Investigation on Cooling Effectiveness and Flow Resistance of Inlet Fogging Location in Gas Turbine Inlet Duct

The output power and efficiency of gas turbines are reduced significantly during the hot weather, particularly in areas where the daytime temperature reaches as high as 50 degrees C. Gas turbine inlet fogging and overspray has been considered a efficient and cost-effective method to augment the power output. Therefore, the evaporation effect and the flow resistance performance in the inlet duct after the inlet fogging applied are the objectives of this paper. The nozzles array mounted on channels and beams, and they have effects on the pressure drop. Installation site of the fogging nozzles which is relative to the silencers also have impact on the effectiveness of evaporation and cooling. For research the evaporative cooling effect in the duct, the whole inlet duct is meshed in this research to compute the pressure drop through the nozzles frames under fogging and none fogging conditions with CFD method. The results indicate that injection velocity and arrangement of nozzles have significant effects on the pressure drops and cooling effect, which will affect compressor performance. Gas turbine is sensitive not only to the inlet temperature, but also to the inlet pressure drop. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the pressure drop and evaporation of inlet fogging and will be of values to gas turbine inlet fogging system designers and users.