Field Performance Testing Of Gas Turbine Driven Compressor Sets.

Klaus Brun is a Senior Sales Engineer for Solar Turbines Inc. , San Diego, California. Previously, he was employed as a Research Engineer at the ROMA C Laboratories of the University of Virginia and a Senior Project Engineer at Blue Ridge Numerics Inc. Dr. Brun received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He has published more than 15 journal and conference papers on turbomachinery and related Daryl D. Legrand is a Senior Project Manager at Solar Turbines Inc. , in San Diego, California. He is responsible for supervising, organizing, conducting, and evaluating site performance tests worldwide. Field testing of gas turbine compressor packages requires the accurate determination of efficiency, flow, head, power, and fuel flow in sometimes less than ideal working environments . Nonetheless, field test results have significant implication for the compressor and gas turbine manufacturers and their customers. 213 This paper discusses field testing of gas turbine driven compressors and measurement uncertainties one can expect when following appropriate test guidelines . A compressor field testing procedure that reduces measurement inaccuracies and maintains cost efficiency is outlined herein. Such field tests provide the user with valuable operation and maintenance data and the manufacturer with information complementary to the data gathered through factory testing. The paper addresses the issues of planning and organization of field tests, necessary instrumentation, data reduction, data correction, test uncertainty, and the interpretation of test data. Applicable test codes and their relevance for field testing are reviewed.