Russian power generation, oil and gas businesses are rapidly growing. Installation of new industrial gas turbines is booming to fulfill the demand from economic growth. Russia is a unique country from the annual temperature variation point of view. Some regions may reach up to 100C. One of the biggest challenges for world producers of gas turbines in Russia is the ability to operate products at power plants during cold winters, when ambient temperature might be −60C for a couple of weeks in a row. The reliability and availability of the equipment during the cold season is very critical. Design of inlet systems and filter houses for the Russian market, specifically for northern regions, has a lot of specifics and engineering challenges. Joint Stock Company CKTI is the biggest Russian supplier of air intake systems for industrial gas turbines and axial-flow compressors. In 1969 this enterprise designed and installed the first inlet for the power plant Dagskaya GRES (State Regional Electric Power Plant) with the first 100MW gas-turbine which was designed and manufactured by LMZ. Since the late 1960s CKTI has designed and manufactured inlet systems for the world market and been the main supplier for the Russian market. During the last two years CKTI has designed inlet systems for a broad variety of gas turbine engines ranging from 24MW up to 110MW turbines which are used for power generation and as a mechanical drive for the oil and gas industry. CKTI inlet systems with filtering devices or houses are successfully used in different climate zones including the world’s coldest city Yakutsk and hot Nigeria. CKTI has established CTQs (Critical to quality) and requirements for industrial gas turbine inlet systems which will be installed in Russia in different climate zones for all types of energy installations. The last NPI project of the inlet system, including a nonstandard layout, was done for a small gas-turbine engine which is installed on a railway cart. This arrangement is designed to clean railway lines with the exhaust jet in a quarry during the winter. The design of the inlet system with efficient multistage compressor extraction for deicing, dust and snow resistance has an interesting solution. The detailed description of challenges, weather requirements, calculations, losses, and design methodologies to qualify the system for tough requirements, are described in the paper.
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