INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

Published online 13 February 2007 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/er.1302

Brayton refrigeration cycle for gas turbine inlet air cooling

Galal M. Zaki1,*,y, Rahim K. Jassim2 and Majed M. Alhazmy1
1

Department of Thermal Engineering and Desalination Technology, King Abdulaziz University, P. O. Box 80204,
Jeddah 21 587, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Yanbu Industrial College, P. O. Box 30436,
Yanbu Industrial City, Saudi Arabia

SUMMARY
In this paper, a new approach to enhance the performance of gas turbines operating in hot climates is
investigated. Cooling the intake air at the compressor bell mouth is achieved by an air Brayton refrigerator
(reverse Joule Brayton cycle) driven by the gas turbine and uses air as the working uid. Fraction of the air
is extracted from the compressor at an intermediate pressure, cooled and then expands to obtain a cold air
stream, which mixes with the ambient intake. Mass and energy balance analysis of the gas turbine and the
coupled Brayton refrigerator are performed. Relationships are derived for a simple open gas turbine
coupled to Brayton refrigeration cycle, the heat rejected from the cooling cycle can be utilized by an
industrial process such as a desalination plant. The performance improvement in terms of power gain ratio
(PGR) and thermal eciency change (TEC) factor is calculated. The results show that for xed pressure
ratio and ambient conditions, power and eciency improvements are functions of the extraction pressure
ratio and the fraction of mass extracted from the air compressor.
The performance improvement is calculated for ambient temperature of 458C and 43.4% relative
humidity. The results indicated that the intake temperature could be lowered below the ISO standard with
power increase up to 19.58% and appreciable decrease in the thermal eciency (5.76% of the site value).
Additionally, the present approach improved both power gain and thermal eciency factors if air is
extracted at 2 bar which is unlike all other mechanical chilling methods. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS:

gas turbine; Brayton cycle; cooling; reverse Brayton; power enhancement

1. INTRODUCTION
Gas turbine (GT) units are used extensively as prime movers in the power production, oil elds
and industrial applications. The compactness of GT units and short installation time as well as
the high thermal eciency of the combined cycles encouraged many utilities to consider GT for
*Correspondence to: Galal M. Zaki, Department of Thermal Engineering and Desalination Technology, King
Abdulaziz University, P. O. Box 80204, Jeddah 21 587, Saudi Arabia.
y
E-mail: gzaki@kau.edu.sa

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 25 September 2006

Revised 21 December 2006
Accepted 26 December 2006

BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

1293

their future programs. Generally, GT performance is aected by the weather conditions; in hot
arid areas, the warm air at the compressor intake decreases the air density and reduces the net
output power below the ISO standard. The net power decreases by 59% of the ISO-rated
power for every 108C increase above the 158C ISO standard. The eect of the inlet air
temperature on the Brayton cycle performance is a fundamental aspect of GT cycle
thermodynamics (Saravanamutto et al., 2001). Furthermore, in hot summer days the situation
gets worse due to the extensive use of air conditioning that increases the demand on power at
peak periods. The drive to boost the power or degrade the weather eect has motivated the
interest to explore methods for chilling the intake air.
There are few methods to achieve air cooling at the bell mouth of GT air compressors:
evaporative cooling via either water spray or fogging and mechanical methods employing
refrigeration technology. The relative merits and key considerations for each of the methods are
compared in Erickson (2003). Each of these methods has its own advantages and osetting
disadvantages. The cooling techniques can be broadly classied into direct and indirect
methods.
The direct cooling is accomplished by spraying water at the compressor inlet either through
exuous media (cellulose bre) or fogging (droplets size in the order of 20 mm) into the air
stream, Ameri et al. (2004). All direct cooling systems lower the intake temperature close to the
ambient wet bulb temperature. Ameri et al. (2004) applied fog-type air-cooling system for a GT
plant where the climatic conditions (Tdp 31398C and relative humidity between 5 and 15%)
are suitable. For these conditions, 13% power improvement was reported. Johnson (1988)
discussed the use of evaporative cooling technique for GT installations. Meher-Homji et al.
(2002) investigated the eect of nozzles type and droplets size on the performance of GT
engines. Moreover, Bettocchi et al. (1995) and Meher-Homji and Mee (1999) studied the eect
of nozzle size on the humidity ratio levels attainable using fogging systems. Although
evaporative cooling systems have moderate installation, maintenance and operational costs,
they are accompanied with osetting disadvantages as the low eciency and high water content
in the combustion air. Problems of water carryover, Tillman et al. (2005), which are hazardous
for compressor blades, are among the reasons to barricade the use of evaporative coolers for GT
plants in humid coastal areas.
The problem of humidity is eliminated by using mechanical refrigeration approach that
can reduce the air temperature to any desirable value regardless of the ambient relative
humidity. There are two common approaches for mechanical air chilling: (a) use of refrigeration
units via chilled water coils supplied from thermal storage tanks; and (b) use of exhaust
heat-powered absorption machines. Generally, application of the mechanical air
cooling increases the net power on the expense of the thermal eciency. For GE LM 6000
GT, an increase of 1% in the power output could be achieved for every 1.688C drop in the
air inlet temperature, Elliot (2001). The economics using absorption machines was examined for
inlet air cooling of cogeneration plants, Ondrays et al. (1991). Similarly, Kakaras et al.
(2004) presented a simulation model for NH3 waste heat-driven absorption machine for cooling
the air intake. Erickson (2003, 2005) presented a study on the aqua-absorption approach and
suggested the combination of the waste-driven absorption cooling with water injection into
the combustion air for power boosting; the concept is termed the power fogger cycle.
The drawback of the mechanical chilling is the risk of ice formation either as ice crystals in the
air or as solidied layer on surfaces, such as the bell mouth or inlet guide vanes (Stewart and
Patrick, 2000).
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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1294

