Synergistic Effect of Physical Faults and Variable Inlet Guide Vane Drift on Gas Turbine Engine

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of variable inlet guide vanes and physical faults on the performance of a three-shaft gas turbine engine operating at full load. By utilizing the input data provided by the engine manufacturer, the performance models for both the design point and off-design scenarios have been developed. To ensure the accuracy of our models, validation was conducted using the manufacturer's data. Once the models were successfully validated, various degradation conditions, such as variable inlet guide vane drift, fouling, and erosion, were simulated. Three scenarios that cause gas turbine degradation have been considered and simulated: First, how would the variable inlet guide vane drift affect the gas turbine performance? Second, how would the combined effect of fouling and variable inlet guide vane drift cause the degradation of the engine performance? Third, how would the combined effect of erosion and variable inlet guide vane drift cause the degradation of the engine performance? The results revealed that up-VIGV drift, which is combined fouling and erosion, shows a small deviation because of offsetting the isentropic efficiency drop caused by fouling and erosion. It is clearly observed that fouling affects more upstream components, whereas erosion affects more downstream components. Furthermore, the deviation of performance and output parameters due to the combined faults has been discussed.