Near Term Application of Water Cooling

A joint General Electric and Electric Power Research program is nearing completion after six years of water-cooled turbine technology development. The first two years were devoted to preliminary combined gas and steam turbine cycle studies and preliminary gas turbine combustor and turbine hot section design studies. Beginning in 1976, the major emphasis has been on resolving areas of critical technology toward the application of water cooling to the heavy duty commercial gas turbine. Earlier papers, ASME 78-GT-72 and 79-GT-72, presented preliminary results for development tasks which investigated phenomena associated with application of water cooling to turbine hot section nozzles, buckets and flowpath components for operation at increased turbine firing temperature. This paper presents results obtained from mid-1978 through 1979, and deals primarily with near term application of water cooling technology to the commercial gas turbine operating on heavy residual oil or coal derived liquid fuels. Water cooling in the near term offers the promise of significant reduction of both hot corrosion and ash deposition at the turbine first-stage nozzle.Copyright © 1980 by ASME