Water, Air Emissions, and Cost Impacts of Air-Cooled Microturbines for Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power Systems： A Case Study in the Atlanta Region

The increasing pace of urbanization means that cities and global organizations are looking for ways to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions. Combined cooling, heating, and power （CCHP） systems have the potential to improve the energy generation efficiency of a city or urban region by providing energy for heating, cooling, and electricity simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to estimate the water consumption for energy generation use, carbon dioxide （CO2） and NOx emissions, and economic impact of implementing CCHP systems for five generic building types within the Atlanta metropolitan region, under various operational scenarios following the building thermal （heating and cooling） demands. Operating the CCHP system to follow the hourly thermal demand reduces CO2 emissions for most building types both with and without net metering. The system can be economically beneficial for all building types depending on the price of natural gas, the implementation of net metering, and the cost structure assumed for the CCHP system. The greatest reduction in water consumption for energy production and NOx emissions occurs when there is net metering and when the system is operated to meet the maximum yearly thermal demand, although this scenario also results in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and, in some cases, cost. CCHP systems are more economical for medium office, large office, and multifamilv residential buildings.

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.

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.

Parametric Modeling System for Cooling Turbine Blade Based on Feature Design

Based on feature modeling and mathematical analysis methods,a process-oriented and modular parametric design system for advanced turbine cooling blade is developed with UG API,aiming at the structural complexity and high design difficulty of aero-engine cooling turbine blade.The relationship between the external and internal body features,the body attached feature is analyzed as viewed from the feature and parameter terms.The parametric design processes and design examples of the external body shape,tenon,platform and internal body shape,ribs,pin fins are introduced.The system improves the design efficiency of cooling turbine blade and establishes the foundation of multidisciplinary design optimization procedure for it.

Energy, Exergy and Thermoeconomics Analysis of Water Chiller Cooler for Gas Turbines Intake Air Cooling

Gas turbine (GT) power plants operating in arid climates suffer a decrease in output power during the hot summer months because of the high specific volume of air drawn by the compressor. Cooling the air intake to the compressor has been widely used to mitigate this shortcoming. Energy and exergy analysis of a GT Brayton cycle coupled to a refrigeration air cooling unit shows a promise for increasing the output power with a little decrease in thermal efficiency. A thermo-economics algorithm is developed to estimate the economic feasibility of the cooling system. The analysis is applied to an open cycle, HITACHI-FS7001B GT plant at the industrial city of Yanbu (Latitude 24o 05” N and longitude 38o E) by the Red Sea in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Result show that the enhancement in output power depends on the degree of chilling the air intake to the compressor (a 12 - 22 K decrease is achieved). For this case study, maximum power gain ratio (PGR) is 15.46% (average of 12.25%), at an insignificant decrease in thermal efficiency. The second law analysis show that the exergetic power gain ratio drops to an average 8.5%. The cost of adding the air cooling system is also investigated and a cost function is derived that incorporates time-dependent meteorological data, operation characteristics of the GT and the air intake cooling system and other relevant parameters such as interest rate, lifetime, and operation and maintenance costs. The profit of adding the air cooling system is calculated for different electricity tariff.

Forced Compressed Air Cooling System for a 300 MW Steam Turbine in Waigaoqiao Power Plant

The 300 MW steam turbine installed in Waigaoqiao Power Plant with combined HPIP cylinders of double casing structure is a product of the Shanghai Turbine Works utilizing licensed technology. It has a large heat storage capacity and good thermal insulation, so the metal temperature of first stage of HP cylinder (FSMTI) may reach 400-450℃ after shut down and it takes 7-8 days to cool to 150℃ by natural cooling, Now with a forced cooling system the cooling time may be reduced to 40 hours, so that the turbine may be opened for repair work in about 5-6 days. The cooling system for #2 unit and test procedure are briefly described below.

