Thermal performance of a gas turbine based on an exergy analysis

¹ Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Badji Mokhtar University - PO Box. 12 Annaba 23000 Algeria
² Industrial mechanics laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Badji Mokhtar University — PO Box. 12 Annaba 23000 Algeria

^* Corresponding author: abdallah.haouam@univ-annaba.dz

Abstract

This work concerns the calculation and the analysis of the thermal performance of the components ofan MS 7001 type gas turbine with a nominal power of 87 MW using the concept of exergy. The exergy balance is used in addition to the energy balance to estimate the irreversibility of the air compressor, the combustion chamber and the turbine. The exergy analysis is carried out by applying the equilibrium equations obtained from the general definitions of the irreversibility of the thermodynamic processes and the data provided by the manufacturer. The results show that the exergy destruction of the gas turbine depends on the variation of the thermodynamic parameters: ambient temperature, compression ratio, air–fuel ratio. The combustion chamber has the highest exergy destruction estimated at 36.34 MW. The air compressor has an exergy efficiency of 84.19% that of the combustion chamber is 75.91% whilethat of the turbine expansion is 92.58%. The total exergy destruction of the gas turbine is 53.51 MW and itsefficiency is 32.44%. Improving the performance of the gas turbine requires decreasing the temperatureof the intake air.