Evaporative Cooling of Gas

Turbine Engines
Mustapha Chaker
Cyrus B. Meher-Homji
Bechtel Corporation,
Houston, TX

There are numerous gas turbine applications in power generation and mechanical drive
service where power drop during the periods of high ambient temperature has a very
detrimental effect on the production of power or process throughput. Several geographical locations experience very high temperatures with low coincident relative humidities.
In such cases media evaporative cooling can be effectively applied as a low cost power
augmentation technique. Several misconceptions exist regarding their applicability to
evaporative cooling, the most prevalent being that they can only be applied in extremely
dry regions. This paper provides a detailed treatment of media evaporative cooling, discussing aspects that would be of value to an end user, including selection of climatic
design points, constructional features of evaporative coolers, thermodynamic aspects of
its effect on gas turbines, and approaches to improve reliability. It is hoped that this paper will be of value to plant designers, engineering companies, and operating companies
that are considering the use of media evaporative cooling. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4023939]

Introduction

Gas turbine output is a strong function of the ambient air temperature with power output dropping by 0.50.9% for every 1  C
rise in ambient temperature (0.30.5% per 1  F). There is also a
concurrent heat rate increase of about 5%.
Aeroderivative gas turbines exhibit even a greater sensitivity
to ambient temperature conditions. A representation of the
power boost capability for given inlet cooling potential for different types of gas turbines is shown in Fig. 1. The drop in performance due to high ambient temperatures can be further
aggravated with gas turbine recoverable and unrecoverable performance deterioration due to several factors as presented in
Meher-Homji et al. [1].
To recover the power lost due to high ambient temperature, it is
advantageous to deploy power augmentation technologies such as
evaporative cooling. This technology has been considered as a
simple and cost-effective method to increase power output and
also improve thermal efficiency.
This paper presents a detailed review of evaporative cooling
technology covering the thermodynamics and practical aspects
relating to design and operation.
Several papers have been published to address the media type
evaporative cooling [24].

where T1 is the inlet temperature of evaporative cooler, T2 is the

exit temperature of evaporative cooler, DB is the dry bulb, WB is
the wet bulb.
A typical value for effectiveness is 8590%.
The temperature drop assuming an effectiveness of 0.9 is given
by
DTDB 0:9T1DB  T2WB

(2)

A psychometric chart can be used to obtain the value of the wet

bulb temperature (WBT). The exact power increase depends on
the particular machine type, site altitude, and ambient conditions.
The presence of a media type evaporative cooler inherently creates a pressure drop of approximately 2.54 cm (1 in.) water gauge
(WG) [5] that results in a drop in turbine output. As a rough rule
of thumb, a 2.54 cm (1 in.) WG increase in inlet duct losses will
result in a 0.350.48% drop in power and a 0.12% increase in heat
rate. These numbers would be somewhat higher for an aeroderivative machine. Increases in inlet duct differential pressure will
cause a reduction of compressor mass flow and engine operating
pressure. Increase in inlet differential pressure results in a reduction of the turbine expansion ratio.
Water quality requirements for media evaporative coolers [2]
are, less stringent than those required for direct fog cooling

Overview of Media Evaporative Cooling

Traditional media-based evaporative coolers have been widely

used in the gas turbine industry for several decades, especially in
hot arid areas. The basic principle of evaporative cooling is that as
water evaporates, it cools the air because of the latent heat of
vaporization.
Traditional evaporative coolers are described in detail by Johnson [2,3].
Evaporative cooler effectiveness is given by

T1DB  T2DB
T1DB  T2WB

(1)

Contributed by the Heat Transfer Committee of ASME for publication in the

JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript received January
18, 2013; final manuscript received March 1, 2013; published online June 24, 2013.
Editor: David Wisler.

Fig. 1 Representation of power boost by inlet air cooling

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

C 2013 by ASME
Copyright V

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systems [6]. Media type cooling requires more water for blow
down and water quality problems can lead to the removal of
media pads more frequently than the normal time frame. In some
cases, media has been replaced by fogging systems as described
by Ingistov and Chaker [7]. Media evaporative cooling systems
have successfully been used in industry for several years. The
basic layout of a media type system is shown in Fig. 2.
Media-based coolers typically have low installation and operating costs when compared to chilling systems. Operation costs
are low due to the inherent simplicity of the system and limited
auxiliary equipment needed. Potable water can be used especially
if a drift eliminator is utilized to minimize risks of water carryover. Typically media change out is required every 35 years,
depending on the quality of water used, media deterioration, and
number drying cycles.

