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Ali Dinc et al., International Journal of Emerging Trends in 9. No. 5, May
Engineering 2021 9(5), May 2021, 539 – 544
Research,
International Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering Research
Available Online at http://www.warse.org/IJETER/static/pdf/file/ijeter01952021.pdf
https://doi.org/10.30534/ijeter/2021/01952021

Performance Improvement of a 43 MW Class Gas Turbine

Engine with Inlet Air Cooling
Ali Dinc*, Ibrahim Elbadawy, Mohamed Fayed, Rani Taher, Javad Farrokhi Derakhshandeh,
Yousef Gharbia
College of Engineering and Technology, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait,
*corresponding author: Ali.Dinc@aum.edu.kw

ηm Shaft mechanical efficiency

ABSTRACT ηPT Power turbine isentropic efficiency
ΠB Combustor total pressure ratio
In this study, a process of inlet air cooling was implemented in ΠC Compressor total pressure ratio
the intake of a land-based gas turbine engine for electricity ΠF Booster total pressure ratio
generation. The motivation behind the study is to improve the ΠN Exhaust nozzle pressure ratio
performance of the gas turbine engine in hot climate conditions,
which causes a significant decrease in the output power and an
increase in specific fuel consumption. For inlet air cooling, a 1. INTRODUCTION
refrigeration cycle was attached to the turbo-shaft gas turbine
engine, and power required by the refrigeration is extracted from The ambient conditions have a significant effect on the gas
the mechanical engine power output of the gas turbine. A 43 turbine output. In the new era, renewable sources of energy are
MW class gas turbine engine which is similar to the General considered to minimize environmental impacts [1-5].The high
Electric LM6000 engine was modeled in this study. Considering inlet air temperature leads to increasing the gas turbine inlet
an average coefficient of performance of 3.0 for a refrigeration temperatures. As a result, NOx emission increases, which are
system, the inlet cooling provided (by supplying cooled inlet air limited by environmental legislation. Malewski and Holldorff
at 15oC) a 22.21 % net power increase and a5.2% power specific [6] investigated how to decrease the inlet air temperature using a
fuel consumption improvement at 55oC ambient conditions. precooling process. This process was performed using a separate
absorption refrigeration system in which ammonia is used as a
Key words: Gas turbine engine; cycle analysis, performance, refrigerant and water as a solvent. The demand forthe
inlet cooling, refrigeration. refrigeration system was covered by heat energy available in the
tail end exhaust of a combined cycle. They found that the air
Nomenclature precooling process improves the output power by 17 to 29% and
efficiency by 2 to 4%. While the combustion temperature is
Latin letters reduced. Therefore, NOx emission decreases accordingly.
LHV Lower heating value of fuel (MJ/kg)
HR Heat rate
In 1995, Boggio [7] used evaporative cooling, absorption system
m Mass flow rate (kg/s)
Pamb Ambient pressure (kPa) and combined one for cooling the compressor inlet air for the
PSFC Power specific fuel consumption LM6000 gas turbine. The air inlet conditions are based on two
T Total temperature at engine stations sites in Northern and Southern Italy. The cooling systems are
Tamb Ambient temperature used to cool the air inlet temperature such as 25oC at 60%
̇ Power of turbine relative humidity to be 10oC during the whole day in summer’s
̇ Power of Compressor hottest months. The cooling power of 3300 kW is consumed to
̇ Shaft power delivered achieve this level of temperature. In this study, the effects of
both dry and wet bulb temperatures are investigated in detail. It
Greek letters is found that a 2-4% increment in power is achieved by
ε2a Cooling air ratio for HPT rotor evaporative cooling while the absorption system fulfills 5-10%
ε3 Cooling air ratio nozzle guide vanes power enhancement yearly. Moreover, the highest plant
ηb Combustor efficiency performance is achieved for the integrated absorber plus
ηC Compressor isentropic efficiency evaporative cooling. The author recommends using air cooling
ηF Booster isentropic efficiency during the daytime only to reduce the cost of electricity
ηHPT Isentropic efficiency significantly.

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Najjar[8] introduced an absorption chiller to cool the inlet air to The current study is performed for a gas turbine with net output
the gas turbine power plant. The absorption system was run power of 25-100 MW. The system under investigation contains a
using the exhaust gases. Besides, a recovery boiler was used to gas turbine beside the cooling system that includes an air cooler,
recover the exhaust gases before entering the generator of the an ice storage system in which chilled water (25% Ethylene
absorption chiller. To evaluate the performance, efficiency, and Glycol and 75% water) passes through the air cooler with a
specific fuel consumption was compared to the simple cycle. vapor compression refrigeration system. The gas turbine output
The compressor pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature, and power increases by 3.9-25.7% and the efficiency increases by
ambient temperature were changed in the performance 2.1 - 5.2%. A payback period for the used thermal storage
evaluation. The results showed a gain of 21.5 % in power, 38 % system is computed and found to be 4.0-7.7 years. Also, it is
in efficiency, and 27.7 % specific fuel consumption when using found that the payback period decreases with increasing the gas
this combined system. turbine power.

