Gas Turbine Applications and Systems (GTAS) August 15-16, 2012, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK

S179762
GAS TURBINE INTERCOOLERS
Sarbjeet Singh Bains Cranfield University Cranfield, Bedfordshire, UK

ABSTRACT The paper consists of detailed uses of intercoolers with gas turbines. It also suggests how an intercooler alone may degrade the thermal efficiency, which is with respect to increase in fuel flow; to achieve a higher efficiency with the use of an intercooler the use of a heat exchanger has also been discussed. A few examples elaborating the performance of an engine have been presented for the better understanding of the cycles. The use of Intercooler with combination of heat exchangers has been looked upon and the development and working of pre-coolers have been provided. A few industrial applications and future trends have been discussed, the application of intercoolers to aero-engines and marine engines has been provided. INTRODUCTION Development of the first Gas Turbines was a major milestone achieved in the early 1900. The potential was great and it could power anything that required rotational power, from Aircrafts & Helicopters to Load Carriers and it has also seen considerable use in conceptual automobile designs. To understand the Gas Turbines working, it is important to understand the properties of the working fluid, which is air in an open cycle or an inert gas in a closed cycle. In the development of Gas Turbines for the industry there have been a number of steps taken trying to improve the thermal efficiency of the gas generators. For example, development of intercoolers was one of the earliest aftermarkets to be applied to gas turbines and in this paper the importance of intercooling and its benefits will be discussed. With the development of the first successful gas turbine in the 1930s it was seen that the thermal efficiency were as low as 17%. This efficiency is extremely low compared to the efficiencies of Industrial gas turbine in productions today, as high as 42%. As ways of increasing efficiency and power output were being experimented the concept of pre-coolers emerged and it is seen that pre-coolers have been largely

applied and running successfully with power augmentation more than 10 %. An intercooler is a device which reduces the temperature of the working fluid. There are different types of intercoolers, such as, air to air, air to liquid or liquid to liquid. Intercoolers have also been used widely in the automobile industry frequently with the diesel engines to increase thermal efficiencies and with petrol engine to increase power. An intercooler in a gas turbine is used to decrease the input work i.e. the work required to run the compressor. This is achieved by reducing the temperature of gas at the inlet of the compressor therefore reducing the volume of the gas which makes it easier to compress. NOMENCLATURE P Total pressure (Pa) T Total temperature (K) P1 Ambient pressure (Pa) T1 Ambient temperature (K) A Area (m) Cpc Cold specific heat (J/kg/K) Cph Hot specific heat (J/kg/K) c Cold specific heat ratio h Hot specific heat ratio PR Compressor pressure ratio LHV Fuel low heat value (J/kg) ISA International standard atmosphere NDMF Non dimensional mass flow PCN Relative non-dimensional shaft speed R Specific gas constant of pure air (J/kg/K) SFC Specific fuel consumption (kg/GW) TET Turbine entry temperature (K) CW Compressor work (W) TW Turbine work (W) UW Useful work (W) V Velocity (m/s) Wair Air mass flow (kg/s) Wfuel Fuel flow (kg/s) Z Surge margin

SIMPLE CYCLE The ideal cycle used by a gas turbine is the Brayton Cycle, also known as the constant pressure cycle. Fig. 1 elaborates the cycle. This Cycle below shows the ideal cycle with points 1,2,3 & 4, where compression starts at point 1 and proceeds to point 2 and an heat input increases the temperature to point 3 and the work is extracted from the cycle and it reaches at point 4. The cycle 1, 2, 3 & 4 is the real cycle with losses.

2a where it enters the combustor and is heated to point 3 and expands to point 4.

