Existing technologies to improve the fuel and energy efficiency of gas turbine plants due to intercooling of the cycle air are analyzed. One of the promising ways for increasing the efficiency of such technologies is using thermogasdynamic compression in the heat recovery processes of secondary energy resources. A feature of this process is the pressure rate increase due to the instant evaporation of a finely dispersed liquid is injected into the air stream which accelerated to the speed of sound. When the pressure of the boiling liquid is increased, the power consumption for compressing the working fluid (cyclic air) is reduced, the efficiency is increased and the consumption of the fuel and energy resources of the gas turbine plant is reduced.The advantages of cooling technology with an aerothermopressor are outlined in the article. The aerothermopressor is a multifunctional jet apparatus, whose work consists in injecting water into the stream of cyclic air when it is compressed in the gas turbine plant compressor. If this apparatus is used for cooling of cycle air, it will be compensate for aerodynamic losses along the air path and it will reduce compression work in the compressor, increase the consumption of the working fluid and, as a result, increase the gas turbine plant power. The basic schemes of the aerothermopressor installation between the stages of low and high pressure compressors are considered. Theoretical thermodynamic cycles of such gas turbine plants are presented and the advantage of using a contact cooler for intercooling of the cyclic air in comparison with surface air coolers for intercooling is defined in this paper.The proposed cooling technology makes it possible using low-potential heat of secondary energy resources of gas turbine plants (heat of cyclic air), the utilization of which by traditional methods is problematic because the temperature of waste heat sources is low.The tasks are determined, the solution of which will ensure the possibility of rational organization of cooling processes in the aerothermopressor, which in turn will allow achieving optimal parameters for increasing the efficiency of the gas turbine plant and reducing the specific fuel consumption in relation to the variable climatic conditions of operation

The most common way to increase power and reduce fuel consumption by modern power plants is contact cooling of a gas or air flow by water injection. A promising development of this direction is to use aerothermopressor technologies. The use of heat air, which is compressed by the power plant compressors, accelerates the flow to a speed close to the sound one and almost instantaneous evaporation of injected water (the effect of thermo-gas-dynamic compression). It is important to determine the rational parameters of the organization of thermophysical and hydrodynamic processes when developing such technologies. In this case, one should be taken into account the appropriate development of the flow path design and a special software product. It is necessary to use methods and means to determine the optimal operating parameters of the power plant heat recovery systems. This paper presents a block diagram and an algorithm of a rational methodology for designing an aerothermopressor, which makes it possible to accurately determine the efficiency of using an aerothermopressor as part of a power plant (based on a gas turbine engine) for cooling cycle air, considering the peculiarities of operating modes in the flow path, as well as under various climatic operating conditions. The algorithm of a rational methodology for designing aerothermopressor technologies allows calculating the characteristics of equipment, systems, and circuit design solutions when used as part of a power plant: an electric generator; heat-using refrigerating machines (ejector refrigerating machines, absorption refrigerating machines); turbine generator or steam generator as part of a trigeneration unit or as part of a turbo-compound unit (power plants of marine vessels); recovery boiler of one or two pressures. Modeling the aerothermopressor-cooling system operation makes it possible to reveal the effectiveness of using such a system as part of a power plant and compare it with traditional methods of cooling and humidifying cycle air.

Among modern jet technologies, one of the promising research areas is a study of gas-dynamic processes in the aerothermopressor. This jet apparatus is a device for contact cooling (the heat from the air flow is consumed for the instantaneous evaporation of water droplets), in which there is a thermogasdynamic compression effect, and that is, the air pressure increase is taken place. A significant influence on the working processes in the aerothermopressor is exercised by design factors. The influence of these factors on energy costs to overcome the friction losses and local resistances on the convergent-divergent sections of the apparatus was investigated. Relevant in the aerothermopressors development is to determinate of rational parameters of the workflow organization with the corresponding development of the flow part design. At the same time, it is necessary to have an opportunity for analytical determination of pressure losses in the confuser and diffuser of the aerothermopressor. A research of typical models of the aerothermopressor for a number of taper angles of a confuser a (convergent angle a = 30; 35; 40; 45; 50 °) and diffuser b (divergent angle b = 6; 8; 10; 12 °), for a number of air velocity values in the working chamber M = 0.4-0.8 has been carried out. The obtained calculated data (results of computer CFD-simulation) and experimental data have been compared. The error of the values for the coefficients of local resistances in the confuser and diffuser does not exceed 7-10%. It was established that the value of the local resistance coefficient depends only on the geometrical parameters (the angle of tapering and the diameters ratio of the input and output D1/D2), that is, the air flow character in the aerothermopressor corresponds to the self-similar mode. The recommended angles were determined: confuser convergent angle a = 30 ° and diffuser divergent angle b = 6 °, corresponding to the minimum pressure loss DPloss = 1.0–9.5 %. The empirical equations were defined for determining the local resistance coefficients of the confuser and diffuser, which can be recommended for use in the design of low-flow aerothermopressor for microturbines

A cyclic air intercooling application in the compression process in the compressor has a positive effect on the resource of the gas turbine plant (GTP) and on increasing its capacity without reducing the service life. The most promising method of cooling the cyclic air of the GTP, namely contact cooling by using an aerothermopressor, was analyzed in the paper. This heat exchanger is a two-phase jet apparatus in which, due to the removal of heat from the airflow, the air pressure is increased and its cooling occurs. The main problem in the development of the aerothermopressor is to determine the geometric characteristics of the apparatus flow part and the fluid injection system, which allow its effective application for increasing pressure and fluid spraying fine. An analysis was made of the apparatus models operation by using CFD simulation in the ANSYS Fluent software package to determine the aerothermopressor main characteristics of the cyclic air cooling system of the GTP. The calculation method was determined, the turbulence model was selected, the calculation was carried out taking into account the convergence of the results, and the output data were processed and visualized in the CFD-Post in the form of graphs and fields. Based on this, the aerothermopressor design was developed for a WR-21 gas turbine produced by Rolls Royce. At the first stage of the study, a “dry” aerothermopressor was modeled (without water injection into the evaporation chamber). It was found that the decrease in airflow pressure due to friction losses was about 5%. At the second stage of the study, a simulation of the aerothermopressor with water injection into the flow part (at the inlet to the evaporation chamber) was carried out. As a result of thermogasdynamic compression, the increase in the total air pressure at the outlet of the aerothermopressor was 3.1%, and the temperature of the cooled air was decreased by 280 degrees. To ensure effective air compression in the gas turbine compressor, incomplete evaporation of water in the aerothermopressor was considered. It made it possible to obtain finer water spraying at the diffuser outlet, while the average diameter of the water droplet decreased to 2.5 μm.