The Feasibility Study of a Night Sky Radiative Cooling System for Cooling the Intake Air of a Gas Turbine

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Mechanical engineering department- Engineering faculty- Unversity of Sistan and Balouchestan- Zahedan- Iran

Abstract

The compressor inlet air cooling, especially in hot climates, has a significant effect on the power output augmentation of the gas turbines. The water consumption in evaporative cooling and fogging systems and power consumption and investment cost in vapor absorption and compression refrigeration systems are high. So, the purpose of this article is to investigate the possibility of using the night sky radiative cooling system for cooling the intake air of the compressor. In this method, the circulating water used to cool the intake air of the compressor, at night and in the exchange of radiation with the sky, is cooled using glassless flat plate collectors and returns to the storage tank for reuse on the next day. The effect of parameters such as the number and arrangement of collectors in series or parallel on the cooling capacity is investigated. Also, the required storage tank volume for returned water from collectors is calculated. The results show that the compressor’s intake air cooling for six hours a day needs a storage tank with a minimum capacity of 1000 m3. Also, by using 400 parallel collectors and a 1000 m3 storage tank, the power production increases by an average of 2 MWh.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] C.B. Meher-Homji, I.I.I.T.R. Mee, Inlet Fogging of Gas Turbine Engines: Part A — Theory, Psychrometrics and Fog Generation, (78569) (2000) V003T003A008.
[2] E. Kakaras, A. Doukelis, S. Karellas, Compressor intake-air cooling in gas turbine plants, Energy, 29(12) (2004) 2347-2358.
[3] A. De Sa, S. Al Zubaidy, Gas turbine performance at varying ambient temperature, Applied Thermal Engineering, 31(14) (2011) 2735-2739.
[4] A. González-Díaz, A.M. Alcaráz-Calderón, M.O. González-Díaz, Á. Méndez-Aranda, M. Lucquiaud, J.M. González-Santaló, Effect of the ambient conditions on gas turbine combined cycle power plants with post-combustion CO2 capture, Energy, 134 (2017) 221-233.
[5] M.M. Alhazmy, Y.S.H. Najjar, Augmentation of gas turbine performance using air coolers, Applied Thermal Engineering, 24(2) (2004) 415-429.
[6] R. Hosseini, A. Beshkani, M. Soltani, Performance improvement of gas turbines of Fars (Iran) combined cycle power plant by intake air cooling using a media evaporative cooler, Energy Conversion and Management, 48(4) (2007) 1055-1064.
[7] H. Perez-Blanco, K.-H. Kim, S. Ream, Evaporatively-cooled compression using a high-pressure refrigerant, Applied Energy, 84(10) (2007) 1028-1043.
[8] B. Mohanty, G. Paloso, Enhancing gas turbine performance by intake air cooling using an absorption chiller, Heat Recovery Systems and CHP, 15(1) (1995) 41-50.
[9] M. Ameri, S.H. Hejazi, The study of capacity enhancement of the Chabahar gas turbine installation using an absorption chiller, Applied Thermal Engineering, 24(1) (2004) 59-68.
[10] S. Boonnasa, P. Namprakai, T. Muangnapoh, Performance improvement of the combined cycle power plant by intake air cooling using an absorption chiller, Energy, 31(12) (2006) 2036-2046.
[11] I.S. Ondryas, D.A. Wilson, M. Kawamoto, G.L. Haub, Options in Gas Turbine Power Augmentation Using Inlet Air Chilling, Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 113(2) (1991) 203-211.
[12] J.S. Andrepont, Combustion Turbine Inlet Air Cooling (CTIAC): Benefits, Technology Options, and Applications for District Energy, Energy Engineering, 98(3) (2001) 52-69.
[13] B. Omidvar, Gas turbine inlet air cooling system, in:  The 3rd annual Australian gas turbine conference, Melbourne, Australia, 2001.
[14] A. Hamza H. Ali, I.M.S. Taha, I.M. Ismail, Cooling of water flowing through a night sky radiator, Solar Energy, 55(4) (1995) 235-253.
[15] M. Mahdavinia, A.M. Ebrahim, The analysis of passive cooling strategies in Iranian traditional architecture: A case study in a hot and arid climate, International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, 8 (2013) 47–59.
[16] R. Vidhi, A Review of Underground Soil and Night Sky as Passive Heat Sink: Design Configurations and Models, Energies, 11(11) (2018) 2941.
[17] M.F. Farahani, Hybrid system of nocturnal cooling and direct/indirect evaporative cooling, Tarbiat Modares University, Faculty of Engineering, 2010 (in Persian).
[18] M.G. Meir, J.B. Rekstad, O.M. LØvvik, A study of a polymer-based radiative cooling system, Solar Energy, 73(6) (2002) 403-417.
[19] P. Berdahl, R. Fromberg, The thermal radiance of clear skies, Solar Energy, 29(4) (1982) 299-314.
[20] J.P. Holman, Heat Transfer, Nineth ed., McGraw-Hill 2001.
[21] F.W. Dittus, L.M.K. Boelter, Heat transfer in automobile radiators of the tubular type, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 12(1) (1985) 3-22.
[22] S. Kakaç, H. Liu, A. Pramuanjaroenkij, Heat Exchangers: Selection, Rating, and Thermal Design, Third ed., CRC Press, 2012.
[23] G. Heidarinejad, M.R.S. Shirazi, S. Delfani, N. Nouri, Numerical and experimental simulation of a night-time radiation cooling system using solar collectors, in:  16th Annual Conference on Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, 2008.
[24] G. Heidarinejad, M. Bozorgmehr, S. Delfani, J. Esmaeelian, Experimental investigation of two-stage indirect/direct evaporative cooling system in various climatic conditions, Building and Environment, 44(10) (2009) 2073-2079.
[25] H. Mohammadian, Optimization of a two stage evaporative cooling system by means of nocturnal radiative, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2018 (in Persian).
 
Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 53, Issue 1
April 2021
Pages 155-172

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics