AxSTREAM ION as a Tool for Cooled Gas Turbine Unit Performance Calculations and Improvements

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Historically, small and mid-sized power generation gas turbine units (GTUs) have been used to cover peak loads, which leads to frequent off-design operation. Due to present day grid demands, even powerful base load GTUs often operate at part loads with significantly less efficiency, ultimately causing financial losses.

Modern industrial GTUs almost always have complex cooling systems. Furthermore, determining the off-design performance of these cooling systems require the designer to take into account tens, if not hundreds, of parameters.  Such a large amount of data makes the GTU off-design performance calculation a very sophisticated task and forces engineers to make some simplifications. One such simplification is compressor and turbine operation maps utilization (the method of graphical interpolation). The cost of this simplification is a loss of accuracy, which may or may not be acceptable on a case by case basis. Another complicating peculiarity is the necessity of reliable determination of gas temperature to avoid blade burn out and compressor surge zone, which affects not only efficiency but also reliability of operation. In light of this, having a tool which can automatically determine the conditions of the joint work between the compressor and turbine while taking into account the cooling system is imperative for the reliable exploitation of the GTU.

SoftInWay began nearly 20 years ago as an engineering consulting firm specializing in steam and gas turbines.  As we’ve grown throughout many years, our scope has expanded to other machine types and applications, but our goals have remained the same. We pride ourselves on empowering each client to overcome the challenges of their most demanding turbomachinery projects and have continued to develop tools to accomplish this. Our latest module, AxSTREAM ION, provides users with the capabilities to take into account the above factors and accurately determine the off-design parameters of a gas turbine unit. By utilizing this software tool, users can improve the accuracy of part load performance predictions and enhance the overall performance of their turbomachinery.

In this webinar, attendees will receive an overview of how AxSTREAM ION can be used to automatically determine joint working conditions of each component including the compressor, turbine, and entire secondary flow (cooling) system to improve the off-design performance of a 170MW cooled gas turbine unit. A comparison of this new algorithm against a conventional algorithm will be also presented.

The webinar session will include:

• GTU off-design operation aspects
• Overview of various approaches to GTU off-design performance calculations
• Presentation of AxSTREAM ION as an automated task solver and its application to optimization of cooled GTU performance predictions and study of part load modes
• Presentation of different control options such as the inlet guide vane (IGV), nozzle, fuel, etc. in a 170 MW cooled GTU and their influence on off-design performance
• Live demonstration

Who should attend:

• Gas turbine engineers and scientists looking for new ways to optimize their company’s turbomachinery design process
• Gas turbine engineering managers overseeing the design process and tools used
• Technical managers and service providers looking to improve or expand their product range by incorporating innovative engineering solutions into gas turbine design and analysis
• Entry level engineers looking to learn more about helpful tools to get them started in the turbomachinery field
• Professors who wish to utilize specialized tools and resources related to the latest engineering findings

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