Experimental Investigation of Inlet Distortion Effect on Performance of a Micro Gas Turbine

Abstract

An experimental study has been carried out to determine how inlet total-pressure distortion affects the performance of a micro gas turbine. An inlet simulator is designed and developed to produce and measure distortion patterns at the inlet to the gas turbine. An air jet distortion generator (AJDG) is used to produce nonuniform flow patterns and total pressure probes are installed to measure steady-state total-pressure distribution at the inlet. A set of wind tunnel tests have been performed to confirm the fidelity of distortion generator and measuring devices. Tests are carried out with the gas turbine exposed to inlet flow with 60 deg, 120 deg, and 180 deg circumferential distortion patterns with different distortion intensities. The performance of the gas turbine has been measured and compared with that of clean inlet flow case. Results indicate that the gas turbine performance can be affected significantly facing with intense inlet distortions.