SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF COMBINED CYCLE GAS TURBINE POWER PLANTS

Abstract

Combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants normally run under off-design (namely part-load) conditions during their lifetime. Off-design operation decreases plant thermal efficiency and increases carbon emissions. Hence, there are strong incentives to study and improve CCGT performance under off-design conditions. In view of this, this thesis aims to (1) develop a generic simulation model with tailored solution strategy to capture and study the full off-design characteristics of CCGT plants; (2) propose a new operating strategy that allows CCGT plants to set their acceptable gas turbine temperature limits for efficient off-design operation; (3) develop a novel inlet air cooling system to improve CCGT performance during hot seasons; (4) develop a machine learning-based method to predict gas turbine performance and reproduce correction curves from real operational data.