One-Dimensional, Stage-by-Stage, Axial Compressor Performance Model

Author(s):  
Mark S. Johnson

This paper presents a description of a one-dimensional, constant-radius, stage-by-stage (blade-element) axial compressor model used for compressor map generation and gas turbine off-design performance prediction. This model is designed for investigators who are without access to the proprietary compressor performance information of the gas turbine manufacturers but who are nevertheless interested in predicting the off-design performance of large utility gas turbine power systems. Model performance results (compressor maps) are reported for simulation of a nineteen-stage axial compressor designed by Allison Gas Turbine for the Electric Power Research Institute. The model is further demonstrated by simulating the NACA Eight Stage compressor. The resulting compressor maps are in good qualitative agreement with published maps and are useful for gas turbine power system performance simulation studies. This general-purpose modeling procedure can be applied to any axial compressor for which sufficient airfoil geometry and design-point performance information is known.

Author(s):  
J. H. Horlock

There has been renewed interest recently in the injection of water at inlet to gas turbine plants. As is to be expected there is a drop in temperature at the inlet face to the compressor and this obviously has an effect on compressor performance. But a second effect occurs within the early stages of the compressor itself, associated with an increase in the effective specific heat due to continuing evaporation of the water droplets. Consequently there are movements away from design operating conditions on the stage characteristics. A one-dimensional analysis of compressor off-design performance is developed to illustrate these effects, which appear to be appreciable, even for very small quantities of water injection.


Author(s):  
Yogi Sheoran ◽  
Bruce Bouldin ◽  
P. Murali Krishnan

Inlet swirl distortion has become a major area of concern in the gas turbine engine community. Gas turbine engines are increasingly installed with more complicated and tortuous inlet systems, like those found on embedded installations on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). These inlet systems can produce complex swirl patterns in addition to total pressure distortion. The effect of swirl distortion on engine or compressor performance and operability must be evaluated. The gas turbine community is developing methodologies to measure and characterize swirl distortion. There is a strong need to develop a database containing the impact of a range of swirl distortion patterns on a compressor performance and operability. A recent paper presented by the authors described a versatile swirl distortion generator system that produced a wide range of swirl distortion patterns of a prescribed strength, including bulk swirl, twin swirl and offset swirl. The design of these swirl generators greatly improved the understanding of the formation of swirl. The next step of this process is to understand the effect of swirl on compressor performance. A previously published paper by the authors used parallel compressor analysis to map out different speed lines that resulted from different types of swirl distortion. For the study described in this paper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is used to couple upstream swirl generator geometry to a single stage of an axial compressor in order to generate a family of compressor speed lines. The complex geometry of the analyzed swirl generators requires that the full 360° compressor be included in the CFD model. A full compressor can be modeled several ways in a CFD analysis, including sliding mesh and frozen rotor techniques. For a single operating condition, a study was conducted using both of these techniques to determine the best method given the large size of the CFD model and the number of data points that needed to be run to generate speed lines. This study compared the CFD results for the undistorted compressor at 100% speed to comparable test data. Results of this study indicated that the frozen rotor approach provided just as accurate results as the sliding mesh but with a greatly reduced cycle time. Once the CFD approach was calibrated, the same techniques were used to determine compressor performance and operability when a full range of swirl distortion patterns were generated by upstream swirl generators. The compressor speed line shift due to co-rotating and counter-rotating bulk swirl resulted in a predictable performance and operability shift. Of particular importance is the compressor performance and operability resulting from an exposure to a set of paired swirl distortions. The CFD generated speed lines follow similar trends to those produced by parallel compressor analysis.


Author(s):  
E Swain

A one-dimensional centrifugal compressor performance prediction technique that has been available for some time is updated as a result of extracting the component performance from three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses. Confidence in the CFD results is provided by comparison of overall performance for one of the compressor examples. The extracted impeller characteristic is compared with the original impeller loss model, and this indicated that some improvement was desirable. The position of least impeller loss was determined using a traditional axial compressor cascade method, and suitable algebraic expressions were derived to match the CFD data. The merit of the approach lies with the relative ease that CFD component performance currently can be achieved and adjusting one-dimensional methods to agree with the CFD-derived models.


