Chapter Five

Gas Turbine Power Plant

Introduction
Gas turbine:
 burn fuels such as oil, nature gas
and pulverized (powdered) coal.
 Instead of using the heat to produce
steam, as in steam turbines, gas
turbines use the hot gases directly
to turn the turbine blades.
 Gas turbines have three main
parts:
i) Air compressor
ii) Combustion chamber

iii) Turbine
Air compressor:
 The air compressor and turbine are mounted at either end on a common
horizontal axle(shaft), with the combustion chamber between them.
 Gas turbines are not self starting. A starting motor initially drives the
compressor till the first combustion of fuel takes place, later, part of the
turbine’s power runs the compressor.
 The air compressor sucks in air and compresses it, thereby increasing its
pressure.
Combustion chamber:
 In the combustion chamber, the compressed air combines with fuel and the
resulting mixture is burnt.
 The greater the pressure of air, the better the fuel air mixture burns.
 Modern gas turbines usually use liquid fuel, but they may also use gaseous
fuel, natural gas or gas produced artificially by gasification of a solid fuel.
Note :
 The combination of air compressor and combustion chamber is called as
gas generator.
Turbine:
o The burning gases expand rapidly and rush into the turbine, where they cause the
turbine wheels to rotate.
o Hot gases move through a multistage gas turbine.
o Like in steam turbine, the gas turbine also has fixed(stationary) and
moving(rotor) blades.
o The stationary blades guide the moving gases to the rotor blades and adjust its
velocity.
o The shaft of the turbine is coupled to a generator or machinery to drive it.
Applications of gas turbine:
Gas turbines are used to drive pumps, compressors and high speed cars.
Used in aircraft and ships for their propulsion. They are not suitable for
automobiles because of their very high speeds.
 Power generation(used for peak load and as stand-by unit).
Note:
 Gas turbines run at even higher temperatures than steam turbines, the
temperature may be as high as 1100 – 12600C.
 The thermal efficiency of gas turbine made of metal components do not exceed
36%.
Layout of a gas turbine power plant
Starting motor:
Gas turbines are not self starting. They require a starting motor to first bring
the turbine to the minimum speed called coming –in speed, for this purpose a
starting motor is required.
Low pressure compressor(LPC):
The purpose of the compressor is to compress the air. Air from the atmosphere
is drawn into the LPC and is compressed.
Intercooler:
The air after compression in the LPC is hot. It is cooled by the intercooler. The
intercooler is circulated with cooling water.
High pressure compressor(HPC):
The air from the intercooler enters the HPC where it is further compressed to a
high pressure. The compressed air passes through a regenerator.
Regenerator(Heat exchanger):
The air entering the combustion chamber(CC) for combustion must be hot. The
heat from the exhaust gases is picked up by the compressed air entering the
combustion chamber.
Combustion chamber:
 The fuel(natural gas, pulverized coal, kerosene or gasoline) is injected into the
combustion chamber.
 The fuel gets ignited because of the compressed air.
 The fuel along with the compressed air is ignited sometimes with a spark plug.
High pressure turbine (HPT):
 In the beginning the starting motor runs the compressor shaft.
 The hot gases(products of combustion) expands through the high pressure
turbine.
 It is important to note that when the HPT shaft rotates it in fact drives the
compressor shaft which is coupled to it. Now the HPT runs the compressor and
the starting motor is stopped.
Note :
About 66% of the power developed by the gas turbine power plant is used to
run the compressor.
• Only 34% of the power developed by the plant is used to generate electric
power.
Low pressure turbine (LPT):
The purpose of the LPT is to produce electric power.
The shaft of the LPT is directly coupled with the generator for producing electricity.
The hot gases(products of combustion) after leaving the HPT is again sent to a
combustion chamber where it further undergoes combustion.
The exhaust gases after leaving the LPT passes through the regenerator before
being exhausted through the chimney into the atmosphere.
The heat from the hot gases is used to preheat the air entering the combustion
chamber. This preheating of the air improves the efficiency of the combustion
chamber.
Advantages of gas turbine power plant :
 Storage of fuel requires less area and handling is easy.
 The cost of maintenance is less.
 It is simple in construction. There is no need for boiler, condenser and other
accessories as in the case of steam power plants.
 Cheaper fuel such as kerosene , paraffin, benzene and powdered coal can be
used which are cheaper than petrol and diesel.
 Gas turbine plants can be used in water scarcity areas.
 Less pollution and less water is required.
 Disadvantages of gas turbine power plant :

 66% of the power developed is used to drive the compressor.

