Investigation of Thermopressor with Incomplete Evaporation for Gas Turbine Intercooling Systems

Zidong Yu, Terese Løvås, Dmytro Konovalov (), Eugeniy Trushliakov, Mykola Radchenko, Halina Kobalava, Roman Radchenko and Andrii Radchenko
Additional contact information
Zidong Yu: School of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, No. 2 Mengxi Road, Zhenjiang 212003, China
Terese Løvås: Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Dmytro Konovalov: Heat Engineering Department, Kherson Educational-Scientific Institute, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ushakov Avenue 44, 73003 Kherson, Ukraine
Eugeniy Trushliakov: Department of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Heroes of Ukraine Avenue 9, 54025 Mykolayiv, Ukraine
Mykola Radchenko: Department of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Heroes of Ukraine Avenue 9, 54025 Mykolayiv, Ukraine
Halina Kobalava: Heat Engineering Department, Kherson Educational-Scientific Institute, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ushakov Avenue 44, 73003 Kherson, Ukraine
Roman Radchenko: Department of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Heroes of Ukraine Avenue 9, 54025 Mykolayiv, Ukraine
Andrii Radchenko: Department of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Heroes of Ukraine Avenue 9, 54025 Mykolayiv, Ukraine

Energies, 2022, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: One of the promising ways to increase fuel and modern gas turbine energy efficiency is using cyclic air intercooling between the stages of high- and low-pressure compressors. For intercooling, it is possible to use cooling in the surface heat exchanger and the contact method when water is injected into the compressor air path. In the presented research on the cooling contact method, it is proposed to use a thermopressor that implements the thermo-gas-dynamic compression process, i.e., increasing the airflow pressure by evaporation of the injected liquid in the flow, which moves at near-sonic speed. The thermopressor is a multifunctional contact heat exchanger when using this air-cooling method. This provides efficient high-dispersion liquid spraying after isotherming in the high-pressure compressor, increasing the pressure and decreasing the air temperature in front of the high-pressure compressor, reducing the work on compression. Drops of water injected into the air stream in the thermopressor can significantly affect its characteristics. An increase in the amount of water increases the aerodynamic resistance of the droplets in the stream. Hence, the pressure in the flow parts of the thermopressor can significantly decrease. Therefore, the study aims to experimentally determine the optimal amount of water for water injection in the thermopressor while ensuring a positive increase in the total pressure in the thermopressor under conditions of incomplete evaporation. The experimental results of the low-consumption thermopressor (air consumption up to 0.52 kg/s) characteristics with incomplete liquid evaporation in the flowing part are presented. The research found that the relative water amount to ensure incomplete evaporation in the thermopressor flow part is from 4 to 10% (0.0175–0.0487 kg/s), without significant pressure loss due to the resistance of the dispersed flow. The relative increase in airflow pressure is from 1.01 to 1.03 (5–10 kPa). Based on experimental data, empirical equations were obtained for calculating the relative pressure increase in the thermopressor with evaporation chamber diameters of up to 50 mm (relative flow path length is from 3 to 10 and Mach number is from 0.3 to 0.8).

Keywords: thermopressor; gas turbine; thermos-gas-dynamic compression; water injection; cycling air; energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/1/20/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/1/20/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2022:i:1:p:20-:d:1009165

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().