Effects of Ambient Conditions on the Performance of Gas Turbine: A Parametric Analysis

Abstract

Gas turbine performance is greatly dependent on ambient environmental conditions, specifically pressure, temperature, and relative humidity. In this paper, the performance of a gas turbine power plant is studied using a parametric analysis. Thermodynamic relationships were used to develop mathematical models that simulated the performance of the gas turbine under varying operating conditions; ambient temperature (AT) and relative humidity (RH). The gas turbine used in the simulation is located at the Ughelli Transcorp power plant in Nigeria. The simulation was carried out using Runge-Kutta method, and the model shows that operational parameters like AT and RH significantly impact a gas turbine power plant's performance. The findings indicate that increasing the RH from 40% to 50% reduces cycle efficiency by 0.022 % while increasing power output. A 25% increase in RH results in a 55% increase in compression power consumption. Furthermore, the power output and thermal efficiency increase as the AT and RH increase. The findings indicate that both AT and RH have a significant impact on the overall performance of the gas turbine plant. As a result, the thermodynamic parameters are economically feasible in terms of cycle performance and advantageous for gas turbine operations.