G. M. ZAKI, R. K. JASSIM AND M. M. ALHAZMY

There is considerable literature base on studies that compare both evaporative and
mechanical cooling approaches. Mercer (2002) reported that evaporative cooling has increased
the GT power by 1015%, while the improvement for refrigeration chillers could reach 25%.
Alhazmy and Najjar (2004) concluded that for spray coolers the drop in air temperature by 3
158C increased the power by 17%, while cooling coils improved the net power by 1018%.
Furthermore, Alhazmy et al. (2006) performed analysis for the performance improvement of
open GT units using spray and mechanical cooling methods. They introduced two generic
terms, power gain ratio (PGR) and thermal eciency change (TEC) factor, for the evaluation of
intake air-cooling approaches. They presented the results in general dimensionless working
charts covering a wide range of working conditions. A paper by Zadpoor and Golshan (2006) is
more specically concerned with the discussion of the eect of using desiccant-based
evaporative cooling on GT power output. Their study where a computer program was
developed to simulate the GT cycle and the NOx emission showed that the power output could
be increased by 2.1% which agrees with the result of Alhazmy and Najjar (2004). Extensive
overview on the current inlet air-cooling technology and its economic impact on the energy
market can be found in Cortes and Willems (2003), and Darmadhikari and Andrepon (2004).
The objective of the present analysis is to investigate the potential of boosting the power
output of GT plants. A novel approach is considered, where a reverse Joule-Brayton air cycle
(some times referred to as air refrigeration cycle or Brayton refrigeration cycle) is used to reduce
the air temperature at the compressor inlet. Portion of the air is extracted from the compressor
at an intermediate pressure and temperature and cooled in an isobaric process rejecting its heat
to a process heat sink. Then, the air irreversibly expands to near atmospheric pressure where the
temperature drops signicantly. Mixing the intake ambient air with this cooled stream produces
the required cooling eect at the compressor inlet as seen in Figure 1.

To desalination
unit

Heat exchanger

&
W
comp

W& exp

m& 1 ,T1 ,

Expander

m& 1 ,T8 ,

Combustion
chamber

m&o

m&1

Humidity eliminator
7

Comp

T7 = To + T

1
8

m& o ,To ,

W& el

G
W&net

m& 1 = m& o+ m& 1

Mixing
chamber
o

&
Qh

Turbine

Q& out

Fuel,m& f

Q&o= 0

m& o = (m& a+ m& v )

Figure 1. A schematic diagram of a simple gas turbine coupled to Brayton refrigeration cycle.
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

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1295

BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

Although the air cycle has low eciency compared to vapour compression cycles, it has high
reliability and low maintenance cost. In addition, using the air cycle for air conditioning is a
well-developed technology and extensively in use for trains in United Kingdom and Germany,
Butler (2001). At present, the air refrigeration cycle is the backbone of aircraft cabins air
conditioning.
The performance of a GT power cycle coupled to Brayton refrigeration air cooler is compared
to the basic GT cycle without air cooling at dierent operation modes.