Figure 21

The Heat Input/unit mass flow here is given by HI = Cp (T3 T2c) Example 2: Intercooled Cycle Using the cycle below with an intercooler place after the LPC and a single turbine drives the Load and both the compressor. LPCi n P 101 T 288 I/Cin 404 450.7 HPCin 404 300 CCin 1616 469.5 Tin 1535.2 1500 To 103 866.56

The Heat Input/ unit mass flow is given by HI = Cp (T3 T2) Example 1: Simple Cycle Given the following data COMPin 101 288 COMPo 1616 692.6 CCin 1616 692.6 Tin 1535.2 1500 To 103 866.6

Figure 1

P T

PR for each stage = 4 TET = 1500 K Pressure Loss Combustor = 5% Pressure Loss Intercooler = 0 Intercooler Exit Temperature = 300 K W = 100 kg/sec Wfuel = 2.7559kg/sec compressor & turbines = .85 UW = TW CW UW = 41.62 MW thermal = 35.12% On comparing the simple cycle and the intercooled cycle it is seen that the Heat Input for the intercooled cycle is higher than the simple cycle. This is due to the reduction in the compressor exit temperature and therefore a higher fuel input is required to raise the gas temperature to the required level. Applying this cycle affects the thermal efficiency adversely, but the work output from the engine is increased. INTERCOOLERS Intercoolers, as the word suggests are placed in between 2 stages of compressors where the temperature from the first stage of the compressor is reduced to an optimum where the level of power output from the engine is best suited in terms of Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC). However, the disadvantage to such an intercooler is the pressure loss associated with it, an
1

PR = 16 TET = 1500 K Pressure Loss Combustor = 5% W = 100 kg/sec Wfuel = 2.159kg/sec compressor & turbines = .85 UW = TW CW UW = 33.96 MW thermal = 36.57% INTERCOOLED CYCLE The intercooled cycle is a brayton cycle with an intercooler in between the compressors or at the inlet. An intercooler reduces the entry temperature to the compressor so has to decrease the volume of the gas to reduce the work done by the compressor. Fig. 2 elaborates the cycle, where Point 1 is at 288 K and after the first stage of compression at point 1a the gas is cooled down to point 1b at 288K and then again compressed to point

Gas Tubine Theory & Performance, Prof. P. Pilidis, Cranfield University.

intercooler can produce as high as 5% pressure loss after the first stage of compression, and this is also a thermodynamic disadvantage along with the increase in fuel consumption. Due to this, the concept of a heat exchanger looks very useful and viable, because a heat exchanger requires the compressor exit temperature to be lower than the exhaust temperature or else the heat transfer will be in the reverse direction. Heat Exchangers The issue of increased fuel consumption after intercooling can be sorted by introducing a heat exchanger into the cycle. The function of a heat exchanger in a gas turbine cycle is to use the high temperature of the exhaust gases to heat the gases before the combustor inlet. This process provides a thermodynamic advantage upon the loss of heat lost due to the intercooling and reduces the fuel flow in the combustor, directly providing an increase in the thermal efficiency. Example 3: Intercooled & Recuperation LPCi n P 101 T 288 I/Cin 404 450.7 HPCin 404 300 CCin 1616 469.5 Tin 1535.2 1500 Exhaust 103 532.1

suddenly increase and therefore a pre-cooler installed on the gas turbine can increase the power output with a small penalty in the SFC. But in most cases it is employed due to the increase in ambient temperatures. GAS PROPERTIES The working fluid in an open gas turbine cycle is air and the properties of air vary with temperature. As it is known, for combustion process air is the main source of oxygen in a gas turbine. The variation of properties of air with increase in temperature not only affects the combustion process but also the work done by the compressor. In order to understand the augmentation of thermal efficiency it is important to know the causes which make it low. Density As the temperature increases the density of air falls, this fall in density directly affects the mass flow of the engine and the fuel to air ratio. Fig. 3 elaborates the changes in density with variation in temperature. The Mass flow/ unit time is given by W = AV Where A = Annulus area of compressor V = Velocity of incoming air = Density of air Therefore, it is seen that when the density of air falls (assume constant Non-Dimensional Power Setting) the mass flow through the engine also falls which leads to lower power output at the given power setting. In addition to the above, let us now assume that the ambient temperature has increased and therefore the NonDimensional power setting of the engine has decreased as well. This change in power setting will directly reflect on the pressure ratio of the compressor, and it will decrease. The second effect the increase in temperature has is the falling density which further adds to the problem as explained in the previous paragraph. The third effect is requirement of higher power from the turbine to attain the same level of pressure ratio, therefore increase in TET to regain the power loss due to reduction in mass flow i.e. increased fuel flow (SFC increases).