3 Climatic and Psychrometric Aspects of Evaporative

Cooling and a Review of Climatic Databases
3.1 Climate Evaluation Issues. A major obstacle faced by
gas turbine users in analyzing the potential for evaporative cooling is that there is sparse climatic data available in a form that
users can make a decision on the benefits of evaporative cooling.
The obstacle may be broken into three factors:

Operators cannot easily locate the appropriate weather data

for their site. Much of the data is available at a plant site may
be based on average data points with no representation of the
values of coincident dry temperature and relative humidity.
These data are invaluable when evaluating any evaporative
cooling solution.
Even when some appropriate data are available through websites or other sources, the data tables and information are not
in a format to enable an operator to rapidly access the potential of evaporative cooling. The data have to be considerably
massaged and numerically analyzed before a meaningful estimate can be made of cooling potential at the site.
There are a wide variety of databases, each providing specific
types of climatic data.

The authors are aware of several locations where evaporative

cooling was not considered due to the general perception that the

Fig. 2

Media type evaporative cooler (courtesy CCJ, [8])

081901-2 / Vol. 135, AUGUST 2013

location was a high humidity region. While it is axiomatic that

evaporative cooling is more effective in desert-like regions, a
careful climatic analysis will often show that considerable cooling
potential even in coastal high humidity regions. In some mechanical drive applications, even moderate power boosts of turbines
can have significant economic benefits. For example, an offshore
platform in the Arabian Gulf (envisioned as a high humidity
region) utilizing mechanical drive gas turbines was able to utilize
fog evaporative cooling and derive significant benefit to the platform operation [9].
Chaker et al. [10,11] have provided a detailed analysis of the
evaporative cooling potential in terms of equivalent degree cooling hours (ECDH) for a large number of sites in the U.S. and for
international locations. Equivalent cooling degree hours is a measure of the evaporative cooling potential available, in terms of the
product of the degrees of cooling available and the hours for
which they are available. McNeilly [12] has provided a detailed
study on the importance of accurate climatic data when evaluating
gas turbine inlet cooling projects.

3.2 Relationship Between Relative Humidity and Ambient

Dry Bulb Temperature. There are numerous problems and difficulties when modeling climatic dataseveral of which derive
from the concept of averaging of data. One example of this is
using averaged data of wet and dry bulb temperature. Any data
used for climatic analysis for an evaporative cooler must reflect
coincident web bulb (WB) and dry bulb (DB) conditions. It is advisable that the sites temperature profile for a full year of hourly
data with the 20 years being represented wet and dry bulb coincident temperatures be considered in the analysis. These data can be
used to generate evaporative cooling degree hour (ECDH) numbers for each hour of the year and allow a turbine operator to
make a very detailed and accurate analysis of potential power
gain from wet media evaporative cooling.
High relative humidity conditions do not occur with high dry
bulb temperatures. A typical pattern of variation of dry bulb and
wet bulb temperature over a day is depicted in Fig. 3. As can be
seen, during the afternoon hours, there is a considerable difference
between the wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures. It is this spread
that allows the use of evaporative cooling.
A common mistake made by users is to take the reported high
relative humidity and temperature for a given month and base the
design on these. The problem is that the high relative humidity
generally occurs time-coincident with the lowest temperature and
the lowest relative humidity occurs with the highest temperature
as shown in Fig. 3 below. This mistake results in the erroneous

Fig. 3 Typical inverse variation of relative humidity with ambient dry bulb temperature during the day

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Fig. 6 Database showing hourly bin data of DBT versus RH for

one year
Fig. 4 Data for Riyadh showing the relationship between DBT
and WBT. At 40  C, a wet bulb depression of approximately
21  C is available.

Fig. 7 GT output power for different combinations of RH

and DBT with media evaporative cooling (evaporative cooler
efficiency 5 90%)

Fig. 5 Data for Rio, Brazil showing the relationship between

DBT and WBT. At 36  C, a wet bulb depression of approximately
7  C is available.

conclusion that very little evaporative cooling can be accomplished and has historically been the underlying cause of the
maxim that evaporative cooling is not possible in so-called high
humidity regions.
The dry bulb versus wet bulb relationship for a dry region
(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) is shown in Fig. 4. This represents an
extremely dry area with cooling potentials of as high as 28  C
being available.
Corresponding data from what is considered a high humidity
region is shown in Fig. 5.
While it is true that the available cooling is lower than a low
humidity region, there is still a valuable cooling potential of
78  C available during the times when ambient temperatures are
high, which can result in power boosts of around 5%.
3.3 Selection of Climatic Design Point. The decision as to
which power augmentation approach should be deployed should
take into consideration the characteristic of the gas turbine, the
importance and nature of the augmented power, the cooling
potential and psychrometrics of the site, the payback period, and
the advantages and disadvantage of each technology. With evaporative coolers, the question as to the selection of the design point
is illustrated using Fig. 6, which shows a historical database of
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