Author(s):  
Chihiro Myoren ◽  
Yasuo Takahashi ◽  
Manabu Yagi ◽  
Takanori Shibata ◽  
Tadaharu Kishibe

An axial compressor was developed for an industrial gas turbine equipped with a water atomization cooling (WAC) system, which is a kind of inlet fogging technique with overspray. The compressor performance was evaluated using a 40MW-class test facility for the advanced humid air turbine system. A prediction method to estimate the effect of WAC was developed for the design of the compressor. The method was based on a streamline curvature (SLC) method implementing a droplet evaporation model. Four test runs with WAC have been conducted since February 2012. The maximum water mass flow rate was 1.2% of the inlet mass flow rate at the 4th test run, while the design value was 2.0%. The results showed that the WAC decreased the inlet and outlet temperatures compared with the DRY (no fogging) case. These decreases changed the matching point of the gas turbine, and increased the mass flow rate and the pressure ratio by 1.8% and 1.1%, respectively. Since prediction results agreed with the results of the test run qualitatively, the compressor performance improvement by WAC was confirmed both experimentally and analytically. The test run with the design water mass flow rate is going to be conducted in the near future.


Author(s):  
A. Tsalavoutas ◽  
K. Mathioudakis ◽  
A. Stamatis ◽  
M. Smith

The influence of faults in the variable geometry (variable stator vanes) system of a multistage axial compressor, on the performance of an industrial gas turbine is investigated. An experimental investigation has been conducted, by implanting such faults into an operating gas turbine. The faults examined are individual stator vane mistuning of different magnitude, and located at different stages. Fault identification is based on the aerothermodynamic measurement data and is achieved by employing two different techniques, namely adaptive performance modelling and monitoring the circumferential distribution of the turbine exit temperature. It is observed that the deviations of the health indices produced by an adaptive performance model, form patterns that can be used to identify the faults. The patterns characterize both the kind and the magnitude of the fault. On the other hand, the turbine exit temperature profile is also influenced and its change can be used as additional information, to increase the confidence level of the diagnosis (contrary to customary practice, which expects temperatures profiles to reflect only burner or turbine malfunctions).


2000 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Tsalavoutas ◽  
K. Mathioudakis ◽  
A. Stamatis ◽  
M. Smith

The influence of faults in the variable geometry (variable stator vanes) system of a multistage axial compressor on the performance of an industrial gas turbine is investigated. An experimental investigation has been conducted, by implanting such faults into an operating gas turbine. The faults examined are individual stator vane mistunings of different magnitudes and located at different stages. Fault identification is based on the aerothermodynamic measurement data and is achieved by employing two different techniques, namely adaptive performance modeling and monitoring the circumferential distribution of the turbine exit temperature. It is observed that the deviations of the health indices produced by an adaptive performance model form patterns that can be used to identify the faults. The patterns characterize both the kind and the magnitude of the fault. On the other hand, the turbine exit temperature profile is also influenced and its change can be used as additional information, to increase the confidence level of the diagnosis (contrary to customary practice, which expects temperatures profiles to reflect only burner or turbine malfunctions).


Author(s):  
Y. G. Li ◽  
M. F. Abdul Ghafir ◽  
L. Wang ◽  
R. Singh ◽  
K. Huang ◽  
...  

Accurate gas turbine performance models are crucial in many gas turbine performance analysis and gas path diagnostic applications. With current thermodynamic performance modeling techniques, the accuracy of gas turbine performance models at off-design conditions is determined by engine component characteristic maps obtained in rig tests and these maps may not be available to gas turbine users or may not be accurate for individual engines. In this paper, a nonlinear multiple point performance adaptation approach using a genetic algorithm is introduced with the aim to improve the performance prediction accuracy of gas turbine engines at different off-design conditions by calibrating the engine performance models against available test data. Such calibration is carried out with introduced nonlinear map scaling factor functions by “modifying” initially implemented component characteristic maps in the gas turbine thermodynamic performance models. A genetic algorithm is used to search for an optimal set of nonlinear scaling factor functions for the maps via an objective function that measures the difference between the simulated and actual gas path measurements. The developed off-design performance adaptation approach has been applied to a model single spool turbo-shaft aero gas turbine engine and has demonstrated a significant improvement in the performance model accuracy at off-design operating conditions.