Air evaporative fogging system is first applied to the gas turbine Rahim [13] compared the performance of combined cycle gas
inlet air in the mid-1980s, Jones and Jacobs [9]. Zurigat et al. [9] turbine power plants with different cooling systems. Evaporative
used this method to cool the inlet air for a power plant of 40 MW cooling, fogging, chiller cooling, and absorption cooling were
power in two different locations in Sultanate Oman. Zurigat el al used and the performance was evaluated with parametric study
used 274 nozzles [swirl jet and impacting pin type] at a flow rate for ambient conditions, turbine inlet temperature, pressure ratio,
of 7-18 kg/h/nozzle to achieve a small droplet diameter. The etc. The net power output and efficiency of the combined cycle
current study achieves that for summer months at least 13oC using each system were evaluated. Also, carbon dioxide
reduction below ambient temperature and 10% increase in power emissions are also discussed. It was found that the absorption
output of the gas turbine. Generally, for a 1.0oC drop in inlet air cooling system is the most effective.
temperature, there is about a 0.72% increment in gas turbine
power output. Santos and Andrade [14] have a theoretical thermodynamics
analysis of a gas turbine using evaporative cooling, absorption,
Bassily[10] studied the effect of using an absorption cooling and Mechanical Chiller system. The heat rate, power output, and
system to intercool reheat recuperated gas turbine cycle. The thermal efficiency are the main key for this study. Also, a
absorption system was run using the exhaust gases of the cycle. comparison between these parameters with the corresponding
The cooling system was employed to cool both the inlet air to the one without air cooling is drawn at different intake temperatures
low-pressure and high-pressure compressor. The effect of and relative humidity of 18% and 60%. It is found that the
changing pressure ratio, ambient temperature, ambient relative absorption chiller method gives a better cooling effect compared
humidity, turbine inlet temperature, and effectiveness of the with evaporative cooling when the ambient intake temperature is
recuperated heat exchanger on the performance was evaluated. high, up to 20oC. At 36 oC and relative humidity of 18%, a 9.6%
The results showed an enhancement in the efficiency when using power increment is obtained when the evaporative cooling is
this double action of the cooling system. used while 13. 56% and 15.97% increments for the mechanical
and absorption systems, respectively.
An analytical study was presented by Yang et al. [11] to study
the effect of introducing LiBr/water absorption chiller and Givi and Li [15] examine the effect of inlet cooling air on gas
fogging to cool the inlet air of the gas-steam combined power turbine performance. Moreover, the coefficient of performance
plant cycle. To evaluate the system, parameters such as (COP) is considered a function of ambient temperature. In fact,
efficiency ratio, profit ratio, and relative payback period were the main objective of this study is to obtain the optimal
defined and analyzed. The study showed that the applicability of temperature at which the inlet cooling should be operated to
inlet air cooling for gas-steam combined power plants using fulfill the highest efficiency. It is found that the power needed
chilling and fogging depends on the economic efficiency of the for a cooling system depends on the second-order of temperature
gas turbine combined cycle power plant. reduction that may lead to lower performance as the temperature
reduction significantly increases. The maximum efficiency is
Thermal energy storage systems are one of the important achieved when the compressor inlet temperature decreases to
air-cooling systems. There are two major categories of sensible 10oC. While the net power output improved by 0.6%/oC.
and latent heat types. In the sensible type, the energy can be
stored in water and sand/stone. While in the second type, the A techno-economical study was done by Barigozzi et al. [16] for
energy storage media change its phase from solid to liquid in the effect of using the cooling system on the inlet air of a gas
receiving energy, and from liquid to solid in the energy rejection turbine in a combined gas turbine. The cooling system consists
process. The latent type stores energy more than the sensible of cold-water thermal storage charged nighttime by mechanical
type. Therefore, in Sanaye et al.[12] ’s study, latent type is used chillers. The cold water was used in the hottest day hours to cool
to cover a thermos-economic analysis to get the optimum design the inlet air to the compressor. Three climate conditions were
parameters using genetics algorithm optimization technique. studied representing three cities: Phoenix, New Orleans, Abu

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Dhabi. The study showed that the size of cooling storage is the where, ̇ , ℎ, are the air mass flow rate [kg/s], the
main parameter for economical revenue. enthalpy[kJ/kg], and the coefficient of performance,
respectively.
In a recent paper, Kamal et al.[17], the performance of a gas
turbine generator using an electric chiller to cool the inlet air was Air compressor: the power required to drive the compressor, ̇ ,
evaluated. The ambient condition of Malaysia was used however is calculated from:
the inlet temperature was cooled to 12 oC. An improvement in ̇ = ̇ ∙ (ℎ − ℎ ). (3)
the performance of the gas turbine was achieved. An increase of
32.11% in the net power and a reduction of 3.74% in the net heat Burner: the amount of heat, ̇ , and the required fuel mass flow
rate was predicted. rate, ̇ , are calculated by:
̇ = ̇ ∙ (ℎ − ℎ ), (4)
Gas turbine performance due to ambient conditions is evaluated ̇
not only for land-based gas turbines but also for the gas turbine ̇ = , (5)
aircraft engines such as turboprop, turbo-shaft, turbo-fan engines
where, LHV is the lower heating value [kJ/kg].
in literature [18]-[24].

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Turbine: the output power, ̇ , and the total mass inlet to the
turbine are calculated as follow,
Figure 1 shows a flow diagram for a standard gas turbine power ̇ = ̇ ∙ (ℎ − ℎ ), (6)
plant with a mechanical inlet air cooling system. As shown in the ̇ = ̇ + ̇ . (7)
diagram, the inlet air to the compressor is cooled using a
mechanical cooling system. The turbine generates power to run Overall gas turbine: the net power output, ̇ , and the power
both the air compressor of the power plant and the compressor of specific fuel consumption, PSFC, heat rate, HR, and thermal
the refrigeration cycle of the chiller. A simple refrigeration cycle efficiency, , are calculated by
is considered with a 3.0 coefficient of performance. Considering
Kuwait’s climate, different ambient temperatures (15°C-55°C) ̇ = ̇ − ̇ − ̇ (8)
are used to evaluate the gas turbine performance. The working
∙ ̇
fluid in both compressor and turbine are air and flue gases, = (9)
̇
respectively.
= ∙ (10)

= (11)
∙

2.1 Gas Turbine Engine Performance Model

To estimate emissions of a gas turbine engine, a detailed cycle

analysis is needed. The cycle analysis is the total of
Figure 1:Schematic of flow diagram of the gas turbine system. thermodynamic calculations performed for every component of
the engine e.g. compressor, combustor, turbine, nozzle, etc. The
The net power output, ̇ and power-specific fuel cycle analysis results include the total pressure and temperature
consumption, PSFC, are calculated using the mathematical values at every engine station, engine performance values such
analysis for each component as indicated below to evaluate the as shaft power output, specific fuel consumption, fuel flow rate,
gas turbine performance. etc. Then, exhaust emissions of the engine can be calculated
from those values.
Mechanical chiller: The cooling load, ̇ , and the
requiredwork for the chiller compressor, ̇ , can be evaluated In this study, cycle analysis of a gas turbine was done for a 43
as follow: MW class similar to the General Electric LM6000 gas turbine
̇ = ̇ ∙ (ℎ − ℎ ),(1) engine [25]. A set of input values were assumed and used in the
̇
̇ = , (2) cycle analysis calculations which are given in Table 1.
Comparison of results with manufacturer`s data isgiven in Table
2 which are in good correlation despite a small deviation[26].

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implementing an inlet air cooling system. The comparison was

