SBIR-STTR Award

Use of fine evaporating water sprays directly injected into the inlet of a gas turbine have been shown to provide significant increases in power production in land-based applications. By providing evaporative cooing inside the compressor, the sprays act an an "in-situ intercooler" to reduce the amount of work required to compress the air flow. The increased mass flow from the injected water also serves to increase the power delivered by the expander sections of the turbine. The diameter of the water droplets in the sprays are a critical factor in determining the impact on gas turbine performance. Smaller droplets evaporate faster and are more likely to follow the streamlines of the flow. Further, smaller droplets serve to decrease the potential for droplets impacting the compressor blades and causing erosion. A recently developed spray technology, swirl-flash nozzles, shows promise of yielding droplet diameters an order of magnitude smaller than standard high pressure nozzles can currently deliver. The proposed work will evaluate the impact of using standard spray nozzles, as well as swirl-flash spray injection on a Navy LM2500 gas turbine. The cost and performance of these options will be compared to other water and steam injection power augmentation techniques. In addition, the constraints imposed by shipboard installation will be examined to determine the feasibility of using this technology in a Navy ship.

Keywords:
Gas Turbine Water Spray Injection Spray Nozzles Fog Injection Power Augmentation Steam Injection Swi