2. ANALYSIS
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a simple open GT cycle Brayton cycle coupled to an air
refrigeration cycle. The power cycle is represented by states 1234 and consists of a
compressor, combustion chamber and a turbine. The reverse Brayton refrigeration cycle is
represented by states 1678 and consists of a cooling coil and an expansion device. The two
cycles use the same compressor, where the working uid is divided between the two cycles.
Portion of the compressed air am
1 at pressure P6 is extracted from the mainstream cooled in a
heat exchanger to T7 then expands to the atmospheric pressure and T8, Figure 1. The hot
ambient intake air at T0 mixes with the cold stream at T8 before entering the compressor.
During the operation without cooling, the intake air is at T0 and states 1 and 0 are identical.
Because of mixing cold air at T8 with that at T0 the temperature at the compressor inlet drops by
DTair T0
T1 : Therefore, the temperature at state 1 is a function of T8, which depends on the
extraction pressure at state 6 and the mass ow rate through the cooling cycle, am
1 : Figure 2 is Ts
presentation of the power cycle without cooling 02% 34, the refrigeration cycle 1678 and the
power cycle with cooling 1234. It can be observed, Figure 2, that the overall net plant power
output of the GT increases by the dierence between the two areas 02% 210 and 16781.
P3

Po

2s
2s

4
P6

4s

6s

7
8s

Figure 2. Ts diagram for the proposed cycle.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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G. M. ZAKI, R. K. JASSIM AND M. M. ALHAZMY

Ambient air at T0 and o0 enters the mixing chamber with mass ow rate of m
0 ; where it is
mixed with the cold air stream having mass ow rate of am
1 at temperature T8. The mixing
chamber delivers the combined stream to the compressor at T1.
The mass and energy balance about the mixing chamber gives
m
1 m
0 am
1

For humid air, substitute for m

am
v and make use of the humidity ratio o m
v =m
a in
0 m
Equation (1) to get
m
a
m
1 o1
2
1
1
a
where o1 is the humidity ratio at state 1 that depends on the conditions of the ambient air and
the cold air stream at state 8. Mass balance of the water vapour gives
o1 o0
ao0
o8

If the design employs moisture eliminator system before the expander, Figure 1, then o1
depends on the eectiveness of the moisture removal process and for ideal case all the water
vapour is removed leaving o8 0:
From the energy balance, we get an expression for the enthalpy of the mixture at the
compressor intake as
h1 h0
ah0
h8

In general, the enthalpy of moist air at any state is expressed as

h ha ohv cpa T ohfg cpv T

Substituting for the enthalpy at states 0, 1 and 8 using Equation (5), into Equation (4) gives the
air inlet temperature to the compressor as
1
acp0 T0 acp8 T8
T1
6
cp1
Air leaves the compressor at two dierent states, bleed o air at P6 owing through the Brayton
refrigerator and the rest at P2 as the working uid for the power cycle. The two pressures are
given as follows:
P6 xP1

7a

P2 rP1

7b

where x is the extraction pressure ratio and r is the pressure ratio.

The temperature of the air leaving the compressor at states 6 and 2 can be estimated assuming
irreversible compression processes between states 12 and 16 as
T1
T6 T1 xg
1=g
1
8
Zcx
T2 T1

T1 g
1=g
r

1
Zcr

where Zc is the compressor polytropic eciency, it can be described as a function of the

compression ratio, as given by Korakianitis and Wilson (1994) with a value at any pressure
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