ambient dry bulb temperature (DBT) and relative humidity (RH)

for a particular site. As is quite typical the coincident humidities
at higher ambient temperatures are low, but considerable scatter
in the RH exists at a temperature of say 30  C.
For the design of a media evaporative cooling system, the
media is maintained wet and the makeup water is a function of the
evaporation and blowdown. The system is, therefore, designed in
terms of water consumption for the most severe conditions. A
more important and interesting question is that for an ambient
temperature of 30  C, what coincident relative humidity should be
considered to determine the power boost of the gas turbine.
As shown in Fig. 7 an evaporatively cooled LM6000PF engine
at 30  C would vary in output from 36 MW when the RH is 80%
to a power of 41 MW when the RH is 20%. Often the most
appropriate RH to be considered may be the median RH at that
temperature so that 50% of the points are above it and 50% below.
In a media evaporative cooling system, the selection of the design
point will impact the available power considered in the project
economics and have a minimal impact on the evaporative cooler
hardware design.
Sizing of a gas turbine cooling system is generally based on
historical weather psychrometric data, mainly temperature and
coincident relative humidity. Each cooling technology has conditions/characteristics related to specific design criteria to maximize
power output, economics, and investment return.
There are two parts to this fundamental issue:

The impact on the design of the cooling system. For media

based cooling systems, where the media is kept wet with
water, this issue becomes less important as the evaporation
rate will be governed by the actual site relative humidity.
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Fig. 8 Selection of design point for gas turbine inlet air cooling system showing insensitivity to evaporative cooler evaporative efficiency. All DBT values shown are greater than 41.6  C.

Fig. 10 Relative humidity versus DBT for Phoenix, AZ

Fig. 9 Selection of design point for gas turbine inlet air cooling system (evaporative cooling) shown with actual site data;
DBT values shown greater than 35  C

The impact on the power boost that can be derived. This is an

extremely important point to be considered as the project economics are often related to the power augmentation level
attainable. In evaporative cooling systems, selection of conservative relative humidities (i.e., higher humidities that are
actually expected) would result in a conservative estimation
of power (lower power boost).

In media type evaporative cooling systems there are two issues

that impact the design as described in Chaker and Meher-Homji
[13]the evaporative cooling efficiency and the selection of the
coincident relative humidity. The selection of design points for a
particular location (Fig. 8) along with the wet bulb depression
attainable for varying levels of media evaporative cooling efficiency are shown for the 41.6  C DBT point. It can be seen that
the impact of media evaporative cooling efficiency (varied
between 85%, 90%, and 95%) is relative small compared to the
selection of the coincident RH point. Actual site data for the same
location are shown in Fig. 9 with the design point dry bulb temperature superimposed on it. It can be seen that there is a higher
wet bulb depression (WBD) available for this site and with this
design point, the power boost derived will be underestimated.
(i.e., a more conservative approach).

Evaporative Cooling Degree Hours

4.1 Evaporative Cooling Available in Different Climatic

Regions. It is known that evaporative cooling technology works
well in hot and dry areas. This technology can boost the gas
081901-4 / Vol. 135, AUGUST 2013

Fig. 11 Relative humidity versus DBT for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

showing significant evaporative cooling potential for the year

turbine power significantly as the relative humidities are quite low

for several dry bulb temperatures as shown in the Figs. 10 and 11
below. These figures, which represent hourly data for a year, were
derived from Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) databases [13]
and, consequently, include coincident bin data of 20 years. It can
be seen that most of the cooling occurs at high temperature and
low relative humidity with a few hours at low temperature and
high relative humidity. In such hot and dry locations, the power
boost can be comparable to that obtained from a more costly and
complicated mechanical chiller system [13].
Even the most humid environments allow for up to 8  C (15 F)
of evaporative cooling during the hotter part of the day. The term
relative humidity refers to the moisture content in the air
relative to what the air could hold at that temperature. In contrast absolute humidity is the absolute amount of water vapor in
the air (normally expressed in unit mass of water vapor per unit
mass of air).
The moisture-holding capacity of air depends on its temperature. Warmer air can hold more moisture than cooler air. Consequently, relative humidity is highest during the cool morning and
evening hours and lowest in the hot afternoon hours. This section
focuses on the availability of evaporative cooling in selected high
humidity regions.
A plot of relative humidity versus DBT in a humid region
such as Houston, TX is shown in Fig. 12. Considerable cooling
potential exists when the ambient temperature is above 35  C and
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Fig. 14 Representation of ECDH over 12 months by daily

period of 3 h

Fig. 12 Relative humidity versus DBT for Houston, TX

Fig. 15 Representation of ECDH at different time of the day as

function of wet bulb depression in increments of 0.56  C (1  F)