Author(s):  
David W. Bracken ◽  
Christopher T. Rotolo

When raters in a 360 Feedback process do not perform as desired, the result can be highly skewed distributions: The data lose their utility, especially when they are to be used for decision-making. We use the ALAMO performance model [Performance = Alignment × (Ability × Motivation × Opportunity)] to dissect the causes and possible solutions for suboptimal rater performance. Using a systems model of 360 Feedback, we analyze three major factors that can determine the quality of 360 data (i.e., Instrument/Content, Process Features, and Rater Characteristics). No two 360 Feedback systems are the same. It follows that no two diagnoses or prescriptions will be the same across the dozens of decisions that must be made in the design and implementation of a given process. Some of those decisions can be guided by science, some by the unique organization and its leaders, and most by a combination of both. We strongly recommend that both groups of stakeholders (scientist practitioners and process owners) study this chapter prior to making those decisions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogi Sheoran ◽  
Bruce Bouldin ◽  
P. Murali Krishnan

Inlet swirl distortion has become a major area of concern in the gas turbine engine community. Gas turbine engines are increasingly installed with more complicated and tortuous inlet systems such as those found on embedded installations on unmanned aerial vehicles. These inlet systems can produce complex swirl patterns in addition to total pressure distortion. The effect of swirl distortion on engine or compressor performance and operability must be evaluated. The gas turbine community is developing methodologies to measure and characterize swirl distortion. There is a strong need to develop a database containing the impact of a range of swirl distortion patterns on a compressor performance and operability. A recent paper presented by the authors described a versatile swirl distortion generator system that produced a wide range of swirl distortion patterns of a prescribed strength, including bulk swirl, twin swirl, and offset swirl. The design of these swirl generators greatly improved the understanding of the formation of swirl. The next step of this process is to understand the effect of swirl on compressor performance. A previously published paper by the authors used parallel compressor analysis to map out different speed lines that resulted from different types of swirl distortion. For the study described in this paper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is used to couple upstream swirl generator geometry to a single stage of an axial compressor in order to generate a family of compressor speed lines. The complex geometry of the analyzed swirl generators requires that the full 360 deg compressor be included in the CFD model. A full compressor can be modeled several ways in a CFD analysis, including sliding mesh and frozen rotor techniques. For a single operating condition, a study was conducted using both of these techniques to determine the best method, given the large size of the CFD model and the number of data points that needed to be run to generate speed lines. This study compared the CFD results for the undistorted compressor at 100% speed to comparable test data. Results of this study indicated that the frozen rotor approach provided just as accurate results as the sliding mesh but with a greatly reduced cycle time. Once the CFD approach was calibrated, the same techniques were used to determine compressor performance and operability when a full range of swirl distortion patterns were generated by upstream swirl generators. The compressor speed line shift due to co-rotating and counter-rotating bulk swirl resulted in a predictable performance and operability shift. Of particular importance is the compressor performance and operability resulting from an exposure to a set of paired swirl distortions. The CFD generated speed lines follow similar trends to those produced by parallel compressor analysis.


Author(s):  
E. Tsoutsanis ◽  
Y. G. Li ◽  
P. Pilidis ◽  
M. Newby

Accurate gas turbine performance simulation is a vital aid to the operational and maintenance strategy of thermal plants having gas turbines as their prime mover. Prediction of the part load performance of a gas turbine depends on the quality of the engine’s component maps. Taking into consideration that compressor maps are proprietary information of the manufacturers, several methods have been developed to encounter the above limitation by scaling and adapting component maps. This part of the paper presents a new off-design performance adaptation approach with the use of a novel compressor map generation method and Genetic Algorithms (GA) optimization. A set of coefficients controlling a generic compressor performance map analytically is used in the optimization process for the adaptation of the gas turbine performance model to match available engine test data. The developed method has been tested with off-design performance simulations and applied to a GE LM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbine operating in Manx Electricity Authority’s combined cycle power plant in the Isle of Man. It has been also compared with an earlier off-design performance adaptation approach, and shown some advantages in the performance adaptation.


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