Improvement of Film Cooling Design for Turbine Vane Leading Edge Considering Combustor Outflow

As the interaction between the combustor and the turbine in the aero-engine continues to increase,the film cooling design considering the combustor swirling outflow has become the research focus.The swirling inflow and high-temperature gas first affect the vane leading edge(LE).However,no practical improved solution for the LE cooling design has been proposed considering the combustor swirling outflow.In this paper,the improved scheme of showerhead cooling is carried out around the two ways of adopting the laid-back-fan-shaped hole and reducing the coolant outflow angle.The film cooling effectiveness(η) and the coolant flow state are obtained by PSP(pressure-sensitive-paint) and numerical simulation methods,respectively.The research results show that the swirling inflow increases the film distribution inhomogeneity by imposing the radial pressure gradient on the vane to make the film excessively gather in some positions.The showerhead film cooling adopts the laid-back-fan-shaped hole to reduce the momentum when the coolant flows out.Although this cooling scheme improves the film attachment and increases the surface-averaged film cooling effectiveness(η_(sur)) by as much as15.4%,the film distribution inhomogeneity increases.After reducing the coolant outlet angle,the wall-tangential velocity of the coolant increases,and the wall-normal velocity decreases.Under the swirl intake condition,both ηand the film distribution uniformity are significantly increased,and the growth of η_(sur) is up to 16.5%.This paper investigates two improved schemes to improve the showerhead cooling under the swirl intake condition to provide a reference for the vane cooling design.

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.

Investigation of the steam-cooled blade in a steam turbine cascade

With the increasing demand for electricity,an efficiency improvement and thereby reduced CO2 emissions of the coal-fired plants are expected in order to reach the goals set in the Kyoto protocol.It can be achieved by a rise of the process parameters.Currently,live steam pressures and temperatures up to 300 bars and 923 K are planned as the next step.Closed circuit steam cooling of blades and vanes in modern steam turbines is a promising technology in order to establish elevated live steam temperatures in future steam turbine cycles.In this paper,a steam-cooled test vane in a cascade with external hot steam flow is analyzed numerically with the in-house code CHTflow.A parametric analysis aiming to improve the cooling effectiveness is carried out by varying the cooling mass flow ratio.The results from two investigated cases show that the steam cooling technique has a good application potential in the steam turbine.The internal part of the vane is cooled homogeneously in both cases.With the increased cooling mass flow rate,there is a significant improvement of cooling efficiency at the leading edge.The results show that the increased cooling mass flow ratio can enhance the cooling effectiveness at the leading edge.With respect to trailing edge,there is no observable improvement of cooling effectiveness with the increased cooling mass flow.This implies that due to the limited dimension at the trailing edge,the thermal stress cannot be decreased by increasing the cooling mass flow rate.Therefore,impingement-cooling configuration at the trailing edge might be a solution to overcome the critical thermal stress there.It is also observed that the performance of the cooling effective differs on pressure side and suction side.It implicates that the equilibrium of the cooling effectiveness on two sides are influenced by a coupled relationship between cooling mass flow ratio and hole geometry.In future work,optimizing the hole geometry and cooling steam supply conditions might be the solutions for an equivalent cooling effectiveness along whole profile.

Heat Transfer and Flow Structure of a Turbine Blade's Air-cooled Leading Edge Considering Different Hole Shapes and Additional Flow Angles

A numerical study is conducted to elucidate the impact of hole shapes and additional flow angles on the flow structure of the coolant and temperature field in the leading edge area of the gas turbine rotor.Four typical hole shapes are considered for the GE-E3 blade.The impact of the additional flow angle(E)within each hole shape on the temperature field is investigated.The results indicate that for the leading edge area and suction surface,the fan-shaped hole case performs best in decreasing temperatures,with a decrease of about 43 K.This is mainly due to the fact that the fan-shaped hole has the maximum expansion in hole spanwise direction.For the pressure surface,the console hole case performs best in decreasing temperatures,with a maximum reduction of about 47.2 K.The influence of E on the surface temperature at leading edge area varied between the different hole shapes.For the cylinder hole and console hole,the E=-20°case has the lowest area-averaged temperature.Because both the fan-shaped hole and the 7-7-7 shaped hole are expansion holes,the pattern of variation of the leading edge area temperature with increasing E is similar for the fan-shaped hole case and 7-7-7 shaped hole case.The E=20°case shows the lowest spanwise-averaged temperature near the hole outlet,and the E=-20°case shows the lowest spanwise-averaged temperature further downstream.