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BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

ratio z as follows:


z
1
Zcz 1
0:04
150

where z is either x or r

1297

10

2.1. Brayton refrigeration cycle analysis

The cooling cycle uses bled o air from the main air compressor at P6 and T6 as seen in Figures
1 and 2. The hot compressed air at P6 and T6 rejects its heat through a heat exchanger to cooling
water. For an ideal condition, state 7 will have the same pressure as P6 and temperature that
depends on the cooling process. Since many of the desalination plants in the Gulf area are using
combined GT for dual-purpose plants, where waste heat boilers provide energy for desalination
out ; Figure 1) for brine heating. In
plants, it is suggested here to utilize the rejected heat (Q
general, the temperature at state 7 can be controlled according to the requirements of any
industrial process that requires low-grade heat. In general, the lower limit for T7 is determined
by the ambient temperature.
Air at state 7 expands in an irreversible process as seen in Figure 1 furnishing the conditions at
the entrance of the mixing chamber. Irreversible expansion process between 7 and 8 yields
"

g
1=g #
1
T8 T7
T7 Ze 1

11
x
where the expansion eciency is Ze. It is worth mentioning that the extraction pressure ratio x is
the main parameter that determines the nal cold air temperature T8 attainable by the cooling
cycle. The cold stream ow rate am
1 proceeds to the mixing chamber to cool down the ambient
air entering the compressor. The mixture temperature T1 depends on the mass ow rate and the
temperature of each stream as seen in Equation (6).
exp ; and the heat to the joined
For the Brayton refrigerator, the power out of the expander, W
out ; are computed as
process, Q
exp am
12
W
1 h7
h8
and

out am
Q
1 h7
h6

13

In Equations (12) and (13), the enthalpy term is calculated according to Equation (5).
2.2. Gas turbine cycle analysis
Consider an irreversible GT cycle as shown in Figure 2, processes 12 and 34 are irreversible
and processes 23 and 41 are isobaric heat addition and rejection, respectively. Processes 12s
and 34s are isentropic, presenting the process in an ideal cycle. The dierent components of the
power cycle are considered in the following.
2.2.1. Air compressor. The compression power between states 1 and 2s with extraction at state
6, separating the eects of the dry air and water vapour can be written as






m
m
a
v

Wc m
cpa T6
T1 a
hv6
hv1 14
a cpa T2
T1 m
v hv2
hv1 a
1
a
1
a
where hv is the enthalpy of the saturated water vapour at the states pressure, Equation (5).
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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G. M. ZAKI, R. K. JASSIM AND M. M. ALHAZMY

Relating the compressor isentropic eciency to the changes in temperature of the dry air and
assuming that the water vapour behaves as an ideal gas then
Zcr

T2s
T1
T2
T1

15

Substituting for T2 and T6 in terms of T1, the pressure ratio r and the pressure extraction ratio x
from Equations (8) and (9) in Equation (14) gives the actual compressor power as

 a 
T1
c m
W
a cpa rg
1=g
1 o1 hv2
hv1
1
a
Zcr



T1
 cpa xg
1=g
1 o1 hv6
hv1
16
Zcx
Equation (16) is a general expression for the compressor work that considers the eects of the
air bleeding and humidity. If the cooling system is not in operation o, just substitute a 0:
Further, the equation takes care of the air relative humidity, which can be replaced by zero for
dry air.
2.2.2. Combustion chamber. Heat balance on the combustion chamber (see Figure 1) gives the
heat rate supplied to the integrated cycle as
h m
Q
17
f NCV m
am
f cpg T3
m
a cpa T2 m
v hv3
hv2
where hv2 and hv3 are the enthalpies of water vapour at the combustion chamber inlet and exit
states, respectively.
Substituting for T2 from Equation (5) gives the input heat rate as


g
1=g


T3
r

1
o1
h m
Q
1 hv3
hv2
18
a T1 1 f cpg
cpa
Zcr
T1
T1
where f is the fuel to air ratio f m
f =m
a (related to the dry air rate) and has been expressed by
Alhazmy and Najjar (2004) as
f

cpg T3
298
cpa T2
298 o1 hv3
hv2

NCV
cpg T3
298

19

2.2.3. Turbine. Applying the rst law of thermodynamics to the GT (neglect the potential and
kinetic energy terms) with the assumption of perfect gas behaviour, the power produced by the
turbine is
tm
20
W
t cpg Zt T3
T4s
where m
t is the total gases mass ow rate at the turbine inlet given by
m
t m
am
vm
f m
a 1 o1 f