PR for each stage = 4 TET = 1500 K Pressure Loss Combustor = 5% Pressure Loss Intercooler = 0 Pressure Loss Recuperator = 2% Intercooler Exit Temperature = 300 K W = 100 kg/sec Wfuel = 1.7559kg/sec compressor & turbines = .85 UW = TW CW UW = 41.134 MW thermal = 54.35% It is noticeable that the heat exchanger has not increased the power but it has decreased the fuel flow significantly and therefore a high thermal efficiency is achieved. INDUSTRIAL INTAKE PRE-COOLERS Different types of intercooling technologies have been applied to increase the power output of industrial engines and increasing the thermal efficiency. As it is seen in the above examples how due to intercooling the work output is increased but the thermal efficiency takes a fall due to the increase in fuel flow. The concept of a pre-cooled intake arises because it is apparent that a gas turbines performance on a cool day is better than a hot day. Even in aero-engines, an aircraft requires a longer runway for take-off on a hot day rather than that on a cold one. A pre-cooled air intake is more advantageous than intercooling alone is due to the augmentation in mass flow as well as the reduction in temperature. Now it can be analyzed why pre-cooled air intakes are applied by various industrial engines. This approach for increasing the engine output is employed by the industry where power requirements can

As the name suggests it is seen that this type of intercoolers involve heat and mass transfer, thus decreasing the temperature of the inlet gas stream via evaporation and also constituting to the total mass flow through the engine. The concept of Latent heat is applied in order to evaporate the water using the sensible heat from the incoming air flow. Effective evaporation is attained by producing fine droplets of water providing maximum area for heat transfer. The concept on which evaporative cooling is based is of an adiabatic process, where no heat is added or removed.

Figure 3. Density (kg/m^3) is shown on the Y-axis and the Ambient Temperature(C) on the X-axis

The above effects of ambient temperature are the reasons which led to the development of intercoolers. Now which are seen as equipment which can augment the power even more when the ambient conditions do not change, but that should be done along with a heat exchanger. Effect of Ambient Temperatures Given a particular pressure ratio P to be attained by a compressor of isentropic efficiency , the compressor will have a unique temperature ratio, what this means is that if a gas of a higher temperature is supplied at the inlet of the compressor the work required to attain the given pressure ratio will be higher for the hotter gas than the cooler gas. This brings in the concept of applying a pre-cooler to the engines operating in higher ambient temperatures to lower the temperature of the inlet flows. In other words, the effect of operating a gas turbine in higher ambient temperatures decrease the Non-Dimensional Power Setting (TET/T1) of the engine, this affects the pressure ratio of compressor and also the power output of the engine. Using the simple cycle from Example 1, it can be seen how the increase ambient temperature affects the performance of the engine. Effect of Mass Flow Analysis of the methods which involve pre-cooling have an addition of mass flow to the mass of the air, this increase in mass flow also increases the work required by the compressor to attain a pressure ratio of P, but the equations governing the work done by the turbine show that increase in mass flow has a positive effect on the performance of an engine. The turbine work is given by Wt x Cph x T Where Wt = Total Mass Flow Cph = Specific Heat Capacity of the working fluid T = Difference of temperature across the turbine Evaporative Intercoolers2
2

