Fluid-Dynamics Analysis and Structural Optimization of a 300 kW MicroGas Turbine Recuperator

Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)is used here to reduce pressure loss and improve heat exchange efficiency in the recuperator associated with a gas turbine.First,numerical simulations of the high-temperature and lowtemperature channels are performed and,the calculated results are compared with experimental data(to verify the reliability of the numerical method).Second,the flow field structure of the low-temperature side channel is critically analyzed,leading to the conclusion that the flow velocity distribution in the low-temperature side channel is uneven,and its resistance is significantly higher than that in the high-temperature side.Therefore,five alternate structural schemes are proposed for the optimization of the low-temperature side.In particular,to reduce the flow velocity in the upper channel,the rib length of each channel at the inlet of the low-temperature side region is adjusted.The performances of the 5 schemes are compared,leading to the identification of the configuration able to guarantee a uniform flow rate and minimize the pressure drop.Finally,the heat transfer performance of the optimized recuperator structure is evaluated,and it is shown that the effectiveness of the recuperator is increased by 1.5%.

Preparation and characterization of LPPS NiCoCrAlYTa coatings for gas turbine engine

NiCoCrAlYTa coatings have been deposited onto an aircraft gas turbine engine blade using a LPPS unit equipped with a computerized robot. Optimal processing conditions, including spray parameters, the trajectory of the robot, and the synchronized movements between the torch and the blade, have been developed for superior coating properties. Transferred arc treatment, providing a preheating and a cleaning of the substrate surface, enhances the adherence of the coatings to the substrate. The resulting LPPS coatings show dense and uniform characteristics with ideal hardness, and good corrosion resistance to cycle oxidation.

Fault Identification and Health Monitoring of Gas Turbine Engines Using Hybrid Machine Learning-based Strategies

Ahealth monitoring scheme is developed in this work by using hybrid machine learning strategies to iden-tify the fault severity and assess the health status of the aircraft gas turbine engine that is subject to component degrada-tions that are caused by fouling and erosion.The proposed hybrid framework involves integrating both supervised recur-rent neural networks and unsupervised self-organizing maps methodologies,where the former is developed to extract ef-fective features that can be associated with the engine health condition and the latter is constructed for fault severity modeling and tracking of each considered degradation mode.Advantages of our proposed methodology are that it ac-complishes fault identification and health monitoring objectives by only discovering inherent health information that are available in the system I/O data at each operating point.The effectiveness of our approach is validated and justified with engine data under various degradation modes in compressors and turbines.

Evaluation of the Influence of Ambient Temperature on the Performance of the Trans-Amadi Gas Turbine Plant

This paper examines the effects of ambient temperature on the Trans-Amadi gas turbine power station Phase II. The investigation took thirteen (13) months (January 2012 to January 2013) during which plant data were monitored and operational Logsheets like turbine logsheets, plant—auxiliaries’ logsheets and generator logsheets were studied. The gas turbine (GT) that was under investigation was GT-2: MS5001 Nuovopignone with designed installed capacity of 25.0 Megawatts (MW). The result of the study shows that a 1℃ rise of the ambient temperature is responsible for the following: 0% - 0.12% decrease in the power output, 0% - 0.12% increase in the power differential, 0% - 1.17% decrease in the thermal efficiency, 0% - 27.18% increase in the heat rate and 0% - 3.57% increase in the specific fuel consumption. An ambient temperature of 30℃ is found to yield minimal fuel consumption.

Off-Design Performance of Gas Turbine Power Units with Alternative Load-Control Strategies