21

Substituting for T4s (assuming isentropic expansion) and m

t from Equation (21) into Equation
(20) yields



1

Wt m
22
a 1 o1 f cpg Zt T3 1
g
1=g
r
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

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BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

1299

The turbine isentropic eciency can be estimated using the practical relation recommended
by Korakianities and Wilson (1994) as



r
1
Zt 1
0:03
23
180
Since, the GT is almost constant volume machine at a specic rotating speed, the
inlet air volumetric ow rate, V a ; is xed regardless of the intake air conditions. Equation
(22) can be written in terms of the volumetric ow rate at the compressor inlet state by replacing
m
a by ra V a : The moist air density ra is a function of T1 and the humidity ratio o1 and
can be calculated using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software (Klein and Alvarado,
2004).

3. PERFORMANCE OF THE INTEGRATED CYCLE

For the proposed cycle the net power output and heat input can be easily calculated from
Equations (12), (16), (18) and (22). The performance advantage of the present proposed cycle is
not limited to cooling the inlet air but also includes the amount of useful heat used for the
exp is recovered by a
desalination process. For a single-shaft machine, the expander power W
single shaft and the net power of the cycle may be expressed as
t
W
c
W
exp
net; with cooling W
24
W
Equation (24) gives the net shaft power in kW, and if the energy utilized for the desalination
process is considered then the net input heat to the cycle can be reduced by the amount of energy
utilized for the desalination process. Therefore, the input useful energy is
useful Q
h
Q
out
Q
25
Let us dene a general term that combines the performance of the GT and the
Brayton refrigerator including the heat supplied to the desalination process as useful
eciency
net
W
26
Zth;u
useful
Q
The subscript u means that the GT plant is serving other industrial products, so that the
conventional thermal eciency term is not applicable for this condition. The conventional
thermal cycle eciency can be deducted from Equation (26) if the energy rejected is not utilized
out ! 0:
for any industrial process, i.e. Q
The power generation industry is mainly concerned with the net power gain out of
introducing the cooling cycle. The net power for the GT unit without the cooling cycle is
c; no cooling : The turbine power without
obtained by introducing a 0 in Equation (16) to get W
t; no cooling is obtained from Equation (22) using o1 o0 ; T1 T0 and f is calculated
cooling W
using T2% instead of T2, Equation (19). Therefore,
t
W
c jno cooling
net; no cooling jW
27
W
Alhazmy et al. (2006) has recently proposed generic parameters to evaluate the eectiveness
of GT inlet cooling methods. The PGR and TEC factor are terms that directly reect the
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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G. M. ZAKI, R. K. JASSIM AND M. M. ALHAZMY

signicance of using air-cooling technology for GT. Let us extend the denition of the PGR to
include any form of useful energy. Then, a useful power gain ratio (PGRu) is dened as
net; no cooling
net; with cooling
W
W
PGRu
28

W net; no cooling
In the same way, let us generalize the denition of the TEC of Alhazmy (2006) to include
savings in fuel due to utilization of the reject heat as
Zth; u
Zth; no cooling
 100%
29
TECu
Zth; no cooling
For the present parametric analysis, let us focus on the gain that can be achieved by using
out is eliminated in
Brayton refrigerator for a simple open cycle GT plant, for this case the term Q
Equation (25) and Equations (28) and (29) lead to
net; without cooling
net; with cooling
W
W
PGR
 100%
30