Figure 4(Evaporative Cooling System design)2 Working The air flow enters the cooler and passes through a media of moisture (wetted rigid media). This process requires to be adiabatic in order to attain the highest efficiency, but that is not always possible. The moistened air then flows through a series of mist eliminators which removes mist from the air. This process can be either attained by recirculating the excess water or by continuous flow of new water feed. It is recommended to use demineralized water but in case of mineralized water, with a sufficient blow down rate the minerals can be accumulated and removed from the reservoir

Adiabatic Cooling Adiabatic cooling is the cooling via which the heat exchange is the only process taking place between the water and air flow, this occurs when no external heat enters the system. But since the evaporative cooling is installed in hot places and as the water runs through the pipes of the reservoir to the evaporative rigid media it does attain some heat and it cannot always be said that the process is totally an adiabatic process. However in cases of recirculating flows the temperature of the incoming water matches very closely to the wet bulb temperature of the air and the heat entering the process can be said to be negligible as the flow rates are very high. To avoid external heat entering the media heat insulation can be installed to cover the pipes circulating the water supply. Water Treatment As suggested by R. S. Johnson, Sr., Principal Engineer for Solar Turbines Incorporated, San Diego, California, that a quality specification is necessary for the water being used in

The Theory and Operation of Evaporative Coolers For Industrial Gas Turbine Installations R. S. JOHNSON, Sr., P.E., Solar Turbines Incorporated, San Diego, California

the evaporative cooler. These specifications provide the following limits Turbidity 5000 turbidity units pH 6 9 Hardness as CaCO3 160 ppm To maintain a good performance of the evaporative cooler proper control and treatment of feed water is mandatory. In a recirculating water flow a blow down rate and treatment is required to prevent scaling on the media and pH changes of the water. Scale formation in the holes of the header reduces water flow and therefore performance. If the hardness of water exceed 160 ppm the blow down rate will not prevent scaling and additional treatment of water is necessary. Use of deionized water reacts with the stiffening agents of the media softening it to the point of collapse. It is also extremely corrosive to the unprotected parts of the engine blades. Fog Cooling3 Another type of pre-cooling is the fog cooling. As the name suggests, fog cooling is done by creating a fog at the inlet duct of the gas turbine. The fog is made by pressurizing water above 70 bars and then sprayed using nozzles which produce droplets of the size lower than 15 microns. Structure In fig. 5, a structure of pipes holding more than 100 nozzles is displayed. These nozzles produce a droplet size of as small as 10 microns. The thermodynamic principle used here is more or less the same as in evaporative cooling. The spray of water created is so fine that as soon as the water droplets come in contact with the air they evaporate and making the air 100% saturated when it leave the fog inlet. Effectiveness The effectiveness of the fog cooling system depends upon the saturation level achieved by the air upon mixing with the fog. Higher the saturation level of the air flow i.e. higher the humidity in the air flow higher drop in temperature will be experienced by the air flow. The fog when 100% effective lowers the air stream temperature to its wet bulb temperature. In major power plants producing large scale power ( 300 400 MW) use over saturated air flow, i.e. the fog is sucked into the compressor and as the temperature of the compressed gas increases in the compressors an intercooling effect is experienced by the compressor due to the large amount of fog sucked in the air flow, this effect furthers decreases the compressor work provide even better power augmentation.

Figure 5(Image

Courtesy MeeFog)

