Inlet Fogging of Gas Turbine Engines—Part III: Fog Behavior in Inlet Ducts, Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis, and Wind Tunnel Experiments

Abstract

The inlet fogging of gas turbine engines for power augmentation has seen increasing application over the past decade yet not a single technical paper treating the physics and engineering of the fogging process, droplet size measurement, droplet kinetics, or the duct behavior of droplets, from a gas turbine perspective, is available. This paper along with Parts I and II provides the results of extensive experimental and theoretical studies conducted over several years coupled with practical aspects learned in the implementation of nearly 500 inlet fogging systems on gas turbines ranging in power from 5 to 250 MW. In Part III of this paper, the complex behavior of fog droplets in the inlet duct is addressed and experimental results from several wind tunnel studies are covered.