Performance estimation on micro gas turbine plant recuperator

Abstract

In order to accomplish a thermodynamic analysis of a micro gas turbine plant, while satisfying conditions related to different configurations, different input data sets and a series of imposed thermodynamic parameters, assumptions are necessary regarding the individual performance of the components, for enabling the correlation of overall performance with the performance of the components. The use of a recuperator, even if it can improve a micro gas turbine cycle efficiency, by reducing the fuel consumption for an imposed turbine inlet temperature, will induce a pressure loss on the hot and cold sections, with possible negative influence on the cycle efficiency. In order to investigate this pressure loss, a numerical study was conducted on several cases, by modifying the geometry of a simplified recuperator, using as input a reference micro gas turbine thermodynamic cycle. The comparison between the different results led to the quantification of recuperator’s performance as a function of its geometry.

Keywords

• micro gas turbine
• recuperator
• CFD
• effectiveness