Gas Turbine Combustion Systems
1
• Motivation to study about Industrial Gas Turbines
• What does combustor do?
• Types of combustors
• Design requirements
• Introduction to combustion chemistry
• Alternative fuels, pollutants, oscillations
• Challenges related with variable load conditions
2
Trend of world’s energy consumption (Data from US Department of Energy)
1 Quadrillion = 1015, 1 BTU = 1.055x103 J
1 Quadrillion BTU = 45M Tons Coal or 1T ft3 Natural Gas or 170M Barrels of crude oil
1 Barrel crude oil = 42 gallon = 6.1 GJ of energy
World’s energy requirement can largely be classified into Electric power, transportation energy
3
There is a very well established energy infrastructure based
on fossil fuels in US and across the globe.
The world’s proven fossil fuel reserves and lifetimes
Lifetime (y) Lifetime (y)
Fuel Reserves (Q) No Growth w/ Growth
Coal 24,000 258 140
Oil 9280 60 50
Gas 6966 90 50
The advantage of alternative fuels is that the existing infrastructure can
be used.
Gas turbines industry is going to stay in business for a long time
4
Gas Turbines find their applications in
- electricpower generation, mechanical drive systems, supply
of process heat and compressed air, pump drives for gas or
liquid pipelines
- jet propulsion, land and sea transport (infancy state)
Industrial turbines or prime movers
5
Gas Turbines OEMs
6
Output 7.7 MW
Output 1.2 MW Output 4.6 MW Thermal Eff. 34.8%
Thermal Eff. 24.5% Thermal Eff. 29.9%
Output 15.3 MW Output 4.6 MW
Thermal Eff. 35.7% Thermal Eff. 39.5%
Output 11.2 MW
Thermal Eff. 33.9%
7
Latest addition…
Output 22.3 MW
Thermal Eff. 40%
8
TURBINES: Machines to extract fluid
power from flowing fluids
Steam Water Wind Gas
Turbine Turbines Turbines Turbines
•High Pressure, High Temperature gas
•Generated inside the engine Aircraft Engines
•Expands through a specially designed Power
TURBINE Generation
GAS TURBINES
• Invented in 1930 by Frank Whittle
• Patented in 1934
• First used for aircraft propulsion in 1942 on Me262 by
Germans during second world war
• Currently most of the aircrafts and ships use GT engines
• Used for power generation
• Manufacturers: General Electric, Pratt &Whitney,
SNECMA, Rolls Royce, Honeywell, Siemens –
Westinghouse, Alstom
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
• Intake
– Slow down incoming air
– Remove distortions
• Compressor
– Dynamically Compress air
• Combustor
– Heat addition through chemical
reaction
• Turbine
– Run the compressor
• Nozzle/ Free Turbine
– Generation of thrust power/shaft
power
Advantages and Disadvantages
• Expensive:
• Great power-to-weight – high speeds and high operating
ratio compared to temperatures
reciprocating engines. – designing and manufacturing
• Smaller than their gas turbines is a tough problem
reciprocating counterparts of from both the engineering and
the same power. materials standpoint
• Lower emission levels • Tend to use more fuel when
they are idling
• They prefer a constant rather
than a fluctuating load.
That makes gas turbines great for things like transcontinental jet
aircraft and power plants, but explains why we don't have one under
the hood of our car.
Emission in Gas Turbines
•Lower emission compared to all conventional methods (except nuclear)
•Regulations require further reduction in emission levels
Simplistic Gas Turbines working principles
1-2 Isentropic compression (in a compressor)
2-3 Constant pressure heat addition (in a combustor)
3-4 Isentropic expansion (in a turbine)
4-1 Constant pressure heat rejection
14
Power generation for gas fields in Siberia
Petrobras, offshore Brazil, Power
generation and crude oil production
Natural gas transmission,
Desert environment
15
What makes Gas Turbines attractive for Industrial prime movers?
Advantages
• Very high power-to-weight ratio, compared to reciprocating engines
• Smaller than most reciprocating engines of the same power rating
• Fewer moving parts than reciprocating engines
• Low operating pressures
• High operation speeds
• Low lubricating oil cost and consumption
• High reliability
• Goes for 30-50K hours before first overhaul. Usually runs for 100K-300K hours (10+
years) life cycle
Disadvantages
• Cost is much greater than for a similar-sized reciprocating engine since the material
must be stronger and more heat resistant. Machining operations are more complex
• Usually less efficient than reciprocating engines, especially at idle
These make GT less suitable for road transport and helicopters
16
Gas Turbine components
Inlet system Collects and directs air into the gas turbine. Often, an air
cleaner and silencer are part of the inlet system. It is designated for a
minimum pressure drop while maximizing clean airflow into the gas turbine.
