Parametric Analysis of Cooled Gas Turbine Cycle with Evaporative Inlet Air Cooling

The article investigates the effect of compressor pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature and ambient temperature on the performance parameters of an air-cooled gas turbine cycle with evaporative cooling of inlet air. Air f ilm cooling has been adopted as the cooling technique for gas turbine blades. The mass of coolant required for turbine blade cooling is calculated f or a selected range of ambient conditions and found to vary with temperature drop achieved in the evaporator. The effect of ambient temperature on p lant eff iciency and plant specif ic work is computed at different TIT and rp,c and it w as found that the rate of increase in these performance parameters are more pronounced at higher TIT and rp,c. The results indicate that a maximum temperature drop of 21 C is achieved in the evaporator. The inlet cooling is found to increase the eff iciency by 4.1% and specif ic work by 9.44%. The optimum plant performance is obtained at a TIT of 1500K and rp,c of 20 for all values of ambient temperature .