W net; without cooling

The change in thermal eciency is due to cooling only, neglecting any use of the heat rejection
is presented by
Zcy; with cooling
Zcy; without cooling
TEC
 100%
31
Zcy; without cooling
For a stand-alone GT under specic climatic conditions, both PGR and TEC are zeros. If
Brayton refrigerator is used, PGR increases with the reduction of the intake temperature.
However, the PGR gives the percentage enhancement in power generation; the TEC of a
coupled system is an important parameter to describe the fuel deployment ecacy.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In order to investigate the performance of the proposed Brayton refrigerator for intake air
cooling, a computer program has been developed using EES program. Therefore, all
thermophysical properties were determined to the accuracy of the EES software. In particular,
the specic heats of air were taken as temperature and pressure dependent. The calculation
procedure was rst veried for the benchmark case of simple open cycle with dry air as the
working uid, for which a 0; o0 0; f 0 and assuming isentropic compression and
expansion processes, Equations (16), (18), (20) and (29) leads to the following expression for the
thermal eciency of the air standard cycle:
1
Zth 1
g
1=g
32
r
For the present analysis, the ambient air at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (latitude 22.308N and
longitude 39.158E) a typical city with over 40 GT plants operating under severe weather
conditions was considered. On the basis of annual daily average, ambient temperature of T0
458C and j0 43:4% were selected. The cooling brine leaves the heat exchanger with 10 K
terminal temperature dierence (i.e. T7 558C). The brine ow rate can be controlled to obtain
other outlet temperature suitable for the need of the industrial process. Table I shows the range
of the dierent parameters.
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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1301

BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

For the proposed cooling system, the temperature variation at the compressor intake with
both the extraction pressure and the amount of mass bled from the compressor is shown in
Figure 3. For a xed extraction pressure (P6) increasing mass extraction rate (a) increases the

Table I. Range of parameters for the present analysis.

Parameter

Range

Ambient air
Maximum ambient air temperature (T0)
Relative humidity (j0)
Volumetric air ow rate V a
Net caloric value (NCV)

318.15 K
43.4%
1 m3 s
1
42 500 kJ kg
1

Gas turbine
Pressure ratio (P2/P1)
Turbine inlet temperature (T3)
Specic heat ratio of gas (g)
Specic heat of gas cpg

10
1373.15 K
1.333 kJ kg
1 K
1
1.147 kJ kg
1 K
1

Air compressor
Extraction pressure ratio (Px/P1)
Extracted mass ratio (a)
Specic heat ratio of air (g)

2!9
0.1 ! 0.5
1.4 kJ kg
1 K
1

Heat exchanger
DT

10 K

320

=0.1

310

T1, K

300

=0.2
288.15

290

(15 C)

=0.3

280
=0.4

270

260
1

5
6
x = P6 / P1

10

Figure 3. Air intake temperature variations with extraction pressure ratio and extraction mass ow rate.
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G. M. ZAKI, R. K. JASSIM AND M. M. ALHAZMY

chilling eect and T1 decreases. From the gure, it is clear that it is possible to adjust the values
of a and the extraction pressure to operate the GT at the ISO standard (288.15 K). As the level
of the extraction pressure P6 approaches the compressor exit pressure P2 at constant a
(assuming constant T7), the temperature at the entrance of the mixing chamber T8 decreases and
hence the intake temperature drops. Introducing the air refrigeration cycle provides the
advantage of quite low temperatures close to the 08C and even lower. This opportunity is not
possible with other methods for intake air cooling as evaporative cooling or use of waste heatdriven absorption machines.
The variation of the PGR and TEC is shown in Figure 4 for extraction ratios a up to 0.4 and
P6 from 2 to 9 bar. For constant extraction pressure, it is seen that the power gain increases with
the extracted mass rate a, which means enhanced chilling eect due to the large mass passing
through the air refrigeration cycle. Though the power is boosted, the thermal eciency
decreases due to more consumption of fuel to substitute for the low intake air. The drop in the
TEC is quite large for high a and high extraction pressure P6. For example, at a 0:4 and
P6 7 bar the power is boosted by 17.98% but the thermal eciency decreases by 10.76%. This
result indicates that the selection of the operation conditions depends on the utility choice,
boosting on the power on penalty of the thermal eciency. The results show that if moderate
values are selected, such as a 0:2 and extraction pressure of 4 bar, the power increases by
9.11%, while the thermal eciency drops by only 1.34%. In other words, passing 20% of the
intake air at 4 bar through a Brayton refrigeration cycle reduces the intake temperature to
300.5% as seen in Figure 3 and increases the net power by 9.11% with only reduction in the
thermal eciency of 1.34%.
It has been established that mechanical air cooling at the compressor intake increases the
power and decreases the thermal eciency. For the proposed integration of the Brayton

