Aerospace Technic and Technology

Significant fluctuations in the current temperature and relative humidity of the ambient air lead to significant changes in the heat load on the air cooling system at the inlet of the gas turbine unit, which urgently poses the problem of choosing their design heat load, as well as evaluating the efficiency of the air cooling system for a certain period of time. The efficiency of deep air cooling at the inlet of gas turbine units was studied with a change during July 2015–2018 for climatic conditions of operation at the compressor station Krasnopolie, Dnepropetrovsk region (Ukraine). For air cooling, the use of a waste heat recovery chiller, which transforms the heat of exhaust gases of gas turbine units into the cold, has been proposed. The efficiency of air cooling at the inlet of gas turbine units for different temperatures has been analyzed: down to 15 °C – an absorption lithium-bromide chiller, which is used as the first high-temperature stage for pre-cooling of ambient air, and down to 10 °C – a combined absorption-ejector chiller (with using a refrigerant low-temperature air cooler as the second stage of air cooling). The effect of air-cooling was assessed by comparing the increase in the production of mechanical energy as a result of an increase in the power of a gas turbine unit and fuel saved during the month of July for 2015-2018 in accumulating. Deeper air cooling at the inlet of the gas turbine unit to a temperature of 10 °C in a combined absorption-ejector chiller compared to its traditional cooling to 15 °C in an absorption bromine-lithium chiller provides a greater increase in net power and fuel saved. It is shown that due to a slight discrepancy between the results obtained for 2015-2018, a preliminary assessment of the efficiency of air cooling at the inlet of gas turbine plants can be carried out for one year.

gas turbine unit; air-cooling; chiller; climate

Tiwari, Kumar, A., Muzaffarul, H. M., Islam, M. Effect of ambient temperature on the performance of a combined cycle power plant. Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, 2013, vol. 37 (4), pp. 1177–1188.

Popli, S., Rodgers, P., Eveloy, V. Gas turbine efficiency enhancement using waste heat powered absorption chillers in the oil and gas industry. Applied Thermal Engineering, 2013, vol. 50, pp. 918–931.

Radchenko, A. N., Radchenko, N. I., Kantor, S. А., Portnoi, B. S. Metodolohycheskyy podkhod k vyboru teplovoy nahruzky kombynyrovannoy systemy okhlazhdenyya vozdukha na vkhode GTU [A methodological approach of choosing the rational heat load on combined system of GTU intake air cooling]. Aviacijno-kosmicna tehnika i tehnologia - Aerospace technic and technology, 2016, no. 6 (133), pp. 55–59.

Meteomanz. Available at: http://www.meteomanz.com : Meteomanz Homepage. (accessed 15.10.2019).

Nykolaevskye hazovye turbynu promushlennoho prymenenyya [Nikolaev gas turbines of industrial application]. HP NPKHT "Zorya–Mashproekt", SE SPCGTC “Zorya”–“Mashproekt” Publ., 2004. 20 p.