What is Intercooling in gas turbine?
- Intercooling in gas turbine is one of the method to improves the efficiency of the gas turbine which increases the net work output by reducing the work, required to drive compressor by carry out the compression air in two stages.
- In the gas turbine, compressor utilizes the large amount of work developed by turbine hence for this in this methods multi compressors are used for compression and the intercooler (Heat Exchanger) is installed to cool the air to avoid overheating.
Diagram:
Working principle of intercooling in gas turbine:
This method increases the efficiency of the gas turbine by reducing the work required to drive the compressor.
The efficiency of a gas turbine is given by,
`\eta = \frac{W_{N}}{Q_{s}}`
Where
`W_{N}` = Net work
`Q_{s}` = Heat supplied
Means, Efficiency is directly proportional to the Net work.
Net work = `W_{T}-W_{C}`
Where
`W_{C}`= Work required to drive compressor
`W_{T}`= Work developed by compressor
Therefore, If Net work increases, efficiency also gets increases & if Net work decreases, efficiency also gets decreases.
So to increase the Net work, we need to reduce the work required to drive the compressor. Hence for this without using a single compressor we use multistage compression which helps in reducing work required to drive the compressor
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