Degradation of gas turbine performance in natural gas service

The paper covers in detail degradation mechanisms and the impact of component degradation on overall gas turbine performance, in particular for two shaft engines as they are used as drivers for compressors in the natural gas service. The impact of component interaction plays a crucial role in the understanding of degradation effects. This is key in understanding and using other studies on this subject that typically only address individual components. The apparent change in efficiency of a component is both due to its deterioration as well as a change in its operating point as a result of component interactions. per also provides a discussion about the causes for degraded gas turbine components, and their impact on performance characteristics of the gas turbine. The method used is to subject an engine performance model (‘cycle deck’) to degradation of individual components, and to study the effect on operating parameters.