Comparative Evaluation of the Effect of Turbine Configuration on the Performance of Heavy-Duty Gas Turbines

Performance of the heavy-duty gas turbine is analyzed with a special focus on the effect of turbine configuration. A general program is developed to fully represent the real component features by the characteristic models. The program is applied to simulate the performance of current heavy-duty gas turbines and its appropriateness for system analysis is verified. Meanwhile, the component parameters of real engines which describe the technology level are obtained. The effect of turbine parameters on the overall gas turbine performance is comparatively evaluated. A special emphasis is put on the analysis of the effect of number of turbine stages on the gas turbine performance and maximum power. Definite performance discrepancy due to the difference in the number of turbine stages is presented. It is found that number of turbine stages considerably affects the maximum gas flow and thermodynamic performance enhancement of the high-temperature advanced gas turbine is meaningful only when the mechanical constraint is relaxed.Copyright © 1995 by ASME