Influence of the Ambient Temperature on the Efficiency of Gas Turbines

In hot and arid regions like the Saharan area,effective methods for cooling and humidifying intake air are essential.This study explores the utilization of a water trickle cooler as a promising solution to meet this objective.In particular,the HASSI MESSAOUD area is considered as a testbed.The water trickle cooler is chosen for its adaptability to arid conditions.Modeling results demonstrate its effectiveness in conditioning air before it enters the compressor.The cooling system achieves a significant temperature reduction of 6 to 8 degrees Celsius,enhancing mass flow rate dynamics by 3 percent compared to standard cases without cooling.Moreover,the cooling system contributes to a remarkable 10 percent reduction in power consumption of gas turbines and a notable 10 percent increase in turbine efficiency.These findings highlight the potential of water trickle coolers in improving the performance and efficiency of gas turbine systems in hot and dry climates.

Preparation and property of seal coating for gas turbine compressor

Double-layer structure of seal coating which consisted of a Ni5Al bond coating and a Ni25 graphite top coating were prepared on steel substrate of gas turbine compressor cylinder block.Bond coating was prepared by atmospheric plasma spraying and top coating was prepared by flame spraying.The microstructure,mechanical properties and abradability of the coating were characterized by scanning elec-tron microscope(SEM),hardness tester,universal testing machine,thermal shock testing machine and abradability testing machine.The res-ults show that the overall spraying structure of the seal coating is uniform,the nickel metal phase is the skeleton supporting the entire coat-ing,and the coating is well bonded without separation.The seal coating has a bonding strength of not less than 7.7 MPa,excellent thermal stability,and thermal shock resistance cycle numbers at 500℃more than 50;the scratch length,deepest invasion depth and wear amount of the coating increase with rise of test temperature,with almost no coating adhesion,indicating that the seal coating has excellent abradability.

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.

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%.

PIV MEASUREMENT FOR SWIRLER FLOW FIELD IN GAS TURBINE COMBUSTOR

The characteristics of swirler flow field, including cold flow field and combustion flow field, in gas tur- bine combustor with two-stage swirler are studied by using particle image velocimetry （PIV）. Velocity compo- nents, fluctuation velocity, Reynolds stress and recirculation zone length are obtained, respectively. Influences of geometric parameter of primary hole, arrangement of primary hole, inlet air temperature, first-stage swirler an- gle and fuel/air ratio on flow field are investigated, respectively. The experimental results reveal that the primary recirculation zone lengths of combustion flow field are shorter than those of cold flow field, and the primary reeir- culation zone lengths decrease with the increase of inlet air temperature and fuel/air ratio. The change of the geo- metric parameter of primary hole casts an important influence on the swirler flow field in two-stage swirler com- bustor.

Contribution of tuned liquid column gas dampers to the performance of offshore wind turbines under wind, wave, and seismic excitations

The main intention of the present study is to reduce wind, wave, and seismic induced vibrations of jacket- type offshore wind turbines （JOWTs） through a newly developed vibration absorber, called tuned liquid column gas damper （TLCGD）. Using a Simulink-based model, an analytical model is developed to simulate global behavior of JOWTs under different dynamic excitations. The study is followed by a parametric study to explore efficiency of the TLCGD in terms of nacelle acceleration reduction under wind, wave, and earthquake loads. Study results indicate that optimum frequency of the TLCGD is rather insensitive to excitation type. In addition, while the gain in vibration control from TLCGDs with higher mass ratios is generally more pronounced, heavy TLCGDs are more sensitive to their tuned frequency such that ill-regulated TLCGD with high mass ratio can lead to destructive results. It is revealed that a well regulated TLCGD has noticeable contribution to the dynamic response of the JOWT under any excitation.