Fig. 13 Representation of power boost in % for different dry

bulb temperatures and relative humidities, assuming evaporative cooling with evaporative cooling efficiency of 90%

even at the lower temperatures (for example, between 2030  C);

considerable scatter exists in the relative humidity indicating that
evaporative cooling potential exists.
In several mechanical drive operations such as liquefied natural
gas (LNG), excess power can directly translate to increased LNG
production and the economic benefits of this can be significant.
The power boost for different DBT and RH conditions for a typical gas turbine with a powertemperature lapse rate of 0.7%/ C is
shown in Fig. 13. In examining the graph, at temperatures around
40  C, even humidities of 6080%, will result in power boost of
around 24% which can be very significant in mechanical drive
applications.
4.2 Evaporative Cooling Degree Hours (ECDH)
Calculations. The evaporative cooling degree hours (ECDH) is
defined as a number ( C-hours) that defines the total amount of
cooling that can be derived in a given time period [10,11]. The
total ECDH is arrived at by summing the ECDHs derived daily,
monthly, or yearly at a given location.
The ECDH is chosen with a lower limit of minimum wet bulb
temperature (MWBT) varying between 7.2  C (45  F) and 12.8  C
(55  F). The MWBT depends on the airflow velocity at the
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

Fig. 16 ECDH as function of MWBT for different databases for

a hot and dry location and a warm and humid region

compressor bellmouth for a given gas turbine1 and is selected in

order to avoid the possibility of inlet icing. In Fig. 14 below, the
minimum wet bulb temperature was set at 7.2  C (45  F). This
1
Aeroderivative engines typically operate at higher inlet Mach numbers resulting
in higher inlet temperature depressions.

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Fig. 17 Psychrometric chart indicating evaporative cooling LM25001 simple cycle

means that the ECDH is calculated as the difference between the

coincident dry bulb temperature and the wet bulb temperature
multiplied by the number of hours that this difference exists if
the WBT is above 7.2  C (45  F). If the WBT is below 7.2  C
(45  F) and the DBT is above 7.2  C (45  F), the ECDH is equal to
the difference between DBT and 7.2  C (45  F) multiplied by the
number of hours of occurrence. If the DBT is below 7.2  C
(45  F), the calculation is not done and no evaporative cooling is
derived.
By knowing the ECDH at a given location, a gas turbine operator can easily compute the kW-hours of capacity available by the
use of power augmentation compared to the situation if there was
no power augmentation. In order to do this, the ECDH number
would be multiplied by the turbine specific kW/ C cooling number. This can be obtained from the gas turbine original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) curves. For example, if the ECDH is
80,000 degree-hours, then a gas turbine such as the LM6000 that
has a power lapse rate of approximately 537 kW/ C, the kW-hours
gained would be 80,000  537  0.9 38,664,000 kW-h, where
0.9 is the cooling effectiveness.
A representation of ECDH over 12 months and the hours of the
day in which they occur is depicted in Fig. 14. As can be seen, the
ECDH between the months of April and October are over 2000
and the majority of these occur in the afternoon high demand
power period where there is a high wet bulb depression. A bar
chart showing the wet bulb depression (in increments of 0.56  C)
during this time is shown in Fig. 15.
ECDH data can also be examined more closely to account for
differences in energy market values at different times of the year.
For example, study of data could provide an estimate of the revenue stream during the hot summer months alone. An economic
evaluation can then be developed on a month-by-month basis
knowing the site-specific economic criteria.
Meteorological conditions can vary dramatically from year to
year for a given site but the approach presented here represents a
reasonable estimate of what can be expected for any given year
with inlet cooling.
081901-6 / Vol. 135, AUGUST 2013

Very often, hourly bin weather data for a location in which a

gas turbine cooling system to be installed are not available. In this
case, one would have to look for available weather databases for
the close location to the site under consideration. Different
aspects should be considered when deciding on the use of a given
weather database. This includes geographical conditions such as
the distance between the weather station and location of the gas
turbine, altitude, and relative distance from sea, which can
considerably affect the relative humidity and, consequently, the
WBD.
4.3 Use of Equivalent Cooling Degree Hour (ECDH)
Numbers. Many types of weather databases are available. This
includes typical or representative modified weather databases
such as Typical Meteorological Year (TMY), Engineering
Weather Data (EWD), International Station Meteorological Climate Summary (ISMCS), and exact bin data collected over the
years such as Integrated Weather Surface (IWS) hourly observations. The typical and representative databases are developed
based on methodologies that reject extreme (very rare) weather
conditions. The newly developed databases such as TMY3 appear
to be more reliable. The IWS data include exact (actual) data collected for a specific year.
A comparison between typical/representative weather data
(TMY2, TMY3, and EWD) and exact hourly bin data (IWS) collected over the last five years is compared in terms of ECDH. This
comparison is done for two locations with different climatic
profiles:

