of part load operation. Commensurate with the change in operating profile, there has been an increase in the propensity for part load performance guarantees. When a project is structured such that gas turbines are procured as equipment-only from the manufacturer, there is occasionally a gas turbine part load performance guarantee that coincides with the net plant combined cycle part load performance guarantee. There are several methods by which to accomplish part load gas turbine performance testing. One of the more common methods is to operate the gas turbine at the specified load value and construct correction curves at constant load. Another common method is to operate the gas turbine at a specified load percentage and construct correction curves at constant percent load. A third method is to operate the gas turbine at a selected load level that corresponds to a predetermined compressor inlet guide vane (IGV) angle. The IGV angle for this third method is the IGV angle that is needed to achieve the guaranteed load at the guaranteed boundary conditions. The third method requires correction curves constructed at constant IGV, just like base load correction curves. Each method of test and correction embodies a particular set of advantages and disadvantages. The results of an exploration into the advantages and disadvantages of the various performance testing and correction methods for part load performance testing of gas turbines are presented. Particular attention is given to estimates of the relative uncertainty for each method.


Author(s):  
Carlo Carcasci ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Stefano Gori ◽  
Luca Bozzi ◽  
Stefano Traverso

This paper reviews a modular-structured program ESMS (Energy System Modular Simulation) for the simulation of air-cooled gas turbines cycles, including the calculation of the secondary air system. The program has been tested for the Ansaldo Energia gas turbine V94.3A, which is one of the more advanced models in the family Vx4.3A with a rated power of 270 MW. V94.3A cooling system has been modeled with SASAC (Secondary Air System Ansaldo Code), the Ansaldo code used to predict the structure of the flow through the internal air system. The objective of the work was to investigate the tuning of the analytical program on the basis of the data from design and performance codes in use at Ansaldo Energy Gas Turbine Department. The results, both at base load over different ambient conditions and in critical off-design operating points (full-speed-no-load and minimum-load), have been compared with APC (Ansaldo Performance Code) and confirmed by field data. The coupled analysis of cycle and cooling network shows interesting evaluations for components life estimation and reliability during off-design operating conditions.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Woelki ◽  
◽  
Dieter Peitsch ◽  
Jonas Foret ◽  
Louise Dittmar ◽  
...  

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