Gas turbine power units,as an effective way to cope with the severe challenge of renewable energy accommodation in power grids,arouse the interest of power enterprises in the deep peak-load regulation performance.Two common alternative load-control strategies including constant turbine inlet temperature(TIT)and constant turbine exhaust temperature(TET)regulations were taken into consideration.To comparatively investigate the part-load performance under these strategies,both mathematical and physical models were set up successively to serve as a validation and complementary to each other.For the mathematical model of compressor with inlet guide vane(IGV),combustor and turbine,stage-stacking method based on blade average geometric parameter,energy conservation and turbine stage model were adopted respectively.For the physical model,design and off-design analysis were carried out based on GT PRO and THERMOFLEX respectively.The simulation result of mathematical model validated the reliability of the physical model.Based on this,the influence of ambient temperature and different load-regulating strategies on the off-design performance of gas turbine power units was studied in THERMOFLEX.The results in the case of a PG 9351FA gas turbine show that the ambient temperature has a great impact on system performance,i.e.,every 5℃ increase in the ambient temperature produces a reduction of 3.7%in the relative full-load output and 1.1%in the relative efficiency respectively;when the gas turbine operates under constant TIT strategy,TET starts to rise till it reaches the maximum allowable value with the load rate decreasing,and IGV keeps at the minimum angle with both TIT and TET decreasing when the load rate is lower than 65%;when the gas turbine operates under constant TET strategy,TIT drops slightly at load rate of above 60%while both TIT and TET evidently decrease below 60%load rate operating along the constant corrected speed line at the minimum allowable IGV opening;gas turbine effi-ciency is greatly affected by load rate and the performance degradation is more obvious especially in lower load rate regions;constant TET strategy is superior in the operating efficiency to constant TIT strategy under part-load conditions.

Cloud Based Monitoring and Diagnosis of Gas Turbine Generator Based on Unsupervised Learning

The large number of gas turbines in large power companies is difficult to manage.A large amount of the data from the generating units is not mined and utilized for fault analysis.This study focuses on F-class(9F.05)gas turbine generators and uses unsupervised learning and cloud computing technologies to analyse the faults for the gas turbines.Remote monitoring of the operational status are conducted.The study proposes a cloud computing service architecture for large gas turbine objects,which uses unsupervised learning models to monitor the operational state of the gas turbine.Faults such as chamber seal failure,load abnormality and temperature anomalies in the gas turbine system can be identified by using the method,which has an accuracy of 60%–80%.

Research on Modeling and Control of a 100 kW Micro Bio-Gas Turbine

In order to know about the influences of disturbance on the operating performance, the present work developed the overall dynamic simulation model of the micro gas turbine and investigated the control system under the disturbances of environmental temperature and unit load. The response processes of main parameters have been obtained. It found that the compressor pressure ratio and the fuel flow rate increase in the case of natural gas being replaced by pine gas. When the system reaches a new steady state, the main parameters change to different values. The output power decreases with the declining of the air mass flow when the ambient temperature rises, the biomass gas mass flow rate increases under the regulation of the control system to maintain the output power and rotating speed in which the thermal efficiency reduces by 1.40%. The thermal efficiency enhances with the increase of output load. The control system can quickly and effectively act to maintain the key parameters at desired value.

Associated Gas Utilization Using Gas Turbine Engine, Performance Implication—Nigerian Case Study

Typically, crude oil production in Nigeria always accompanied by surface production of associated gas. With little associated gas recovery facilities in place, majority of associated gas is continuously flared with few portions re-injected into the reservoir for enhance oil recovery (EOR). In addition to environmental hazards, wasting substantial amount of produced associated gas is deemed detrimental to a country currently generating less than 54% of its electric power requirement. Onsite power generation as one of the many means of utilization of associated gas has been conceived. Conversely, the availability and performance of the gas turbine engine for onsite associated gas utilization requires evaluation owing to variations in associated natural gas composition globally and the dependency of associated gas production on reservoirs and oil production activities. This paper presents an analytical investigation of gas turbine engine inspired by GE LMS100 frame engine for onsite utilization of associated gas in Nigeria. Gas turbine performance results are presented and performance parameters are compared against typical commercial natural gas grade.

Experimental Tests on a Pre-Heated Combustion Chamber for Ultra Micro Gas Turbine Device: Air/Fuel Ratio Evaluation

Current portable power generators are mainly based on internal combustion engine since they present higher values of efficiency comparing to other engines;the main reason why internal combustion engine is not convenient for micro power generation (5 - 30 kW) is because of their heaviness. Micro and ultra micro gas turbine devices, based on a micro compressor and a micro turbine installed on the same shaft, are more suitable for this scope for several reasons. Micro turbine systems have many advantages over reciprocating engine generators, such as higher power density (with respect to size and weight), extremely low emissions and few, or just one, moving part. Those designed with foil bearings and air-cooling operate without oil, coolants or other hazardous materials. Micro turbines also have the advantage of having the majority of their waste heat contained in their relatively high temperature exhaust. Micro turbines offer several potential advantages compared to other technologies for small-scale power generation, including: a small number of moving parts, compact size, lightweight, greater efficiency, lower emissions, lower electricity costs, and opportunities to utilize waste fuels. The object of this study is the experimental tests on a stand-alone gas turbine device with a pre-heated combustion chamber (CC), to validate the fuel consumption reduction, compared to an actual and commercial device, used on air models.

