Gas Turbine Fogging Technology — A State-of-the-Art Review: Part I — Inlet Evaporative Fogging, Analytical and Experimental Aspects

Ambient temperature strongly influences gas turbine power output causing a reduction of between 0.50% to 0.90% for every 1°C of temperature rise. There is also a significant increase in the gas turbine heat rate as the ambient temperature rises, resulting in an increased operating cost. As the increase in power demand is usually coincident with high ambient temperature, power augmentation during the hot part of the day become important for independent power producers, cogenerators and electric utilities. Evaporative and overspray fogging are simple, proven and cost effective approaches for recovering lost gas turbine performance. A comprehensive review of the current understanding of the analytical and experimental and practical aspects of high-pressure inlet fogging technology is provided. A discussion of analytical and experimental results relating to droplet dynamics, factors affecting droplet size, and inlet configuration effects on inlet evaporative fogging are covered in this paper. Commonly used fogging nozzles are also described and experimental findings presented.