Numerical Simulation of the fogging System Location and Geometry on the Characteristics of Inlet Air to a Gas Turbine

Considering the fact that an increase in ambient air temperature can decrease the air density and consequently a lower mass flow rate into the gas turbine. As a result, the output work and efficiency of gas turbines are greatly reduced due to such mal-effects. Past research has shown that for every 1 degrees of Celsius increase in the inlet temperature, the output power decreases between 0.5 and 0.9 percents, resulting in unexpected increase in operating costs. Since the peak of electricity power demand generally occurs at higher ambient temperatures, it is so crucial for the gas turbine operators to generate electric power in hot summer times. Evaporative cooling of the inlet air to a gas turbine power generator is known as a well-known approach to decrease the temperature and increase the output power. One of the most important issues related to the use of the intake fogging system is to determine its most effective location in the intake air channel. The system's location directly affects the main characteristics of the air flow into the gas turbine such as the evaporation efficiency, temperature drop and humidity increase, temperature distortion, and the droplet diameter at the inlet to gas turbine. This study uses the computational fluid dynamics and examines three different locations for the fogging system of a typical J-class gas turbine. Furthermore, the effect of channel geometry is investigated to study the evaporation and distortion of inlet air flow. The results show that installing the system before the silencer will have more positive impacts on the aforementioned characteristics of the air flow into gas turbine system