Effects of intake air cooling performance improvement on a two-shaft laboratory-scale gas turbine unit

The present study deals with the thermodynamically modelled two-shaft gas turbine system consisting of a cooling unit at the compressor inlet. The system is used to investigate the generated power, thermal efficiency and second law efficiency. The parametric study using this model shows effect of ambient conditions, compressor inlet temperature, and pressure ratios on power output, thermal efficiency and second law efficiency. Theoretical results using the proposed model show that when the compressor inlet temperature is decreased by some kind of cooling systems, the net power output and thermal efficiency increases up to 30% and 23%, respectively. Also, the second law efficiency of the proposed system increases in compression to the specified reference state. It shows that the proposed model is thermodynamically viable. A comparison of the performance test results of the model and the experimental results are in good agreement. The results provide valuable information regarding the gas turbine system and will be useful for designers.