COOLING ON GAS TURBINES
High amount of air taken from outside through compressor blades and it is compressed and then combined with fuel; this mixture is combusted under suitable conditions, that’s how the gas turbines work.
Any increase in the outer environment temperature causes decrease in the intensity of inlet air; therefore, mass flow decreases as well. This situation causes a relatively low gas combustion and the capacity of turbine starts to decrease rapidly.
This relation can be seen in performance diagrams prepared by turbine manufacturers and it can easily be understood from output power data being observed in winter and summer.
Increase in outer environment temperature also affects fuel consumption in an adverse way. The decrease in the mass flow of combustion air causes a decrease both in gas turbine and combined cycle efficiency.
Turbine inlet air cooling systems are often used to regain the missing capacity and carry out a balanced model for all year and also to improve energy production costs through increasing the efficiency