Table 1: Assumed design input parameters for baseline engine. presented for various ambient air temperatures. The temperature
Engine
Definition
Assumed range was selected on the climate of Kuwait from 15 oC to 55 oC.
parameter Value The temperature of 15 oC is used as a reference and baseline
T3 total temperature at turbine entry (K) 1500 temperature for comparison purposes. To show the effect of
ΠB burner/combustor total pressure ratio 0.95 changing ambient temperature, the percentage change in output
ΠC compressor total pressure ratio 12.2 power is calculated as follows:
ΠF booster total pressure ratio 2.4
ΠN exhaust nozzle pressure ratio 1.1 ̇ @ − ̇ @ =15
ηb Burner efficiency 0.9995 ̇
× 100% (12)
@ =15
ηC compressor isentropic efficiency 0.90
ηF booster isentropic efficiency 0.90
The required fuel consumption for each kW. Hour is calculated
ηHPT high pressure turbine isentropic 0.88
for the ambient inlet temperature, cooled ambient temperature as
efficiency
well as baseline temperature. The percentage change in PSFC
ηm shaft mechanical efficiency 0.999
output power is calculated as follow:
ηPT power turbine isentropic efficiency 0.91
ε2a cooling air ratio for high pressure 0.03 @ − @ =15
turbine rotor × 100%(13)
@ =15
ε3 cooling air ratio nozzle guide vanes 0.03
Tamb ambient temperature (K) 288.15
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Pamb ambient pressure (kPa) 101.325
M inlet corrected air mass flow rate 119 Figure 2, shows the effect of changing inlet air temperature on
(kg/s) the change of net power output from hot ambient with and
LHV Fuel heating value (natural gas) 44.194 without using inlet air cooling.It is clear from the figure that for
(MJ/kg) the uncooled scenario, increasing the ambient temperature leads
to a significant decrease in output power compared to the
baseline temperature. For example, 21.3% reduction occurred at
Table 2: Comparison of main performance parameters for baseline T=55 oC. On the other hand, the reduction is 3.8% for the same
engine.
ambient temperature is achieved in the cooling scenario. By
Calculated Value
Literature Deviation comparing all percentage reductions for both scenarios, it is
Parameter for Baseline
Data* (%) found that the cooling process decreases the power reduction by
Engine
Shaft power about 6 times.
43,284 43,370 0.19%
(MW)
Heat rate A similar effect for the ambient temperature on the change in
8,581 8,591 0.12% PSFC is noticed as indicated in Figure 3. The Figure 3 shows the
(kJ/kWh)
*Source: [25] same two scenarios of Figure 2. The higher the inlet air
temperature the more PSFC is obtained. Thus, the cooling
process becomes more convenient. For example, as shown in
2.2 Performance Calculations in Hot Climate Figure 3 at 55 oC for uncooled scenario 9.31% more fuel
consumption is needed than that of baseline one. On contrary,
This study uses the local data of dry bulb temperature, wet bulb extra 3.9% PSFC is needed for the same ambient temperature,
temperature, and relative humidity from Kuwait as it has several 55oC, when it is cooled to 15oC. Comparing the percentage of
power plants such as Shuwaikh, Shuaiba North, Doha East, PSFC reduction for both scenarios, the cooling process will save
Doha West, Az-Zour South, Sabiya, and Az-Zour North stations. about 50% of fuel consumption/kW-hour.
Gas turbine stations share 41.4% [8151 MW- generated by gas
turbines out of 19673 MW- total] of the total power generated in Overall results are given in Appendix A, Table A-1 for effect of
Kuwait. Therefore, the performance improvement of these inlet air cooling on the engine performance within the range of
stations will have significant economically and environmental 15oC -55oC.
contribution.
4. CONCLUSION
The net power output, ̇ , and Power specific fuel
consumption, PSFC, are selected as the key parameters used to A compression refrigeration cycle has been introduced to cool
evaluate the gas turbine performance in the current study. Table the compressor inlet air gas for the gas-turbine cycle to 15 oC
1 presents the net power output, and the power specific fuel [baseline temperature]. The compressor of the refrigeration
consumption, PSFC, for gas turbine engines with and without cycle is run by the gas turbine. A parametric study of the effect

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APPENDIX-A
Table A-1: Effect of Inlet Air Cooling on the engine performance
Ambient Inlet Config Power Power Power PSFC PSFC PSFC
Temp [oC] Temp [kW] Change Change from [kg/(kW*h)] Change Change
[oC] from 15oC hot ambient from 15oC from hot
baseline baseline ambient
55 55 uncooled 34147 -21.3% 0.2125 9.31%
15 cooled to 15 41731 -3.8% 22.21% 0.2020 3.91% -5.20%
50 50 uncooled 34993 -19.3% 0.2098 7.92%
15 cooled to 15 41929 -3.3% 19.82% 0.2011 3.45% -4.33%
45 45 uncooled 35950 -17.1% 0.2073 6.64%
15 cooled to 15 42141 -2.8% 17.22% 0.2001 2.93% -3.60%
40 40 uncooled 37004 -14.7% 0.2048 5.35%
15 cooled to 15 42342 -2.4% 14.43% 0.1991 2.42% -2.86%
35 35 uncooled 38143 -12.1% 0.2025 4.17%
15 cooled to 15 42552 -1.9% 11.56% 0.1981 1.90% -2.22%
30 30 uncooled 39358 -9.3% 0.2003 3.03%
15 cooled to 15 42753 -1.4% 8.63% 0.1972 1.44% -1.57%
25 25 uncooled 40638 -6.3% 0.1982 1.95%
15 cooled to 15 42961 -0.9% 5.71% 0.1963 0.98% -0.97%
20 20 uncooled 41976 -3.2% 0.1962 0.93%
15 cooled to 15 43165 -0.5% 2.83% 0.1953 0.46% -0.46%
15 15 baseline 43370 0.0% 0.1944 0.00%

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