Gas Turbine Compressor Performance Characteristics During Wet Compression: Influence of Polydisperse Spray

Author(s):  
Rakesh K. Bhargava ◽  
Michele Bianchi ◽  
Mustapha Chaker ◽  
Francesco Melino ◽  
Antonio Peretto ◽  
...  

The available literature shows that there exists a lack of understanding about the impact of wet compression, involving two-phase flow, on the physics of flow in the compressor stages of a gas turbine engine. In recent years, analytical models have been proposed which provide effects of wet compression on the overall compressor performance and in few studies on the stage-by-stage performance. In spite of the fact that the wet compression technology for power augmentation has been commercially implemented on numerous gas turbines from all the major gas turbine manufacturers, many issues such as, effects of polydisperse spray, droplets dynamics, influence on the performance characteristics of individual stages, stage and overall surge margin, etc., remain not completely understood. This investigation clearly shows importance of considering effects of polydisperse spray on the overall and stage-by-stage compressor performance characteristics. The presented results show that for a given droplets distribution and ambient condition, later stages of a compressor are prone to reduced surge margin under wet compression process due to redistribution of stage loading. Moreover, the study shows that smaller distributions allow the achievement of higher performance, but the compressor surge is reached with a lower amount of injected water.

Author(s):  
A. J. White ◽  
A. J. Meacock

The injection of water droplets into compressor inlet ducting is now commonly used as a means of boosting the output from industrial gas turbines. The chief mechanisms responsible for the increase in power are the reduction in compressor work per unit flow and the increase in mass flow rate, both of which are achieved by evaporative cooling upstream of and within the compressor. This paper examines the impact of such evaporative processes on compressor operation, focussing particular attention on cases with substantial over-spray — i.e., for which significant evaporation takes place within the compressor itself, rather than in the inlet. A simple numerical method is described for the computation of wet compression processes, based on a combination of droplet evaporation and mean-line calculations. The method is applied to a “generic” compressor geometry in order to investigate the nature of the off-design behaviour that results from evaporative cooling. Consideration is also given to the efficiency of the compression process, the implications for choking and stall, and the magnitude of the thermodynamic loss resulting from irreversible phase change.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 748-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. White ◽  
A. J. Meacock

The injection of water droplets into compressor inlet ducting is now commonly used as a means of boosting the output from industrial gas turbines. The chief mechanisms responsible for the increase in power are the reduction in compressor work per unit flow and the increase in mass flow rate, both of which are achieved by evaporative cooling upstream of and within the compressor. This paper examines the impact of such evaporative processes on compressor operation, focussing particular attention on cases with substantial overspray—i.e., for which significant evaporation takes place within the compressor itself, rather than in the inlet. A simple numerical method is described for the computation of wet compression processes, based on a combination of droplet evaporation and mean-line calculations. The method is applied to a “generic” compressor geometry in order to investigate the nature of the off-design behavior that results from evaporative cooling. Consideration is also given to the efficiency of the compression process, the implications for choking and stall, and the magnitude of the thermodynamic loss resulting from irreversible phase change.


Author(s):  
Yunhui Wang ◽  
Guoxue Wang ◽  
Shuying Li ◽  
Yufen Sun

Using energy transformation method, the characteristic map of the compressor of S1A-02 gas turbine is gained. And based on this work, the effects of wet compression on compressor’s steady-state performance are studied. Simulations show that pressure-ratio increased and surge line moved up-left relative to the original one when wet compression used with the assumption that during compression process the amount of energy transferred is a function of mass flow only, which means no matter wet compression is used or not, the amount of energy transferred is the same for any given mass flow. Experiment results show the same tendency as simulation results.


