Investigating factors affecting the efficiency of gas turbine power cycle

Today, the use of gas turbines in power generation cycles has been growing. Small size, easy installation, high power-to-mass ratio and the ability to load and unload the cycle quickly are the advantages of such systems. Low efficiency is considered as one of the major disadvantages of such power plants. Thus providing a way to increase cycle efficiency can be very effective in making the cycle more efficient and thus saving fuel consumed in such systems. In this paper the thermal efficiency of the cycle is introduced through describing the mechanism of gas turbine in power generation cycle. Then we will examine the factors affecting the efficiency of the cycle and finally practical solutions such as increasing the inlet temperature, recovery, internal cooling of the compressor and heat recovery for increasing efficiency will be explained. Evaluating the polytropic efficiency of cycles shows that increasing the inlet gas temperature has little effect on turbine efficiency and is limited at high levels of ?poly. Water or steam injection into the gas turbines will not only lead to increased efficiency of the cycle, but also increases the flexibility of the turbine, too.