24

16

-4

12

-8

TEC %

PGR %

TEC
20

-12

PGR

-16

4
= 0.3

= 0.2

= 0.1

= 0.4

0
1

-20
10

x = P6 / P1

Figure 4. Pressure gain ratio and thermal eciency change factors for a gas turbine
cooled by air Brayton refrigerator.
Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

refrigeration, it is possible to boost the power and slightly improve the thermal eciency, as seen
in Figure 4. At 2 bar, extraction pressure the TEC is positive for all values of a, which indicates
improvements in the thermal eciency or better utilization of the fuel. However, the
improvement is small but demonstrates an enhancement in eciency as compared to all the
current-known mechanical air-cooling approaches. To further elaborate on this point, Figure 5
shows the variation of PGR and TEC up to 4 bar extraction pressure with a from 0 to 0.5 (step

Figure 5. Gas turbine power and eciency improvement at low Brayton refrigeration cycle pressure.

0.33
x=2

0.325

no cooling

th

0.32

x=3

0.315
x=4
0.31

0.305

0.3
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Figure 6. Thermal eciency variations with a.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

DOI: 10.1002/er

1304

G. M. ZAKI, R. K. JASSIM AND M. M. ALHAZMY

0.05). It is clear that there is no power gain nor eciency change at a 0; i.e. there is no
cooling. At P6 2 bar with cooling, the slight increase of thermal eciency is shown in
Figure 6.
Figure 4 shows that for xed value of the extracted mass rate, the power gain increases with
the extraction pressure to reach a maximum then decreases. Before explaining this eect, it is to
be noted that the inlet temperature at the turbine is xed by the control system and the air
temperature at the expander inlet T7 is constant. The later temperature is set by the desalination
plant requirement or the eectiveness of the heat exchanger. Increasing the extraction pressure
P6 means that state 7 is pushed to the left on the Ts diagram, causing low temperature T8 after
expander and hence low intake air temperature T1. This trend tends to increase the PGR. On the
c
W
exp in Equation (24)
other hand, increasing the extraction pressure increases the term W
that tend to reduce the PGR. Therefore, the ascendingdescending pattern shown in Figure 4
for xed value of a is expected.

5. CONCLUSIONS
A new method for improving the performance of gas turbine units and eliminate the warm
weather power degradation is proposed. In this method, fraction of the intake air is extracted
from the main compressor and used as the working uid for a reverse Brayton cycle. The gas
turbine inlet temperature is reduced by mixing the chilled air from the Brayton refrigeration
cycle and the main intake air streams. The inlet temperature depends on the extracted mass rate
and the extraction pressure. Mass and energy analysis of the coupled Braytonreverse Brayton
cycles showed that the intake air temperature could be reduced to the ISO standard (158C) and
the gas turbine performance can be improved to attain power increase up to 19.58% of the site
value.
The performance improvement of a GT irreversible cycle of 10 pressure ratio operating in hot
weather of 458C and 43.4% relative humidity is investigated for extraction pressures from 2 to
9 bar and extraction mass ratio from 0.1 to 0.5. The results showed that the power augmentation
due to low intake air temperature is associated with increase in fuel consumption rate. The
proposed integration of the Brayton refrigerator showed that both the power and thermal
eciency can be improved, which is an advantage over all the present mechanical intake aircooling methods.
NOMENCLATURE
cp
f
h
m

NCV
P
PGR
PGRu

= specic heat at constant pressure (kJ kg
1 K
1)

= fuel to air ratio
= specic enthalpy (kJ kg
1)
= mass ow rate (kg s
1)
= net caloric value (kJ kg
1)
= pressure (kPa)
= power gain ratio, Equation (30)
= useful power gain ratio, Equation (28)
= heat rate (kW)

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

DOI: 10.1002/er

BRAYTON REFRIGERATION CYCLE

r
T
TEC
TECu

W
x

1305

= pressure ratio P2 =P1

= temperature (K)
= thermal eciency change factor, Equation (31)
= useful thermal eciency change factor, Equation (29)
= output power (kW)
= extraction pressure ratio, P6/P1

Greek symbols
a
g
Z
j

= fraction of air mass owing through the cooler cycle

= specic heats ratio
= eciency
= relative humidity

Subscripts
0
a
c
cy
f
t
u
v

= ambient
= dry air
= compressor
= cycle
= fuel
= turbine
= useful
= vapour

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Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:12921306

DOI: 10.1002/er