Compressor Provides compression, and, thus, increases the air density for
the combustion process. The higher the compression ratio, the higher the
total gas turbine efficiency . Low compressor efficiencies result in high
compressor discharge temperatures, therefore, lower gas turbine output
power.
Combustor Adds heat energy to the airflow. The output power of the gas
turbine is directly proportional to the combustor firing temperature; i.e., the
combustor is designed to increase the air temperature up to the material
limits of the gas turbine while maintaining a reasonable pressure drop.
17
Gas Producer Turbine Expands the air and absorbs just enough energy from
the flow to drive the compressor. The higher the gas producer discharge
temperature and pressure, the more energy is available to drive the power
turbine, therefore, creating shaft work.
Power Turbine Converts the remaining flow energy from the gas producer
into useful shaft output work. The higher the temperature difference across
the power turbine, the more shaft output power is available.
Exhaust System Directs exhaust flow away from the gas turbine inlet. Often a
silencer is part of the exhaust system. Similar to the inlet system, the exhaust
system is designed for minimum pressure losses.
18
What drives Research and Development work in Gas Turbines?
• In 1950’s component efficiencies
• In 1990’s emissions
• In 21st century it is emissions and alternative fuels
• Nature of application and location are always the factors
19
Simplistic Gas Turbines working principles
1-2 Isentropic compression (in a compressor); h2-h1 = mCp(T2-T1)
2-3 Constant pressure heat addition (in a combustor); h 3-h2 = mCp(T3-T2)
3-4 Isentropic expansion (in a turbine); h3-h4 = mCp(T3-T4)
4-1 Constant pressure heat rejection
20
mFqRcomb
minCpTin Gas Turbine (min+mF)CpTout
Shaft power
21
Compressor work h2 h1 c p (T2 T1 )
h3 h4 c p (T3 T4 )
Turbine work
Heat input h3 h2 c p (T3 T2 )
1
1
T2 P2
T3
r
For isentropic process
T1 P1 T4
22
net work output cp (T3 T4 ) cp (T2 T1 )
Thermal Efficiency
energy input cp (T3 T2 )
1
1
1
r
Net work out Wnet c p T3 T4 c p (T2 T1 )
23
Example:
A simple Brayton cycle using air as the working
fluid has a pressure ratio of 8. The minimum and
maximum temperatures in the cycle are 300 and
1100 K.
Determine (a) the air temperature at the turbine
exit, (b) the net work output, and (c) the thermal
efficiency.
24
Assumptions 1 Steady operating conditions exist.
2 The air-standard assumptions are applicable. T
3 Kinetic and potential energy changes are
3
negligible. 4 Air is an ideal gas. 1100 K
qin
Analysis (a) Assuming constant specific heats, 2
4
290 K 1 qout
k 1/ k s
P2
290K 8
0.4/1.4
T2 s T1 525.3K
P1
k 1/ k 0.4/1.4
P 1
T4 s T3 4 1100K 607.2 K
P3 8
qout C p T4 T1 T T 607.2 290
th 1 1 1 4 1 1 0.448
qin C p T3 T2 T3 T2 1100 525.3
W net ,out T Q in 0.44835,000 kW 15,680 kW
25
COMBINED GAS–VAPOR POWER CYCLES
• The continued quest for higher thermal efficiencies has resulted in rather
innovative modifications to conventional power plants.
• A popular modification involves a gas power cycle topping a vapor power cycle,
which is called the combined gas–vapor cycle, or just the combined cycle.
• The combined cycle of greatest interest is the gas-turbine (Brayton) cycle topping
a steam-turbine (Rankine) cycle, which has a higher thermal efficiency than
either of the cycles executed individually.
• It makes engineering sense to take advantage of the very desirable
characteristics of the gas-turbine cycle at high temperatures and to use the high-
temperature exhaust gases as the energy source for the bottoming cycle such as
a steam power cycle. The result is a combined gas–steam cycle.
• Recent developments in gas-turbine technology have made the combined gas–
steam cycle economically very attractive.
• The combined cycle increases the efficiency without increasing the initial cost
greatly. Consequently, many new power plants operate on combined cycles, and
many more existing steam- or gas-turbine plants are being converted to
combined-cycle power plants.
• Thermal efficiencies over 50% are reported.
26
Combined gas–steam power plant.
27
28
29
30
Most critical points of gas
turbines
Main points of maintenance
schedule
• Firing hours – start up
number
• Numbers of falling out
• Fuel exchange oil / gas
• Peak load operation
• Steam injection time
Equivalent operation hour calculation
(GE)
Effects on maintenance period
determination
Time dependent strain curve under constant
load
Life cycle
characteristics
Contribution of major components
to gas turbine down time
Effects
of
borescop
e
inspectio
n
Deformation of compressor blades
Deformation of compressor blades
Fouling of a turbine blade
Overhauling of turbine
blades