Droplet Size & Compressor Fouling The droplet size required for successful operation of the fog cooling system is as small as possible. This is because finer droplets are easily carried by the air flow rather than the heavier droplets which tend to settle down due the gravity effect and corrode the duct floor. Using demineralized water for the fog is not enough to prevent compressor fouling it needs further treatment due to the silica present in water which is a colloidal substance and tends to erode the anti-corrosive coatings from the compressor blades. On the other hand, gas turbine operators have noticed the inlet fog cooling has a continuous washing effect on the compressor blades. But this cannot be considered entirely true because the fouling of a compressor is dependent not only upon the operational conditions but also the environmental location of the plant. For example, in places such as Middle East the frequent dust storms produce havoc on the air filters and it is extremely difficult to maintain them and therefore the dust inclusion in the inlet air is inevitable. The use of mist to capture dust is also seen as an advantage where if there is dust present in the air flow it is caught in the mist and placing a mist eliminator in front of the inlet duct filters the heavy particulate mist. Foreign Object Damage The risk of a nozzle loosening and being removed from the fogging structure due to the vibration of the flow is very high. Due to this precise care is required to make sure the nozzle upon installation and maintenance are fixed according to regulations provide by the manufacturer and that the locking wires are fastened properly. INTERCOOLING V/S PRE-COOLING The difference between intercooling & pre-cooling is justified by looking at their advantages and disadvantages.

INLET FOGGING OF GAS TURBINE ENGINES Mustapha Chaker, Ph. D., Cyrus B. Meher-Homji, Thomas Mee III Mee Industries Inc

PRE-COOLING Advantages -Higher mass flow through the engine -High ambient temperature operating range -Cleaning effect on compressors. -High power augmentation - High thermal efficiency -Reduced NOx Disadvantages -High running cost -High maintenance relatively to intercoolers -Water treatment costs -High Risk of compressor corrosion or erosion -Risk of foreign object damage

integrated intercooler nowadays. The use of gas turbines in the marine industry has shown significant advantage and potential over diesel engines. Intercoolers are employed on marine gas turbines with combination of a heat exchanger. An example of a marine propulsion engine using Intercooler & Recuperator is the Rolls Royce WR-21. The engines used in the marine propulsion are used in a combined cycle with diesel engines where at low speeds diesel engines are employed and at high speeds the gas turbines take over. In the Power Production industry large frame engines with capacity of up to 300 MW use pre-cooling technology, as previously explained due to the ability of cooling the gas as well as increasing mass flow through the engine. FUTURE OF GT FLOW COOLING As the use of gas turbines increases for power production increases, it calls for the highest level of efficiencies. This not only makes the power plants efficient but also more economical. The wide usage of gas turbines from the aeroindustry to the marine, including wide range industrial power stations, requires more effort towards providing solutions to deal with increasing demand for efficient engines. The aero engine industry has also presented concepts of developing intercooled engine cores along with heat exchanger. One such concept is the NEWAC IRA, the figure below shows the intercooler and the heat exchanger at the exhaust. It is noticeable that a reverse flow combustor has been employed due to the complicated gas path. A few other developments of concept using the intercooler have been published by NEWAC. The major use of intercooling technology in the future can be applied to engines for reduction of NOx. In the past decade significant NOx issues related issues have emerged. NOx is generally created due to the high adiabatic temperature in the combustors which dissociates atmospheric nitrogen to form oxides. Major issues regarding NOx pollution in the areas surrounded by airports have been brought forward and emission charges are being applied to airlines. In such cases the IRA engines can provide a very economical future to the airlines as well as make flying greener.

INTERCOOLING Advantages -Low running costs -No corrosion or erosion risk -Low maintenance -Increases Power output Disadvantages -Zero Mass flow augmentation -Higher Fuel input -Lower thermal efficiency -NOx emissions remain same -Pressure losses

The major difference between the intercoolers and precoolers is that intercoolers do not increase the mass flow of the engine, whereas, pre-coolers increase the mass flow as well has the heat capacity of the working fluid. The heat capacity of a fluid when mixed with water is given by Hgw = Hg + xHw Where, Hgw is the heat capacity of the mixture Hg is the heat capacity of the air x is the % water in the air Hw is the heat capacity of water Using this relationship it is seen how the heat capacity of the working fluid changes with percentage water in the total mass flow. Installing an intercooler alone on a gas turbine increases the output but there is a fall in thermal efficiency, therefore it becomes necessary that a heat exchanger is also installed along with the intercooler. This is not necessary for the pre-cooling system as it is increasing mass flow and reducing compressor work at the same time, therefore the effect of increased fuel flow on efficiency is overthrown by the effect of mass flow on power output. INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS Gas Turbine applications range from Industrial use to Marine propulsion and so does the applications of Intercoolers. Every gas turbine providing shaft power comes with an

