Thermodynamic Evaluation of Combined Cycle Using Different Methods of Steam Cooling

This paper deals with comparative study of the influence of different methods of steam cooling on the performance of simple combined gas/steam cycle plants. The topping cycle chosen is simple gas turbine while the bottoming cycle is a triple-pressure reheat steam cycle. Steam has been chosen as the cooling medium to be studied, as it is the most promising medium. All possible open and closed loop cooling with steam as the cooling medium have been considered. The prediction is based on the modeling of various elements of simple combined gas/steam cycle considering the real situation. The study shows that closed loop steam cooling is superior as compared to other steam cooling methods. However even though other two methods are slightly inferior technologically, but they do not suffer from the chances of problems of cogging of coolant holes if the steam is not ultra pure.