warm and humidHouston, TX

hot and dryPhoenix, AZ

The analysis shows the expected results that would be derived

if a project were developed using a specific database versus the
actual results that would have been achieved over the time frame
based on actual historical data. The data were examined for missing data and other errors and corrections made using standard
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Fig. 18 LM25001 G4 (simple cycle) (a) without evaporative cooling (above) and (b) with evaporative cooling

metrological techniques. Calculations were then made for ECDH

values2.
The yearly ECDH is plotted in Fig. 16, respectively, as a function of applied MWBT. This figure confirms the general tendency
of underestimation of the ECDH by the typical/representative
weather databases when compared with the actual collected bin
data (IWS data) independent of imposed MWBT.
It is important to note that even though the total ECDH number
is relatively low for Houston (approximately 25,000  C-h at a
2

This approach is very data intensive with file sizes exceeding 60 MB.

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

MWBT of 15  C) evaporative cooling benefits will be significant

during the high dry bulb temperature conditions when the coincident relative humidity is low.
In a hot and dry climate such as Phoenix, AZ, and as expected,
there is a sizable ECDH cooling potential as shown in Fig. 15. For
a MWBT of 10  C, there are over 80,000 ECDH.
For hot and dry weather conditions, evaporative cooling can
boost the gas turbine power to a similar extent compared to
mechanical chiller technology [13].
The tendency of underestimating the cooling potential based on
representative databases (TMY, EWD, and ISMCS) when compared to actual measured data (IWS data) can be seen in Fig. 16.
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Fig. 19 Cycle flow schematic Frame 6B combined cycle (no evaporative cooling) with condensing steam turbine. Net power
53 MW.

5 Impact of Evaporative Cooling on Gas Turbine

Cycle
5.1 Evaporative Cooling Impact on Gas Turbine Cycle
(Simple Cycle). In order to examine the impact of evaporative
cooling on a gas turbine cycle, a LM2500 engine has been modeled with and without evaporative cooling. The starting ambient
conditions 40  C and 40% RH and the final ending point after
evaporative cooling are plotted on a psychometric chart (see
Fig. 17). As shown in Fig. 18, the engine produces 25,391 kW
without evaporative cooling and 28,812 kW with evaporative
cooling. The amount of water evaporated in the cooler is
0.3546 kg/s. The figure shows all the key cycle parameters and
the fuel conditions. As expected the heat rate improves, but the
amount of fuel consumed increases.
5.2 Evaporative Cooling Impact on Gas Turbine Combined
Cycle. The impact of evaporative cooling on a combined cycle us
examined here. Two combined cycles based on a heavy duty
Frame 6B unit have been designed, one optimized for a situation
with evaporative cooling and one without. The following assumptions are made:

number of pressure levels 2

condensing steam turbine
water cooled plant

081901-8 / Vol. 135, AUGUST 2013

The cycle flow schematics are shown in Fig. 19 for the combined cycle configuration without the evaporative cooler and in
Fig. 20 with the evaporative cooler. The comparative performance
is shown in Table 1 below.
The power boost for range of gas turbine with and without of
evaporative cooling is shown in Table 2.

Practical Aspects Relating to Evaporative Cooling

Media type evaporative coolers should be placed after the filters

and should always have mist eliminators located downstream of
the coolers.
6.1 Issues With Evaporative Media Coolers. The main
issue with evaporative media coolers is droplet carryover. Unlike
fogging systems, the droplet sizes can be very large and if
entrained in the airstream can cause compressor erosion problems.
However, with proper design of the system this can be minimized.
Important design criteria include:

Design air velocities across the media should be kept moderate (below approximately 200 m/min).
Water distribution rates should be maintained between 0.7 to
2 liters per second per square meter of surface area of the distribution pad (this is a function of site humidity).
Downstream drift eliminators if used, will almost eliminate
risk of spray carryover.
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Fig. 20

Frame 6B combined cycle with evaporative cooling. Net power 56,108 kW.

Additional causes that contribute to water carryover that can be

avoided by the use of an installation checklist include:

Incorrect media installationmedia is installed upside down

or backwards.
Damaged mediausually damage occurs when media is
reinstalled after it has been removed in the field. A common
area of damage is at the media edge where the media is
forced back into position. This often results in open cracks
between media sections.
Media strips have excessive lateral misalignment resulting in
3=4 in. or more gaps between media strips or a gap at the side
housing.
Media not sealed against retainermedia must be firmly
sealed against the media retainers that hold the top and sides
of the media on the downstream side of the cooler.
Uneven water distribution from the headerclogged distribution holes result in too much water being delivered to
localized areas of the media.