Intelligent fault diagnosis methods toward gas turbine: A review

Fault diagnosis plays a significant role in conducting condition-based maintenance and health management for gas turbines(GTs) to improve reliability and reduce costs. Various diagnosis methods developed by modeling engine systems or certain components implement faults detection and diagnosis based on the measurement of systemic parameters deviations. However, these conventional model-based methods are hindered by limitations of inability to handle the nonlinear nature, measurement uncertainty, fault coupling and other implementing problems. Recently, the development of artificial intelligence algorithms has provided an effective solution to the above problems, triggering broad researches for data-driven fault diagnosis methods with better accuracy,dynamic performance, and universality. This paper presents a systematic review of recently proposed intelligent fault diagnosis methods for GT engines, according to the classification of shallow learning methods, deep learning methods and hybrid intelligent methods. Moreover, the principle of typical algorithms, the evolution of enhanced methods, and the assessment of pros and cons are summarized to conclude the present status and look forward to the future in the field of GT fault diagnosis. Possible directions for development in method validation, information fusion, and interpretability of intelligent diagnosis methods are concluded in the end to provide insightful concepts for scholars in related fields.

Thermodynamic Performance Analysis of E/F/H-Class Gas Turbine Combined Cycle with Exhaust Gas Recirculation and Inlet/Variable Guide Vane Adjustment under Part-Load Conditions

Exhaust gas recirculation control(EGRC),an inlet air heating technology,can be utilized in combination with inlet/variable guide vane control(IGV/VGVC) and fuel flow control(FFC) to regulate the load,thereby effectively improving the part-load(i.e.,off-design) performance of the gas turbine combined cycle(GTCC).In this study,the E-,F-,and H-Class EGR-GTCC design and off-design system models were established and validated to perform a comparative analysis of the part-load performance under the EGR-IGV-FFC and conventional IGV-FFC strategies in the E/F/H-Class GTCC.Results show that EGR-IGV-FFC has considerable potential for the part-load performance enhancement and can show a higher combined cycle efficiency than IGV-FFC in the E-,F-,and H-Class GTCCs.However,the part-load performance improvement in the corresponding GTCC was weakened for the higher class of the gas turbine because of the narrower load range of EGR action and the deterioration of the gas turbine performance.Furthermore,EGR-IGV-FFC was inferior to IGV-FFC in improving the performance at loads below 50% for the H-Class GTCC.The results obtained in this paper could help guide the application of EGR-IGV-FFC to enhance the part-load performance of various classes of GTCC systems.

Desired Dynamic Equation for Primary Frequency Modulation Control of Gas Turbines

Gas turbines play core roles in clean energy supply and the construction of comprehensive energy systems.The control performance of primary frequency modulation of gas turbines has a great impact on the frequency control of the power grid.However,there are some control difficulties in the primary frequency modulation control of gas turbines,such as the coupling effect of the fuel control loop and speed control loop,slow tracking speed,and so on.To relieve the abovementioned difficulties,a control strategy based on the desired dynamic equation proportional integral(DDE-PI)is proposed in this paper.Based on the parameter stability region,a parameter tuning procedure is summarized.Simulation is carried out to address the ease of use and simplicity of the proposed tuning method.Finally,DDE-PI is applied to the primary frequency modulation system of an MS6001B heavy-duty gas turbine.The simulation results indicate that the gas turbine with the proposed strategy can obtain the best control performance with a strong ability to deal with system uncertainties.The proposed method shows good engineering application potential.