Author(s):  
A. J. White ◽  
A. J. Meacock

Injection of water droplets into industrial gas turbines in order to boost power output is now common practice. The intention is usually to saturate and cool the intake air, especially in hot and dry climates, but in many cases droplets carry over into the compressor and continue to evaporate. Evaporation within the compressor itself (often referred to as “overspray”) is also central to several advanced wet cycles, including the Moist Air Turbine (MAT) and the so-called TOPHAT cycle. The resulting wet compression process affords a number of thermodynamic advantages, such as reduced compression work, and increased mass flow rate and specific heat capacity of the turbine flow. Against these benefits, many of the compressor stages will operate at significantly off-design flow angles, thereby compromising aerodynamic performance. The current paper describes wet compression calculations including velocity slip and many of the associated phenomena (e.g., blade deposition and film evaporation). The calculations also allow for a poly-dispersion of droplet sizes and droplet temperature relaxation effects (i.e., the full droplet energy equation is solved rather than assuming that droplets adopt the wet-bulb temperature). The latter is important for sprays produced by “flashing” since the resulting droplets are initially much hotter than the surrounding gas. The method has been applied to a “generic” twelve stage compressor to ascertain to the impact slip effects have on the wet compression process.


Author(s):  
Rakesh K. Bhargava ◽  
Michele Bianchi ◽  
Francesco Melino ◽  
Antonio Peretto ◽  
Pier Ruggero Spina

In recent years, a great number of studies were carried out in order to analyze the main features of fogging technologies. The various fogging strategies seem to improve gas turbine and combined cycle power output with low initial investment cost and less installation downtime. In fact, nowadays fogging is successfully installed on several gasturbine and combined cycle power plants worldwide. In particular, overspray fogging and interstage injection involve two-phase flow consideration and water evaporation during compression process (also known as wet compression). The aim of the present paper is to further improve understanding of the wet compression process including stage-by-stage compressor behavior by investigating the influence of the axial compressor performance map shape on the evaporation process of the injected water through the compressor, achievable power boost, the maximum amount of water which can be injected and/or influence on the surge conditions. This analysis is carried out by using a calculation code, named IN.FO.G.T.E. (INterstage FOgging Gas Turbine Evaluation), developed and validated by the Authors.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Stathopoulos

Conventional gas turbines are approaching their efficiency limits and performance gains are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. Pressure Gain Combustion (PGC) has emerged as a very promising technology in this respect, due to the higher thermal efficiency of the respective ideal gas turbine thermodynamic cycles. Up to date, only very simplified models of open cycle gas turbines with pressure gain combustion have been considered. However, the integration of a fundamentally different combustion technology will be inherently connected with additional losses. Entropy generation in the combustion process, combustor inlet pressure loss (a central issue for pressure gain combustors), and the impact of PGC on the secondary air system (especially blade cooling) are all very important parameters that have been neglected. The current work uses the Humphrey cycle in an attempt to address all these issues in order to provide gas turbine component designers with benchmark efficiency values for individual components of gas turbines with PGC. The analysis concludes with some recommendations for the best strategy to integrate turbine expanders with PGC combustors. This is done from a purely thermodynamic point of view, again with the goal to deliver design benchmark values for a more realistic interpretation of the cycle.


Author(s):  
M. Bianchi ◽  
F. Melino ◽  
A. Peretto ◽  
P. R. Spina ◽  
S. Ingistov

In the last years, among all different gas turbine inlet air cooling techniques, an increasing attention to fogging approach is dedicated. The various fogging strategies seem to be a good solution to improve gas turbine or combined cycle produced power with low initial investment cost and less installation downtime. In particular, overspray fogging and interstage injection involve two-phase flow consideration and water evaporation during compression process (also known as wet compression). According to the Author’s knowledge, the field of wet compression is not completely studied and understood. In the present paper, all the principal aspects of wet compression and in particular the influence of injected water droplet diameter and surface temperature, and their effect on gas turbine performance and on the behavior of the axial compressor (change in axial compressor performance map due to the water injection, redistribution of stage load, etc.) are analyzed by using a calculation code, named IN.FO.G.T.E. (INterstage FOgging Gas Turbine Evaluation), developed and validated by the Authors.