Table 1 Comparative performance of combined cycle plant

Net power and heat rate

GT power

ST power

No evap cooler

53,079 kW
7784 kJ/kwhr

34,589 kW

19,614 kW

With evap cooler

56,108 kW
7791 KJ/kWhr

37,250 kW

20,011 kW

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

There is distorted airflow throughout the evaporative cooler.

There are scale deposits on the media.

Undetected carryover into the gas turbine compressor could

cause fouling of the compressor blades, and inlet guide vanes. In
extreme cases, first stage blade erosion can occur.
Media-based coolers are adaptable for using potable quality
water. Once the water analysis has been evaluated and the bleed
or blow down rate of the cooler has been calculated to maintain
recommended parameters, the system can operate with minimal
intervention. Periodic inspection and water analysis should be
done on a recommended schedule. A preferred approach is to use
a conductivity meter that could be tied into an alarm system. This
type of instrumentation monitors the sump water quality and could
facilitate the adjustment of blow down rates.
Demineralized water can be used with evaporative coolers, but
it may react with stiffening agents in the media and could soften it
to the point of collapse. If demineralized water is used, additional
safeguards need to be taken in regard to the material used for the
piping and downstream components. Galvanized material should
not be used. The cooler housing and water piping should be constructed of 304 stainless steel, and the media should be constructed with increased stiffening agents. Typical water quality
requirements for evaporative media coolers are shown in Table 3.
Modern media type evaporative coolers use media that is typically 12 in. thick and that can attain a 90% evaporation efficiency.
The life of media is a important factor to consider and the media
may have to be replaced after five years with high quality maintenance but this life is a function of water quality. Air leakage
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Table 2

Id

Gas turbine

24
ABB GT 8
152 ABB GT 8C2
25
ABB GT 11N
110 ABB GT 11N2
41 ABB GT 13D2
70 ABB GT 13E2
18
Aln 501KB5
21
Aln 571KA
129 Asig ASE40
151 Asig ASE50A
48
EGT Typhoon
145 EGT Typhoon
33
EGT Tornado
1
GE 5371 PA
133
GE 6561 B
135 GE 7241 FA
148
GE 9171E
174 GE 9351 FA

Table 3

Power boost for range of gas turbines with and without evaporative cooling (DBT 5 32  C; RH 5 50%)
Net power Net power Power Power Power
cooling-off cooling on boost boost
boost
(KW)
(KW)
(%)
%/  C KW/  C
40,780
49,460
69,860
97,240
86,770
139,000
3,020
4,440
2,620
2,990
3,240
4,370
5,230
22,150
34,290
148,580
107,746
227,478

42,999
51,662
73,192
102,434
91,063
146,234
3,216
4,755
2,748
3,211
3,572
4,617
5,528
23,604
36,101
157,157
113,266
239,886

5.16
4.26
4.55
5.07
4.71
4.95
6.08
6.61
4.64
6.88
9.28
5.34
5.38
6.16
5.02
5.46
4.87
5.17

0.62
0.51
0.55
0.61
0.57
0.60
0.73
0.80
0.56
0.83
1.12
0.64
0.65
0.74
0.60
0.66
0.59
0.62

267.3
265.2
401.4
625.7
517.2
871.5
23.6
37.9
15.4
26.6
39.9
29.7
35.8
175.1
218.1
1033.3
665.0
1495.0

Typical water quality for media evaporative coolers

Constituent
Calcium hardness (CaCO3)
Total alkalinity (CaCO3)
Chlorides (Cl)
Silica (SiO2)
Iron (Fe) total
Vanadium (V)
Lead (Pb)
Oil and grease
Total dissolved solids
Suspended solids
pH

PPM 610%
50150
50150
<40
<150
<0.2
<1.0
<1.0
<2.0
<500
<5
78.5

Note: PPM, Parts Per Million.

around the sealing perimeter of the cooling media can produce air
jet velocities up to 10 m/s, increasing the potential for carryover,
which is why several users utilize a droplet eliminator after the
media section to avoid compressor erosion. This droplet eliminator
can induce an additional pressure drop. The water chemistry must
be carefully monitored and maintained to limit plugging of air passages by organic and inorganic deposits. Physical inspection of the
media during outages is recommended as is the provision of viewing windows both upstream and downstream of the media system.