Calculation of the Choked Back Pressure for Steam Turbines with Air Cooled Condensers

The choked back pressure characteristic of the steam turbine unit with air cooled condenser is very different with the unit with wet cooling technology, and the understanding of the choked back pressure performance change with operation load is important to guide the economic operation of the unit. One simplified Variable Operation Condition Analysis Method was put forward for calculation of the unit output-turbine back pressure characteristics. Based on this method, the choked back pressure for each operation load can be determined. An example was given for a super-critical, regenerative single-shaft, 2-casing with 2-exhaust steam turbine generation unit with air cooled condenser. The calculation result was provided and compared with the result of the unit with wet cooling technology.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION FOR THE EFFECT OF ROTATION ON THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLOW FIELD IN FILM-COOLED TURBINE

An experimental investigation of three-dimensional flow field in a film-cooled turbine model is carried out by using particle image velocimeter （PIV） in a low-speed wind tunnel. The effects of different blowing ratios （M=1.5, 2） on the flow field are studied. The experimental results reveal the classical phenomena of the formation of kidney vortex pair and secondary flow in wake region behind the jet hole. And the changes of the kidney vortex pair and the wake at different locations away from the hole on the suction and pressure sides are also studied. Compared with the flow field in stationary cascade, there are centrifugal force and Coriolis force existing in the flow field of rotating turbine, and these forces bring the radial velocity in the jet flow. The effect of rotatien on the flow field of the pressure side is more distinct than that on the suction side from the measured flow fields in Y-Z plane and radial velocity contours. The increase of blowing ratio makes the kidney vortex pair and the secondary flow in the wake region stronger and makes the range of the wake region enlarged.

Numerical simulation of 3D viscous flow field of air cooled turbine blades with coolant mixing

To improve thrust and reduce oil consumption of aero-engines, the temperature at turbine inlet is becoming higher and higher, which leads to heavy thermal load of vanes. To efficiently cool the vanes, the mass of coolant with its maximum gas mass flow exceeding to 20% of main stream, has to be increased. In the pres- ent paper, a two-stage turbine with and without coolant mixing was simulated by CFX-TASCflow. Simulation resuits indicate that the flow field structure with coolant is obviously different from that without coolant, and the former has characteristics of lower-speed main flow, reduced mach number, weaker shock intensity and decreased stage efficiency.

Experimental Investigation of the Cooling Capacity of Gaseous Carbon Dioxide in Free Jet Expansion for Use in Portable Air-Cooling Systems

This paper investigates the possibility of using the free expansion of gaseous CO2 in portable air-cooling systems. The cooling capacity of the gaseous CO2 free jet expansion was calculated using three different approaches and the results showed that the simplified calculations would give approximated cooling values with an 11.6% maximum error. The mass flow rate, upstream pressure and cooling capacity of the gaseous CO2 decreased with time. A maximum 48.5 watts of cooling was recorded at minute 4 and a minimum value of 10.4 watts at the end of the test. The drop in cooling capacity is due to the evaporation of the liquid CO2 inside the small cylinder which cools the two-phase CO2 mixture and causes a pressure drop (from 6 MPa to 2.97 MPa), which also affects the mass flow rate of gaseous CO2 exiting the orifice (from 0.56 g/s to 0.24 g/s). If this cooling technique is to be considered in portable compact-cooling systems, the mass, pressure and cooling capacity drop with time must be solved. One of the solutions could be to cover the cylinder with a heating coat to compensate for the heat absorbed by the evaporation of the liquid CO2.

Influences of Hole Shape on Film Cooling Characteristics with CO_2 Injection

This article presents the data about heat transfer coefficient ratios, film cooling effectiveness and heat loads for the injection through cylindrical holes, 3-in-1 holes and fanned holes in order to characterize the film cooling performance downstream of a row of holes with 45° inclination and 3 hole spacing apart. The trip wire is placed upstream at a distance of 10 times diameter of the cooling hole from the hole center to keep mainstream fully turbulent. Both inlet and outlet of 3-in-1 holes have a 15° lateral expansion. The outlet of fanned holes has a lateral expansion. CO2 is applied for secondary injection to obtain a density ratio of 1.5. Momentum flux ratio varies from 1 to 4. The results indicate that the increased momentum flux ratio significantly increases heat transfer coefficient and slightly improve film cooling effectiveness for the injection through cylindrical holes. A weak dependence of heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness, respectively, on momentum flux ratio has been identified for the injection through 3-in-1 holes. The in- crease of the momentum flux ratio decreases heat transfer coefficient and significantly increases film cooling effectiveness for the injection through fanned holes. In terms of the film cooling performance, the fanned holes are the best while the cylindrical holes are the worst among the three hole shapes under study.

