Performance Improvement of Simple Gas Turbine Cycle with Vapor Compression Inlet Air Cooling

Abstract

Gas turbine cycle power plants are being broadly utilized for power generation around the world. The change in temperature and humidity of ambient air substantially influences the plant performance due to naturally suctioned compressors in gas turbine installations. There appears the change in temperature from under 5 °C to more than 45 °C and humidity deviation from under 25% to over 85% in countries belonging to the hot and humid environment. Performance of GT cycle is a strong function of the ambient air temperature with its specific work output dropping by 0.5-0.9% for every 1°C increase in the temperature of air. Due to this reason, the power output falls off on hot days due to air density becoming smaller. Vapor compression cooling is one of the possibilities for sustaining the temperature of admitting air in the required limits. Present paper deals with thermodynamic analysis of gas turbine cycle and investigate the impact inlet air cooling on the GT cycle performance using vapor compression inlet air cooling.