Numerical simulation method of surge experiments on gas turbine engines

In order to obtain the surge margin of an aero-engine during its operation,an engine surge experiment is required.A multi-dimensional simulation method for an aero-engine is established in this paper.The simulation of a surge experiment using high-pressure air-injection is then carried out on a turbo-shaft engine to obtain the surge boundary using this method.More specifically,firstly,a body-force model is employed to calculate the compressor performance owing to its capability of capturing the main three-dimensional features of compressor surge and avoiding excessive simulation time required by the traditional fully-three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)method.Then,a one-dimensional model combining a lumped-parameter plenum model is used for the combustor to account for the propagation of pressure waves and the heat-release process,and a zero-dimensional throttle model is used to mimic the choking effect at the turbine nozzle.Finally,the air-injection system is modeled by imposing an injection boundary condition,which can be used conveniently in changing injection parameters.Based on the established method,the influences of different test parameters,such as the air-injection location,the pressure,the orifice size,the number of injection orifices,and the injection time duration on the surge characteristics and boundary are further studied,which offer effective guidance to optimize an actual experimental design.

An FV-EE model to predict lean blowout limits for gas turbine combustors with different structures and sprays

The occurrence of Lean Blowout(LBO)is a disadvantage that endangers a stable operation of gas turbines.A determination of LBO limits is essential in the design of gas turbine combustors.A semiempirical model is one of the most widely used methods to predict LBO limits.Among the existing semiempirical models for predicting LBO limits,Lefebvre’s LBO model and the Flame Volume(FV)model are particularly suitable for gas turbine combustors.On the basis of Lefebvre’s and FV models,the concept of effective evaporation efficiency is introduced in this paper,and a Flame Volume-Evaporation Efficiency(FV-EE)model is derived and validated.LBO experiments are carried out in a model combustor with 23 different structures and 10 different sprays.The prediction uncertainty of the FV-EE model is less than±13%for all of these 33 structures and sprays,compared with±50%for the FV model and±60%for Lefebvre’s model.Furthermore,the prediction uncertainty of the FV-EE model is also less than±13%for other combustors from available literature.

Digital twin model of gas turbine and its application in warning of performance fault

The digital twin-driven performance model provides an attractive option for the warn gas-path faults of the gas turbines.However,three technical difficulties need to be solved:(1)low modeling precision caused by individual differences between gas turbines,(2)poor solution efficiency due to excessive iterations,and(3)the false alarm and missing alarm brought by the traditional fixed threshold method.This paper proposes a digital twin model-based early warning method for gas-path faults that breaks through the above obstacles from three aspects.Firstly,a novel performance modeling strategy is proposed to make the simulation effect close to the actual gas turbine by fusing the mechanism model and measurement data.Secondly,the idea of controlling the relative accuracy of model parameters is developed.The introduction of an error module to the existing model can greatly shorten the modeling cycle.The third solution focuses on the early warning based on the digital twin model,which self-learns the alarm threshold of the warning feature of gas-path parameters using the kernel density estimation.The proposed method is utilized to analyze actual measured data of LM2500+,and the results verify that the new-built digital model has higher accuracy and better efficiency.The comparisons show that the proposed method shows evident superiority in early warning of performance faults for gas turbines over other methods.

Dual Phase Renewable Fuel Combustion in an Atmospheric Gas Turbine Burner

Expanding the fuel flexibility of continuous combustion systems to include multiphase fuel combustion offers additional support to combat the problem of energy security and,potentially,environmental pollution.In this study,apart from establishing stability limits and measuring post-combustion emissions,flames generated from simultaneous combustion of biodiesel and syngas were examined using C_(2)*and CH*chemiluminescence imaging to capture changes in the reaction zone.The proportion of syngas in the fuel mix was varied from 0 to 30%content(by energy contribution)while maintaining a total power output of 15 kW.The overall equivalence ratio was held at 0.7 in cases other than for determining the flammability range.The results indicate a reduction of stability limits as gas proportion in fuel blend increases.Also,chemiluminescence imaging of the two targeted species suggest a general reduction in reaction rate as well as reaction zone area and length with increase in gas ratio in the dual phase tests.Furthermore,emissions performance in the context of NOxand CO was investigated as liquid-to-gas ratios were altered.Conclusively,the study demonstrates the feasibility,limitations and potential benefits of multiphase renewable fuel combustion in a swirl-stabilised burner.

Performance Assessment of a Novel Polygeneration System Based on the Integration of Waste Plasma Gasification,Tire Pyrolysis,Gas Turbine,Supercritical CO_(2)Cycle and Organic Rankine Cycle

In this paper,a novel polygeneration system involving plasma gasifier,pyrolysis reactor,gas turbine(GT),supercritical CO_(2)(S-CO_(2))cycle,and organic Rankine cycle(ORC)has been developed.In the proposed scheme,the syngas is obtained by the gasification and the pyrolysis is first burned and drives the gas turbine for power generation,and then the resulting hot exhaust gas is applied to heat the working fluid for the supercritical CO_(2)cycle and the working fluid for the bottom organic Rankine cycle.In addition to the electrical output,the pyrolysis subsystem also produces pyrolysis oil and char.Accordingly,energy recovery is achieved while treating waste in a non-hazardous manner.The performance of the new scheme was examined by numerous methods,containing energy analysis,exergy analysis,and economic analysis.It is found that the net total energy output of the polygeneration system could attain 19.89 MW with a net total energy efficiency of 52.77%,and the total exergy efficiency of 50.14%.Besides,the dynamic payback period for the restoration of the proposed project is only 3.31 years,and the relative net present value of 77552640 USD can be achieved during its 20-year lifetime.

Storage-reduction strategy for NO_(x) reduction from gas turbine exhaust with W-Ti-CeO_(x) catalyst in natural gas power plants

Traditional vanadium-based selective catalytic reduction(SCR)deNO_(x) catalyst can hardly adapt to the gas conditions(much high NO_(2)/NO_(x) ratio at lower temperature)of the start-up and low loading periods for a gas turbine.Therefore,a W-Ti-CeO_(x) catalyst with NO_(x) storage and reduction(NSR)function was developed in this work for gas turbine exhaust NO_(x) elimination.The experimental results reveal that W-Ti-CeO_(x) catalyst exhibits high NO_(2) adsorption capacity at relatively low temperature while that is quite low for V-W/TiO_(2).The abundant surface Ce^(3+) species can be mainly responsible for its high adsorption ability owing to the reaction between NO_(2) and Ce^(3+) to form nitrate/nitrite species and NO.Meanwhile,the adsorption capacity of W-Ti-CeO_(x) can easily regenerate at medium-high temperature and NH_(3)-SCR reaction.Furthermore,W-Ti-CeO_(x) also shows good NH_(3)-SCR activity,which can fulfill the deNO_(x) process at high temperature.The addition of W and Ti into ceria can enhance the surface acidity and redox ability,thereby increasing the SCR activity.This work proposes a novel storage-reduction strategy for NO_(x) elimination throughout the operation of gas turbines.

Micro gas turbine:Developments,applications,and key technologies on components

Owing to their precedent characteristics,micro gas turbines(MGTs)have been favored as popular power machinery in plenty of energy systems such as distributed energy systems,range extenders,solar power generations,fuel cell systems and individual power supplies.Their specific features essentially include but are not limited to strong fuel adaptability,low emissions,flexible structure,and easy maintenance.Over the past 20 years,various types of MGTs have been developed.Classical and forward-looking technologies have been employed in the design and production of MGTs and their components.Among them,fully radial flow structures,gas lubricated bearings and efficient recuperators are typical approaches to enhance the overall performance and compactness,however,the exploitation of ceramic based materials and intelligent algorithms in component design can also assist in improving the performance.The applications of MGTs have been expanded to many fields,and the research on related components has also made new progress.Due to the time frame,there is no systematic summary of the latest relevant research,so it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the applications of MGTs and their pertinent components.This paper aims to present a comprehensive review on MGTs,covering the development status,applications,factors of performance and representative explorations of their components.Some investigations regarding the characteristics of commercial MGTs are also conducted.Applications in distributed energy,range extenders,solar generations,and fuel cell systems are distinctly introduced.Recent research work on compressors,turbines,combustors,recuperators,and rotor systems are reviewed and analyzed.The technologies and methods associated with materials,manufacturing,and cycles beneficial to the future development of MGTs are also explained and discussed in some detail.