Directional solidification casting technology of heavy-duty gas turbine blade with liquid metal cooling(LMC) process

In this work, some important factors such as ceramic shell strength, heat preservation temperature, standing time and withdrawal rate, which influence the formability of directionally solidified large-size blades of heavy-duty gas turbine with the liquid metal cooling(LMC) process, were studied through the method of microstructure analysis combining. The results show that the ceramic shell with medium strength(the high temperature flexural strength is 8 MPa, the flexural strength after thermal shock resistance is 12 MPa and the residual flexural strength is 20 MPa) can prevent the rupture and runout of the blade. The appropriate temperature(1,520 ℃ for upper region and 1,500 ℃ for lower region) of the heating furnace can eliminate the wide-angle grain boundary, the deviation of grain and the run-out caused by the shell crack. The holding time after pouring(3-5 min) can promote the growth of competitive grains and avoid a great deviation of columnar grains along the crystal orientation <001>, resulting in a straight and uniform grain structure. In addition, to avoid the formation of wrinkles and to ensure a smooth blade surface, the withdrawal rate should be no greater than the growth rate of grain. It is also found that the dendritic space of the blade decreases with the rise of solidification rate, and increases with the enlarging distance between the solidification position and the chill plate.

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.

Simulation and analysis of humid air turbine cycle based on aeroderivative three-shaft gas turbine

Due to the fact that the turbine outlet temperature of aeroderivative three-shaft gas turbine is low,the conventional combined cycle is not suitable for three-shaft gas turbines.However,the humid air turbine(HAT)cycle provides a new choice for aeroderivative gas turbine because the humidification process does not require high temperature.Existing HAT cycle plants are all based on single-shaft gas turbines due to their simple structures,therefore converting aeroderivative three-shaft gas turbine into HAT cycle still lacks sufficient research.This paper proposes a HAT cycle model on a basis of an aeroderivative three-shaft gas turbine.Detailed HAT cycle modelling of saturator,gas turbine and heat exchanger are carried out based on the modular modeling method.The models are verified by simulations on the aeroderivative three-shaft gas turbine.Simulation results show that the studied gas turbine with original size and characteristics could not reach the original turbine inlet temperature because of the introduction of water.However,the efficiency still increases by 0.16%when the HAT cycle runs at the designed power of the simple cycle.Furthermore,simulations considering turbine modifications show that the efficiency could be significantly improved.The results obtained in the paper can provide reference for design and analysis of HAT cycle based on multi-shaft gas turbine especially the aeroderivative gas turbine.

Thermodynamic Analysis of Alternative Marine Fuels for Marine Gas Turbine Power Plants

The marine shipping industry faces challenges to reduce engine exhaust emissions and greenhouse gases （GHGs） from ships, and in particular, carbon dioxide. International regulatory bodies such as the International Maritime Organization and National Environmental Agencies of many countries have issued rules and regulations to drastically reduce GHG and emissions emanating from marine sources. This study investigates the possibility of using natural gas and hydrogen as alternative fuels to diesel oil for marine gas turbines and uses a mathematical model to assess the effect of these alternative fuels on gas turbine thermodynamic performance. Results show that since natural gas is categorized as a hydrocarbon fuel, the thermodynamic performance of the gas turbine cycle using natural gas was close to that of the diesel case. However, the gas turbine thermal efficiency was found to be slightly lower for natural gas and hydrogen fuels compared to diesel fuel.

Analysis on Causes of Scaling in Flue Gas Turbine of FCCU and Countermeasures

Causes of scale deposition in flue gas turbine expander of FCCU were analyzed based on some aspects,including the types and operating conditions of flue gas turbines,properties and composition of feedstocks and catalysts,and operating conditions of the reactor and regenerator.Some countermeasures were proposed for preventing scale deposition in flue gas turbine of FCCU.

Diagnosis and Treatment of the Vibration Fault of a Gas Turbine 6300kW

A gas turbine in a certain gas company didn't work normally because of its strong vibration.Although this turbine had been balanced repeatedly at low speed, the vibration amplitude and unbalance weight of the machine changed irregularly. The causes and characteristics of the vibration are discussed. According to the change of the critical speed and the characteristics of vibration, it is found that the vibration is caused by weakness of the tight force on the central rod of the rotor and the oil whirl of the back bearing of the compressor. After clearing these faults and balancing the rotor of the compressor at high speed, the turbine worksnormally again.