Figure 4 (Image

courtesy NEWAC)

The wide range of benefits provided by the pre-cooling technology over shadows the concept of intercooling. Power production plants which operate in hot climates such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, etc. readily operate gas turbines using pre-cooling system such as Meefog & evaporative cooling. The industrial section can benefit largely from the pre-cooling systems providing an edge by reducing NOx

emissions as well as power augmentation. However, a heat exchanger is also a very viable option with regards to the Precooling systems which can raise thermal efficiencies as high as 55% or more. CONCLUSION Power Intercoolers It is noticeable that intercoolers provide a significant increase in power output but it is important to note that the increase in fuels flow out reduces the thermal efficiency. Intercoolers are mostly installed in combination with heat exchangers or else they fail to prove economical. Pre-coolers The pre-coolers also increase the power of the engine by providing intercooling as well as increasing the mass flow through the engine but the thermal efficiency increases rather than decreasing because the mass flow increase overshadows the increase in fuel flow and the power output produced is higher. On the other hand coupling the gas turbine with a heat exchanger alongside the pre-cooling systems prove to be even more efficient and produce significant improvements in power augmentation. Maintenance The maintenance required by intercoolers is very less as they are provided with filters and occasion of vane fouling or jamming are rare. Even though they do require washing on scheduled overhauls. On the other hand, pre-cooling systems require back up pumps in case of primary pump failure. They require regular maintenance to inspect the quality of spray nozzles in order to check for defects from erosion or corrosion. The compressor needs inspection to check for erosive or corrosive action of the water being used. With evaporative cooling the rigid evaporative media requires to be changed in case of softening due to the effect of ionized water. The mist filter in evaporative cooling can undergo scaling and sometimes jam the mist filter which requires periodic cleaning. Environmental Effects Simple intercooling has no major effects on emissions, the only effect it produces is increase in fuel flow and it can be assumed that more fuel burn means more emissions, but, if coupled with a heat exchanger the emissions are reduced significantly because the fuel flow decreases as well as the exhaust temperature comes down which can then be converted via catalytic conversion to neutral gases. In pre-cooling systems where the injection of water into the flow stream is involved the emissions particularly in terms of NOx are significantly reduced because of the lowered adiabatic temperature, usually large production plants are required to inject steam into the combustor to reduce NOx to the required level and to increase power output, but in the case of precoolers the injection of water is more efficient providing dual effects by decreasing compressor work and increasing mass flow. Overall the systems employed, fog cooling system provides to be the best economical solution in terms of power augmentation and maintenance. The simplicity of the system

provide very less installation times and a very high reliability when using processed water. The industries widely benefit from the invention and further advancement in the technology can bring in higher efficiencies. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my colleague Jason Blinstrub for his support. I would like to thank the Dr. Lee for providing me with the opportunity to present this paper.

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4. 5.

Gas Turbine Theory and Performance, Prof. P. Pilidis, Cranfield University The Theory and Operation of Evaporative Coolers For Industrial Gas Turbine Installations, R. S. JOHNSON, Sr., P.E., Solar Turbines Incorporated, San Diego, California Inlet Fogging of Gas Turbine Engines, Mustapha Chaker, Ph. D., Cyrus B. Meher-Homji, Thomas Mee III, Mee Industries Inc. Gas Turbine Theory, 4th edition, Cohen, Rogers, Saravanamuttoo The Brayton Cycle with Regeneration, Intercooling, & Reheating, Section 8.9-10, By: Denise Lane

Figure 1 Provided by : www.crazyengineers.com user: raj87verma88