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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senthil Krishnababu ◽  
Omar Valero ◽  
Roger Wells

Abstract Data driven technologies are revolutionising the engineering sector by providing new ways of performing day to day tasks through the life cycle of a product as it progresses through manufacture, to build, qualification test, field operation and maintenance. Significant increase in data transfer speeds combined with cost effective data storage, and ever-increasing computational power provide the building blocks that enable companies to adopt data driven technologies such as data analytics, IOT and machine learning. Improved business operational efficiency and more responsive customer support provide the incentives for business investment. Digital twins, that leverages these technologies in their various forms to converge physics and data driven models, are therefore being widely adopted. A high-fidelity multi-physics digital twin, HFDT, that digitally replicates a gas turbine as it is built based on part and build data using advanced component and assembly models is introduced. The HFDT, among other benefits enables data driven assessments to be carried out during manufacture and assembly for each turbine allowing these processes to be optimised and the impact of variability or process change to be readily evaluated. On delivery of the turbine and its associated HFDT to the service support team the HFDT supports the evaluation of in-service performance deteriorations, the impact of field interventions and repair and the changes in operating characteristics resulting from overhaul and turbine upgrade. Thus, creating a cradle to grave physics and data driven twin of the gas turbine asset. In this paper, one branch of HFDT using a power turbine module is firstly presented. This involves simultaneous modelling of gas path and solid using high fidelity CFD and FEA which converts the cold geometry to hot running conditions to assess the impact of various manufacturing and build variabilities. It is shown this process can be executed within reasonable time frames enabling creation of HFDT for each turbine during manufacture and assembly and for this to be transferred to the service team for deployment during field operations. Following this, it is shown how data driven technologies are used in conjunction with the HFDT to improve predictions of engine performance from early build information. The example shown, shows how a higher degree of confidence is achieved through the development of an artificial neural network of the compressor tip gap feature and its effect on overall compressor efficiency.


Author(s):  
Daniel E. Caguiat

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) Gas Turbine Emerging Technologies Code 9334 was tasked by NSWCCD Shipboard Energy Office Code 859 to research and evaluate fouling resistant compressor coatings for Rolls Royce Allison 501-K Series gas turbines. The objective of these tests was to investigate the feasibility of reducing the rate of compressor fouling degradation and associated rate of specific fuel consumption (SFC) increase through the application of anti-fouling coatings. Code 9334 conducted a market investigation and selected coatings that best fit the test objective. The coatings selected were Sermalon for compressor stages 1 and 2 and Sermaflow S4000 for the remaining 12 compressor stages. Both coatings are manufactured by Sermatech International, are intended to substantially decrease blade surface roughness, have inert top layers, and contain an anti-corrosive aluminum-ceramic base coat. Sermalon contains a Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) topcoat, a substance similar to Teflon, for added fouling resistance. Tests were conducted at the Philadelphia Land Based Engineering Site (LBES). Testing was first performed on the existing LBES 501-K17 gas turbine, which had a non-coated compressor. The compressor was then replaced by a coated compressor and the test was repeated. The test plan consisted of injecting a known amount of salt solution into the gas turbine inlet while gathering compressor performance degradation and fuel economy data for 0, 500, 1000, and 1250 KW generator load levels. This method facilitated a direct comparison of compressor degradation trends for the coated and non-coated compressors operating with the same turbine section, thereby reducing the number of variables involved. The collected data for turbine inlet, temperature, compressor efficiency, and fuel consumption were plotted as a percentage of the baseline conditions for each compressor. The results of each plot show a decrease in the rates of compressor degradation and SFC increase for the coated compressor compared to the non-coated compressor. Overall test results show that it is feasible to utilize anti-fouling compressor coatings to reduce the rate of specific fuel consumption increase associated with compressor performance degradation.


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