Data mining optimization of laidback fan-shaped hole to improve film cooling performance

To improve the cooling performance, shape optimization of a laidback fan-shaped film cooling hole was performed. Three geometric parameters, including hole length, lateral expansion angle and forward expansion angle, were selected as the design parameters. Numerical model of the film cooling system was established, validated, and used to generate 32 groups of training samples. Least square support vector machine(LS-SVM) was applied for surrogate model, and the optimal design parameters were determined by a kind of chaotic optimization algorithm. As hole length, lateral expansion angle and forward expansion angle are 90 mm, 20° and 5°, the area-averaged film cooling effectiveness can reach its maximum value in the design space. LS-SVM coupled with chaotic optimization algorithm is a promising scheme for the optimization of shaped film cooling holes.

Numerical simulation on vacuum solution heat treatment and gas quenching process of a low rhenium-containing Ni-based single crystal turbine blade

Numerical heat-transfer and turbulent flow model for an industrial high-pressure gas quenching vacuum furnace was established to simulate the heating,holding and gas fan quenching of a low rhenium-bearing Ni-based single crystal turbine blade.The mesh of simplified furnace model was built using finite volume method and the boundary conditions were set up according to the practical process.Simulation results show that the turbine blade geometry and the mutual shielding among blades have significant influence on the uniformity of the temperature distribution.The temperature distribution at sharp corner,thin wall and corner part is higher than that at thick wall part of blade during heating,and the isotherms show a toroidal line to the center of thick wall.The temperature of sheltered units is lower than that of the remaining part of blade.When there is no shelteration among multiple blades,the temperature distribution for all blades is almost identical.The fluid velocity field,temperature field and cooling curves of the single and multiple turbine blades during gas fan quenching were also simulated.Modeling results indicate that the loading tray,free outlet and the location of turbine blades have important influences on the flow field.The high-speed gas flows out from the nozzle is divided by loading tray,and the free outlet enhanced the two vortex flow at the end of the furnace door.The closer the blade is to the exhaust outlet and the nozzle,the greater the flow velocity is and the more adequate the flow is.The blade geometry has an effect on the cooling for single blade and multiple blades during gas fan quenching,and the effects in double layers differs from that in single layer.For single blade,the cooing rate at thin-walled part is lower than that at thick-walled part,the cooling rate at sharp corner is greater than that at tenon and blade platform,and the temperature at regions close to the internal position is decreased more slowly than that close to the surface.For multiple blades in single layer,the temperature at sharp corner or thin wall in the blade that close to the nozzles is much lower,and the temperature distribution of blades is almost parallel.The cooling rate inside the air current channel is lower than that of at the position near blade platform and tenon,and the effect of blade location to the nozzles on the temperature field inside the blade is lower than that on the blade surface.For multiple blades in double layers,the flow velocity is low,and the flow is not uniform for blades in the second-layer due to the shielding of blades in the first-layer.the cooling rate of blades in the second-layer is lower than that in the first-layer.The cooling rate of blade close to the nozzles in the first-layer is the higher than that of blade away from the nozzles in the second-layer,and the temperature distribution on blades in the same layer is almost parallel.The cooling rate in thin wall position of blade away from the nozzles is larger than that in tenon of the blade closer to the nozzles in the same layer.The cooling rate for blades in the secondlayer is much lower both in thin wall and tenon for blades away from the nozzles.

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.

Feasibility Analysis of Back-Pressure Steam Feeding Water Pump for Direct Air-Cooled Unit

As the performance of an air-cooled condenser is apt to be affected by the fluctuating ambient condition, some difficulties are brought to the use of a steam feeding water pump in an air-cooled unit. This paper introduces a new design of for steam feeding the water pump of an air-cooled unit using the back-pressure steam turbine as the prime motor. Using variable condition analysis on a 600 MW direct air-cooled unit, and with consideration of the effect on the ambient conditions, the feasibility, economy, and adaptability of the design are verified.

Heat Transfer Coefficient of Film Cooling with Ellipse-Shaped Tab

The enhanced cooling performance caused by ellipse-shaped tabs located at the outlet of the film cooling holes is conducted.Three covering ratios of ellipse-shaped tabs on film holes and four blowing ratios are studied.The results show that:(1)The heat transfer coefficient ratio is higher than that without tab,indicating that the mixing of mainstream and coolant jet provides a better coverage film on the cooling wall,but increases the local turbulence production which enhances the heat transfer coefficient;(2)When the ellipse-shaped tabs are located at the film hole outlet,there is a larger pressure drop with the ellipse tab relative to the no-tab case.Thus,the discharge coefficient with ellipse tab is lower than that without tab.