Id

Gas turbine

113
GE 9391 G
159 GE LM2500PE
118 GE LM6000PC
161 GE LM6000SPT
101 KWU V64.3A
43
KWU V94.2
154
Mtsb 701 F
169 PW ST6L-813
137
Sol Taurus
132
Sol Saturn
188
Sol Centaur
97
Sol Mars
189
Sol Titan
44
TPM FT8
13
TPM FT4C
47
W251 B12
77
W501 D5A
74
W701 F

Net power Net power

cooling-off cooling on
246,850
18,790
32,250
33,830
60,040
125,960
228,760
645
4,200
970
3,820
9,120
11,170
21,030
24,210
39,940
103,860
197,080

256,787
19,717
35,846
35,836
62,718
132,335
239,861
698
4,472
1,038
4,058
9,647
11,918
22,441
26,140
42,448
109,496
207,467

Power Power Power

boost boost
boost
(%)
%/  C KW/  C
3.87
4.70
10.03
5.60
4.27
4.82
4.63
7.55
6.08
6.55
5.86
5.46
6.28
6.29
7.38
5.91
5.15
5.01

0.47
0.57
1.21
0.67
0.51
0.58
0.56
0.91
0.73
0.79
0.71
0.66
0.76
0.76
0.89
0.71
0.62
0.60

1197.2
111.6
433.2
241.7
322.6
768.1
1337.5
6.3
32.8
8.2
28.7
63.5
90.1
170.0
232.5
302.1
679.0
1251.4

30  C (dashed lines) for a series of wet bulb depression (WBD)

between 5  C and 15  C is shown in Fig. 21. This figure shows
that cooling the air, for example, from 45  C to 30  C requires
around 5% more water than to cool the air from 30  C to 15  C.
6.4 Practical Aspects, Operations, and Inspection
6.4.1 Temperature Limitations. If the ECDH number is used
to compute kW-h boost over the year, it is important to note that
this would imply that evaporative cooling is employed whenever
there is even a 1  C depression. There are practical limitations that
during the cooler months; freezing conditions may occur during
the early morning hours that may cause evaporative cooling to be
shut off. Several evaporative media cooling systems are designed
to be shut down when the ambient temperature reaches 15  C.
6.4.2 Evaporative Cooler Inspections. Careful inspection of
the evaporative cooler and examining several practical features is
of importance in maintaining the operational reliability of an

6.2 Lowest Temperature for Cooling. Several OEMs publish a combination of relative humidity and temperature at which
anti icing measures are turned on. With evaporative media and
fogging applications the ending relative humidity is close to
100%; temperatures as low as 10  C can be utilized3. However, to
be on the very conservative side, temperatures of 12.8  C have
been considered. Many media evaporative coolers are designed to
shut off when the ambient temperature reaches 15  C.
6.3 Water Required to Saturate Air for Evaporative
Cooling. The required amount of water to cool the air to minimum wet bulb temperature (MWBT) of 15  C (solid lines) and
3
There are several considerations other than just calculating the intake
temperature static depression caused by air acceleration to Mach numbers of 0.5 to
0.8. There is also some heating (although smallof the order of 1  C) due to the
condensation that occurs and also due to heat transfer from the number 1 bearing,
etc.

081901-10 / Vol. 135, AUGUST 2013

Fig. 21 Chart to estimate approximate water flow requirements

for varying gas turbine airflow rates and temperature depressions ranging from 5  C to 15  C

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Fig. 22 Comparison of new media with scaled media [8]

evaporative cooler. There are several important things that should

be considered, including the following:

Verify there are no gaps between media segments that allow

air and water droplets to bypass the cooler.
Verify there is no water bypassing the media because that
would reduce efficiency.
Check water flow rates and distribution. Dry streaks on the
media are indicative of poor distribution.
Examine the walls of the air inlet house downstream of the
drift eliminator for streaking. Streaking can be caused by
high air velocity, water bypassing the evaporative cooler,
and/or a defective drift eliminator.
Examine media to see if it is mushy. If it is then consider
replacement and determine the root cause.
Check media differential pressure and trend this value.
If scaling is noted, check water chemistry.

Check framing, drift eliminator, sump, piping, pumps, and

support systems for corrosion. These should be repaired as
necessary.
Verify integrity of seals, gaskets, and caulking.
Flush the sump and piping system thoroughly annually or
more frequently.
Send samples of the media and water to the evaporative
cooler supplier annually for evaluation.

Comparison of new and scaled media is shown in Fig. 22.

Microbiological fouling of media that can be very damaging is
shown in Fig. 23.
Excellent details regarding inspection and commissioning of
evaporative coolers may be found in Grace [14].

Summary

The demand for gas turbine power augmentation during times

of high ambient temperature for the power generation and
mechanical drive market has created an increasing emphasis on
evaporative cooling. Media evaporative cooling is a relatively low
cost technology that can provide considerable power boost, especially during hot climates when the coincident relative humidity is
low. This paper has presented a detailed review of evaporative
cooling in terms of the technology, thermodynamics, and aspects
of analysis and has also covered numerous practical checklists
and issues that are very important for ensuring the operational
reliability of such systems.

