EFFECT of the ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS of TROPICAL CLIMATES on the PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS of A GAS TURBINE POWER GENERATION PLANT Fajardo J. ; Barreto D. ; Castro T. ;

Abstract

It is known that high temperatures adversely affect the performance of gas turbines, but the effect of the combination of atmospheric conditions (temperature and relative humidity -RH- ) on the operation of this type of system is unknown. In this work the effects of atmospheric conditions on the energy and exergy indicators of a power plant with gas turbine were studied. The indicators studied were the mass flow, the specific work consumed by the compressor, specific work produced by the turbine, the combustion gas temperature, the NO concentration, the net output power, the thermal efficiency, the heat rate, the specific consumption of fuel, the destruction of exergy and exergy efficiency. Among the results, it is noted that for each degree celsius that reduces the temperature of the air at the compressor inlet at constant relative humidity on average, the mass flow of dry air increases by 0.27 kg/s, the specific work consumed by the compressors decreases by 0.45%, the output power increases by 1.17% and the thermal efficiency increases by 0.8%, the exergy destruction increases by 0.72% and the exergy efficiency increases by 0.81%. In addition, humidity changes relative to high temperatures are detected more significantly than at low temperatures. The power plant studied is installed in Cartagena, Colombia and since it is not operating in the design environmental conditions (15 C and 60% relative humidity) it experiences a loss of output power of 6140 kW and a drop in thermal efficiency of 5.12 %. These results allow considering the implementation of air cooling technologies at the compressor inlet to compensate for the loss of power at atmospheric air conditions. © 2020 ASME.