Therefore the gas turbine unit has a low thermal efficiency.
 The running speed of gas turbine is in the range of (40,000 to
100,000 rpm) and the operating temperature is as high as 1100 –
12600C. For this reason special metals and alloys have to be
used for the various parts of the turbine.
 High frequency noise from the compressor is objectionable.
Open and Closed Brayton Cycle
Actual Gas-Turbine Cycles
• For actual gas turbines, compressor and
turbine are not isentropic
• Some pressure drop occurs during the heat-
addition and heat rejection processes.
• The actual work input to the compressor is
more, and the actual work output from the
turbine is less, because of irreversibility.
• Deviation of actual compressor and turbine
behaviour from the idealized isentropic
behaviour can be accounted for by utilizing
isentropic efficiencies of the turbine and
compressor.
Example 5.1
Assuming a compressor efficiency of 80 percent and a
turbine efficiency of 85 percent ,the specific enthalpies at
different points are given as follows
h1= 300.19kJ/Kg ; h2s= 544.35kJ/Kg
h3=1395.97 kJ/Kg; h4s=789.37kJ/Kg,
Determine
(a) The back work ratio, and
(b) The thermal efficiency
Brayton Cycle With Regeneration
• Temperature of the exhaust gas leaving the turbine is
higher than the temperature of the air leaving the
compressor. The air leaving the compressor can be
heated by the hot exhaust gases in a counter-flow
heat exchanger (a regenerator) – a process called
regeneration
• The thermal efficiency of the Brayton cycle
increases due to regeneration since less fuel is used
for the same work output.
• The use of a regenerator is recommended
only when the turbine exhaust temperature is
higher than the compressor exit temperature.
Effectiveness of the Regenerator
• Assuming the regenerator is well
insulated and changes in kinetic
and potential energies are
negligible, the actual and maximum
heat transfers from the exhaust
gases to the air can be expressed
as
The net work output of a gas-turbine cycle can be increased
by either:
a) Decreasing the compressor work, or
b) Increasing the turbine work, or
c) both.
• The compressor work input can be decreased by carrying out
the compression process in stages and cooling the gas in
between, using multistage compression with intercooling.
• The work output of a turbine can be increased by expanding
the gas in stages and reheating it in between, utilizing a
multistage expansion with reheating.
Physical arrangement of an ideal two-stage gas-turbine cycle
with inter cooling, reheating and regeneration
Conditions for Best Performance

• The work input to a two-stage compressor is minimized when equal pressure

ratios are maintained across each stage. This procedure also maximizes the
turbine work output. Thus, for best performance we have,

Intercooling and reheating always decreases

thermal efficiency unless are accompanied by
regeneration.
Therefore, in gas turbine power plants,
intercooling and reheating are always used in
conjunction with regeneration.
Example 5.2
• An ideal gas-turbine cycle with two
stages of compression and two stages of
expansion has an overall pressure ratio
of 8. Air enters each stage of the
compressor at 300 K and each stage of
the turbine at 1300 K. Determine the
back work ratio and the thermal
efficiency of this gas-turbine cycle,
assuming (a) no regenerators and (b)
an ideal regenerator with 100 percent
effectiveness.
Ideal Jet-Propulsion Cycles
 Gas-turbine engines are widely used to power
aircraft because they are and compact and have
a high power-to-weight ratio.
 Aircraft gas turbines operate on an open cycle
called a jet-propulsion cycle.
 The ideal jet propulsion cycle differs from the
simple ideal Brayton cycle in that the gases are
not expanded to the ambient pressure in the
turbine.
 Instead, they are expanded to a pressure such
that the power produced by the turbine is just
sufficient to drive the compressor and the
auxiliary equipment, such as a small generator
and hydraulic pumps.
That is, the net work output of a jet propulsion cycle is zero.
The gases that exit the turbine at a relatively high pressure are
subsequently accelerated in a nozzle to provide the thrust to propel the
aircraft.
:: Aircraft are propelled by accelerating a fluid in the opposite direction to
motion. This is accomplished by either slightly accelerating a large mass of
fluid ( propeller-driven engine) or greatly accelerating a small mass of fluid
( jet or turbojet engine) or both (turboprop engine).
The pressure of air rises slightly as it is decelerated in the diffuser. Air is
compressed by the compressor. It is mixed with fuel in the combustion
chamber, where the mixture is burned at constant pressure. The high-
pressure and high-temperature combustion gases partially expand in the
turbine, producing enough power to drive the compressor and other
equipment. Finally, the gases expand in a nozzle to the ambient pressure
and leave the engine at a high velocity.
• In the ideal case, the turbine work is assumed to equal the
compressor work. Also, the processes in the diffuser, the
compressor, the turbine, and the nozzle are assumed to be
isentropic. In the analysis of actual cycles, however, the
irreversibility associated with these devices should be
considered. The effect of the irreversibilities is to reduce the
thrust that can be obtained from a turbojet engine.
• The thrust developed in a turbojet engine is the unbalanced
force that is caused by the difference in the momentum of the
low-velocity air entering the engine and the high-velocity
exhaust gases leaving the engine, and it is determined from
Newton’s second law.
Propulsive power and efficiency

• Propulsive power
It is the power developed from the thrust of the
engine is called the propulsive power WP, which is
the propulsive force (thrust) times the distance this
force acts on the aircraft per unit time, that is, the
thrust times the aircraft velocity.

Propulsive efficiency
It is the ratio of the desired output to the required input. The desired
output in a turbojet engine is the power produced to propel the aircraft
WP and the required input is the heating value of the fuel Qin.