Performance and Emission Analysis of a variable load operated Gas Turbine

The authors present a methodology for the prediction of performance and emissions of a gas turbine under a wide range of load conditions. The engine, of the aero-derivative type, is employed in a natural gas recompression plant. The paper deals, in its first part, with the reconstruction of the whole operating region of both the gas generator set and the power turbine including its matching with the centrifugal compressor for natural gas delivery in the pipeline. This phase also leads to an effective prediction of pollutant emission, with a chemical kinetics based sub-model. Next, a refined CFD based simulation analyzes a number of operating cases, so providing a detailed insight of the actual phenomena which control the combustion chamber temperature distribution and the activation of the pollutant formation mechanisms.