Nomenclature

Fig. 23 Microbiological fouling of media [8]

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

ASHRAE American Society of Heating and Refrigeration

Engineers
CDH cooling degree hours
CCDH chiller cooling degree hours,  C h ( F h)
CTIT compressor target inlet temperature (with chiller)
DBT dry bulb temperature,  C
E evaporative cooler effectiveness (efficiency)
ECDH evaporative cooling degree hours,  C h ( F h)
EWD engineering weather data
GT gas turbine
ISMCS International Station Meteorological Climate
Summary
IWS Integrated Weather Surface
AUGUST 2013, Vol. 135 / 081901-11

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LNG
LPM
OEM
OS
RH
T
TMY
WBT
WBD
MWBT

liquefied natural gas

liters/minute
original equipment manufacturer
overspray (water flow as a % of airflow rate)
relative humidity, %
temperature,  C
typical meteorological year
wet bulb temperature,  C
wet bulb depression,  C
minimum wet bulb temperature,  C

References
[1] Meher-Homji, C. B., Chaker, M., and Motiwalla, H., 2001, Gas Turbine Performance Deterioration, Proceedings of the 30th Turbomachinery Symposium,
Houston, TX, September 1720.
[2] Johnson, R. S., 1988, The Theory and Operation of Evaporative Coolers for
Industrial Gas Turbine Installations, International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine
Congress, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 59, ASME Paper No. 88-GT-41.
[3] Johnson, R. S., 1994, Set Up and Operation of a Recirculating Wetted Rigid
Media Evaporative Cooler Installed in a Gas Turbine Combustion Inlet Air System, International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress and Exposition, The
Hague, Netherlands, June 1316.
[4] Hosseini, R., Beshkani, A., and Soltani M., 2007, Performance Improvement
of Gas Turbines of Fars (Iran) Combined Cycle Power Plant by Intake Air
Cooling Using a Media Evaporative Cooler, Energ. Convers. Man. J., 48, pp.
10551064.

081901-12 / Vol. 135, AUGUST 2013

[5] Jones, C., and Jacobs J. A., III, 2000, Economic and Technical Considerations
for Combined-Cycle Performance-Enhancement Options, GE Power Systems,
Schenectady, NY, Report No. GER-4200,
[6] Chaker, M., and Meher-Homji, C. B., 2007, Evaporative Cooling of Gas
Turbine Engines: Climatic Analysis and Application in High Humidity
Regions, ASME Turbo Expo 2007: Power for Land, Sea, and Air (GT2007),
Montreal, Canada, May 1417, ASME Paper No. GT2007-27866.
[7] Ingistov, S., and Chaker, M., 2011, Upgrade of the Intake Air Cooling System
for a Heavy-Duty Industrial Gas Turbine, Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo
2011, Vancouver Canada, June 610, GT2011-45398.
[8] Air Inlet System, Make it Right, 2010, Comb. Cycle J., 2Q(2010), pp. 2236.
[9] Al-Amiri, A. M. M., Zamzam, M. M., Chaker, M. A., and Meher-Homji C. B.,
2066, Application of Inlet Fogging for Power Augmentation of Mechanical
Drive Turbines in the Oil and Gas Sector, Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo,
Barcelona, Spain, May 811, Paper No. GT2006-91054.
[10] Chaker, M., Meher-Homji, C., Mee, T., and Nicholson, A., 2003, Inlet Fogging
of Gas Turbine EnginesDetailed Climatic Analysis of Gas Turbine Evaporative Cooling Potential. ASME J. Eng. Gas Turb. Power, 125(1), pp. 300309.
[11] Chaker, M., and Meher-Homji, C. B., 2006, Inlet Fogging of Gas Turbine
EnginesDetailed Climatic Analysis of Gas Turbine Evaporative Cooling
Potential for International Locations, ASME J. Eng. Gas Turb. Power, 128(4),
pp. 815825.
[12] McNeilly, D., 2000, Application of Evaporative Coolers for Gas Turbine
Power Plants, International Gas Turbine and Aeroengine Congress, Munich,
Germany, May 811, ASME Paper No. 2000-GT-303.
[13] Chaker, M., and Meher-Homji, C. B., 2011, Selection of Climatic Design
Points for Gas Turbine Power Augmentation, Proceedings of ASME Turbo
Expo 2011, Vancouver, Canada, June 610, ASME Paper No. GT2011-46463.
[14] Grace, B., 2011, Benefits of Inspecting and Commissioning Evaporative
Coolers, accessed April 3, 2011, www.ccj-online.com/inspection-overhauland-upgrade-of-evaporative-cooler

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