A Strong Tracking Filtering Approach for Health Estimation of Marine Gas Turbine Engine

Monitoring and evaluating the health parameters of marine gas turbine engine help in developing predictive control techniques and maintenance schedules.Because the health parameters are unmeasurable,researchers estimate them only based on the available measurement parameters.Kalman filter-based approaches are the most commonly used estimation approaches;how-ever,the conventional Kalman filter-based approaches have a poor robustness to the model uncertainty,and their ability to track the mutation condition is influenced by historical data.Therefore,in this paper,an improved Kalman filter-based algorithm called the strong tracking extended Kalman filter(STEKF)approach is proposed to estimate the gas turbine health parameters.The analytical expressions of Jacobian matrixes are deduced by non-equilibrium point analytical linearization to address the problem of the conventional approaches.The proposed approach was used to estimate the health parameters of a two-shaft marine gas turbine engine in the simulation environment and was compared with the extended Kalman filter(EKF)and the unscented Kalman filter(UKF).The results show that the STEKF approach not only has a computation cost similar to that of the EKF approach but also outperforms the EKF approach when the health parameters change abruptly and the noise mean value is not zero.

Impinging Cooling with a Crescent Surface Inspired by Barchan Dunes in a Simplified Gas Turbine Transition Section

For the enhancement of heat transfer efficiency,a novel turbulator inspired by the morphology of barchan dunes,called the mimetic barchan dune(MBD)turbulator,is designed and evaluated in the simplified gas turbine transition section.By using computational fluid dynamics(CFD),the numerical simulations for comparison have been carried out,concluding the smooth thermal surface,a thermal surface with riblet-shaped turbulator and a thermal surface with MBD turbulator.Then,two indicators are investigated for evaluating the coolant performance which are the heat transfer efficiency(η)on the outlet and the pressure loss(ΔP)in the coolant chamber.The numerical results show that the coolant has the best heat transfer efficiency with less pressure loss in the coolant chamber with the MBD turbulator.Then,the effect of the MBD turbulator sizes on heat transfer efficiency is investigated.When the height of the MBD turbulator(h)is set at 8 mm,the maximum amount of heat that could be transfered by the coolant is up to566.2 K and the corresponding heat transfer efficiency is 26.62%.The detail flows have been shown to elucidate the function of the MBD surface which may greatly arouse more design for solving harsh circumstance.

Studying the Role Played by Evaporative Cooler on the Performance of GE Gas Turbine Existed in Shuaiba North Electric Generator Power Plant

It’s well known that the performance of a gas turbine (efficiency, heat rate and power generated) is largely dependent on mass flow rate of air, inlet air temperature and turbine inlet temperature (TIT). As turbine inlet temperature is dependent on quantity of burned fuel so that this factor is dropped out from this paper. It’s also known that gas turbines are constant volume machines i.e. at a given shaft speed they always move the same volume of air, but the power out-put of a turbine depends on the flow of mass through it. This is precisely the reason why on hot days, when air is less dense, power output falls off. A rise of one degree Centigrade temperature of inlet air decreases the power output by 1% and at the same time heat rate of the turbine also goes up. This is a matter of great concern to power producers. Many techniques have been developed to cool the inlet air to gas turbine. Some of these techniques to decrease the inlet air temperature are discussed here. The evaporative cooling technique is taken as a case study in this paper. A comparative studying is carried out between a unit using this technique and the same unit when the evaporative cooler is idle. The results advert to an increase in power output by 11.07% and a decrease in heat rate by approximately 4% when inlet air temperature drops from 50°C to 26°C.

Improved Design of a 25 MW Gas Turbine Plant Using Combined Cycle Application

This paper presents the improved design of a 25 MW gas turbine power plant at Omoku in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, using combined cycle application. It entails retrofitting a steam bottoming plant to the existing 25 MW gas turbine plant by incorporating a heat recovery steam generator. The focus is to improve performance as well as reduction in total emission to the environment. Direct data collection was performed from the HMI monitoring screen, log books and manufacturer’s manual. Employing the application of MATLAB, the thermodynamics equations were modeled and appropriate parameters of the various components of the steam turbine power plant were determined. The results show that the combined cycle system had a total power output of 37.9 MW, made up of 25.0 MW from the gas turbine power plant and 12.9 MW (an increase of about 51%) from the steam turbine plant, having an HRSG, condenser and feed pump capacities of 42.46 MW, 29.61 MW and 1.76 MW respectively. The condenser cooling water parameters include a mass flow of 1180.42 kg/s, inlet and outlet temperatures of 29.8°C and 35.8°C respectively. The cycle efficiency of the dry mode gas turbine was 26.6% whereas, after modification, the combined cycle power plant overall efficiency is 48.8% (about 84% increases). Hence, SIEMENS steam turbine product of MODEL: SST-150 was recommended as the steam bottoming plant. Also the work reveals that a heat flow of about 42.46 MW which was otherwise being wasted in the exhaust gas of the 25 MW gas turbine power plant could be converted to 12.9 MW of electric power, thus reducing the total emission to the environment.

