Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of The American Society of Mechanical Engineersfor publication in the ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. Paper presented at the International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress and Exhibition, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 3-6, 2002; Paper No. 2002–GT-30132. Manuscript received by IGTI, December 2001, final revision, March 2002. Associate Editor: E. Benvenutii.
Gas turbines for electric power generation usually operate at part-load conditions for a considerable amount of the time. Regardless of gas turbine configurations, performance generally degrades with a reduction in power. Accordingly, attention should be paid to the task of enhancing the part-load performance of the gas turbine itself and furthermore, the performance of applied systems such as the combined cycle and cogeneration power plants. Most gas turbines developed for electric power generation (heavy-duty) have a single-shaft configuration as shown in Fig. 1. The speed...