The Effect of Ambient Temperature on a Gas Turbine Performance in Part load Operation

A gas turbine performance is affected by anything that changes the density and or mass flow of the air intake to the compressor. The air density is a function of ambient temperature, pressure and humidity. This paper examines effect of change of ambient temperature on the performance of a gas turbine operating in cogeneration plant. The turbine considered for this study is a single shaft gas turbine plant that can maintain its exhaust gas temperature if the load is greater than 50% of the full load by simultaneously regulating the compressor variable vanes (VVs) position and fuel flow. For load less than 50% the engine is running to meet the power demand. The study was made for three ambient temperature cases, 15oC, 25oC and 35oC. These temperature effects on the gas turbine parameters like fuel consumption, temperature, pressure ratio, variable vanes opening and efficiency were simulated and examined for a wide range of part load.