The Behaviour of Superalloys in Marine Gas Turbine Engine Conditions

This paper presents hot corrosion results carried out systematically on the selected nickel based superalloys such as IN 738 LC, GTM-SU-718 and GTM-SU-263 for marine gas turbine engines both at high and low temperatures that represent type I and type II hot corrosion respectively. The results were compared with advanced superalloy under similar conditions in order to understand the characteristics of the selected superalloys. It is observed that the selected superalloys are relatively more resistant to type I and type II hot corrosion when compared to advanced superalloy. In fact, the advanced superalloy is extremely vulnerable to both types of hot corrosion. Subsequently, the relevant reaction mechanisms that are responsible for slow and faster degradation of various superalloys under varied hot corrosion conditions were discussed. Based on the results obtained with different techniques, a degradation mechanism for all the selected superalloys as well as advanced superalloy under both types of hot corrosion conditions was explained. Finally, the necessity as well as developmental efforts with regard to smart corrosion resistant coatings for their effective protection under high temperature conditions was stressed for their enhanced efficiency.

Effects of Syngas Particulate Fly Ash Deposition on the Mechanical Properties of Thermal Barrier Coatings on Simulated Film-Cooled Turbine Vane Components

Research is being conducted to study the effects of particulate deposition from contaminants in coal synthesis gas (syngas) on the mechanical properties of thermal barrier coatings (TBC) employed on integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) turbine hot section airfoils. West Virginia University (WVU) had been working with US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to simulate deposition on the pressure side of an IGCC turbine first stage vane. To model the deposition, coal fly ash was injected into the flow of a combustor facility and deposited onto TBC coated, angled film-cooled test articles in a high pressure (approximately 4 atm) and a high temperature (1560 K) environment. To investigate the interaction between the deposition and the TBC, a load-based multiple-partial unloading micro-indentation technique was used to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical properties of materials. The indentation results showed the Young’s Modulus of the ceramic top coat was higher in areas with deposition formation due to the penetration of the fly ash. This corresponds with the reduction of strain tolerance of the 7% yttria-stabilized zirconia (7YSZ) coatings.

Application of Supercritical CO2 Gas Turbine for the Fossil Fired Thermal Plant

A supercritical CO2 gas turbine cycle can produce power at high efficiency and the gas turbine is compact compared with the steam turbine. Therefore, it is very advantageous power cycle for the medium temperature range less than 650 ℃. The purpose of this paper is to show how it can be effectively applied not only to the nuclear power but also to the fossil fired power plant. A design of 300 MWe plant has been carried out, where thermal energy of flue gas leaving a CO2 heater is utilized effectively by means of economizer and a high cycle thermal efficiency of 43.4 % has been achieved. Since the temperature and the pressure difference of the CO2 heater are very high, the structural design becomes very difficult. It is revealed that this problem can be effectively solved by introducing a double expansion turbine cycle. The component designs of the CO2 heater, the economizer, supercritical CO2 turbines, compressors and the recuperators are given and it is shown that these components have good performances and compact sizes.

Computer-Aided Solution to the Vibrational Effect of Instabilities in Gas Turbine Compressors

Surge and stall are the two main types of instabilities that often occur on the compressor system of gas turbines. The effect of this instability often leads to excessive vibration due to the back pressure imposed to the system by this phenomenon. In this work, fouling was observed as the major cause of the compressor instability. A step to analyze how this phenomenon can be controlled with the continuous examination of the vibration amplitude using a computer approach led to the execution of this work. The forces resulting to vibration in the system is usually external to it. This external force is aerodynamic and the effect was modeled using force damped vibration analysis. A gas turbine plant on industrial duty for electricity generation was used to actualize this research. The data for amplitude of vibration varied between -15 and 15 mm/s while the given mass flow rate and pressure ratio were determined as falling between 6.1 to 6.8 kg/s and 9.3 to 9.6 respectively. A computer program named VICOMS written in C++ programming language was developed. The results show that the machine should not be run beyond 14.0 mm vibration amplitude in order to avoid surge, stall and other flow-induced catastrophic breakdown.