ISSN 2319-8885

Vol.03,Issue.04,
April-2014,
Pages:0665-0672
www.semargroup.org,
www.ijsetr.com

Analysis of a Combined Regenerative and Reheat Gas Turbine Cycle using

MATLAB
MOHAMMED JASIM MOHAMMED1, DR. MOHAMMAD TARIQ2
1
Research Scholar, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, SSET, SHIATS-DU, Naini, Allahabad, India
2
Asst Prof, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, SSET, SHIATS-DU, Naini, Allahabad, India.
Abstract: In recent development of gas turbine cycles, new software for calculating thermal efficiency and power output of a
reheat and regenerative cycles are applied. There are one compressor and one turbine used in regeneration gas turbine cycle and
one compressor and two turbines are used in reheat cycle. In the combined cycle, one compressor and two turbines (high
pressure and low pressure respectively) is using in the present work. The temperature after reheating assumes to be reaching at
the same temperature of HPT inlet. In the present work, a more sophisticated method is developed from the earlier work and is
used to calculate the various parameters of a combined gas turbine cycle. The combination of the reheat and regenerative cycle
has been taken in the present work and the thermodynamic analysis has been performed using MATLAB 10 software. The
parameters taken in the well defined range for overall pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperatures and ambient temperature. The
cycle performs the analysis for a various regenerative effectiveness and it is found that the thermal efficiency has been increases
on increasing the regenerative effectiveness. Also found that the heat required in the burner decreases for higher regenerative
effectiveness.

Keywords: Gas Turbine, Regenerative Effectiveness, Reheat cycle, Thermal Efficiency.

I. INTRODUCTION
A. Gas Turbines Theory
Gas turbines can be divided into important categories.
There are industrial gas turbines and there are jet engine gas
turbines. Both types of gas turbines have a short but
interesting background. When designing a gas turbine, you
need to be schooled in various topics. To define the
compressor and the turbine, you need to use aerodynamics.
To get an efficient combustion, knowledge on
thermodynamics is required. Finally, to make sure the
engine survives the big temperature differences and high
forces, you must be familiar with material sciences. A gas
turbine cycle is modeled to investigate the effects of
important operating parameters like compressor inlet
temperature (CIT), turbine inlet temperature (TIT) and
pressure ratio (PR) on the overall cycle performance and
CO2 emissions [5]. The reheat process is replaced by
processes of heating the expanded gases while passing
through different turbine stator blades. Small amount of
combusted gases is utilized to flow inside such blades for
heating and mixing with the expanded gases [2]. A
computational study to assess the performance of different
gas turbine plants is presented in this paper. The work
includes the effect of relative humidity, ambient inlet air
temperature and types of fuels on gas turbine plants.
Investigation also covers economic analysis and effect of
fuels on emissions [9]. The performance of actual cycles
being used in gas turbines is discussed. A general overview
of combined-cycle plants is provided [13]. Two cycle
schemes of recuperative heat exchanger (RHE) and exhaust
gas re-circulated (EGR) were described according to the air
reheating method.
The system performance with operating pressure,
turbine inlet temperature and fuel cell load were studied
based on the simulation results. Then the effects of oxygen
utilization, fuel utilization, operating temperature and
efficiencies of the gas turbine components on the system
performance of the RHE cycle and the EGR cycle were
discussed in detail. The effect of turbine efficiency on the
system efficiency was more obvious than the effect of the
compressor and recuperator efficiencies among the gas
turbine components. It was also indicated that improving the
gas turbine component efficiencies for the RHE cycle
increased system efficiency higher than that for the EGR
cycle [17]. The majority of the Western world’s naval fleets
already use gas-turbine engines for propulsion and electric
power generation. The General Electric LM2500 gas
turbines used to power ships have a simple-cycle thermal
efficiency of 37 percent. The General Electric WR-21 gas
turbines equipped with inter-cooling and regeneration have
a thermal efficiency of 43 percent and produce21.6 MW
(29040 hp). The regeneration also reduces the exhaust
temperature from 600°C to350°C. Air is compressed to 3
atm before it enters the intercooler. Compared to steam-
turbine and diesel propulsion systems, the gas turbine offers

Copyright @ 2014 SEMAR GROUPS TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.

 MOHAMMED JASIM MOHAMMED, DR. MOHAMMAD TARIQ

greater power for a given size and weight, high reliability,
long life, and more convenient operation. The engine start-
up time has been reduced from 4 h required for a typical
steam propulsion system to less than 2 min for a gas turbine.
Many modern marine propulsion systems use gas turbines
together with diesel engines because of the high fuel
consumption of simple-cycle gas-turbine engines. In
combined diesel and gas-turbine systems, diesel is used to
provide for efficient low-power and cruise operation, and
gas turbine is used when high speeds are needed. In gas-
turbine power plants, the ratio of the compressor work to the
turbine work, called the back work ratio, is very high.
Usually more than one-half of the turbine work output is
used to drive the compressor.
up to the same temperature of HPT inlet temperature. The
pressure of expansion in the turbine has been taken as the
root mean square value of the overall pressure for optimum
results.
C. Reheat and Regenerative Cycle
There are one compressor and one turbine used in
regeneration gas turbine cycle. In the reheat or recuperation
cycle, one compressor and two turbine is using in the
present work. Figure 1 and figure 2 represents the combined
effect of reheating and regeneration of a gas turbine cycle.

The situation is even worse when the isentropic

efficiencies of the compressor and the turbine are low. This
is quite in contrast to steam power plants, where the back
work ratio is only a few percent. This is not surprising,
however, since a liquid is compressed in steam power plants
instead of a gas, and the steady-flow work is proportional to
the specific volume of the working fluid. Two solutions are
proposed for the heat recovery scheme: a first reformer has
a single pressure level while the second has two in order to
match the different pressures of the combustors. While the
single pressure scheme gives good performance with respect Figure 1: Schematic of combined regenerative and
to the stand alone gas turbine, the dual pressure reformer reheat cycle.
can give a further benefit, as far as an accurate optimization
of the steam management is performed [4]. A regenerative
gas turbine engine, with isothermal heat addition, working T
under the frame of a Brayton cycle has been analyzed. With
the purpose of having a more efficient small-sized gas 3
turbine engine, the optimization has been carried out 5
7
numerically using the maximum power (MP) and maximum 2
power density (MPD) method [18]. 4

II. REHEAT AND REGENERATIVE FFECTIVENESS 6

A. The Regenerative Cycle
The regenerative cycle is becoming prominent in these
days of tight fuel reserves and high fuel costs. The amount 1
of fuel needed can be reduced by the use of a regenerator in
which the hot turbine exhaust gas is used to preheat the air s
between the compressor and the combustion chamber. The
Figure 2: T-s representation of combined regenerative
regenerator increases the temperature of the air entering the
and reheat cycle.
burner, thus reducing the fuel-to-air ratio and increasing the
thermal efficiency. III. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
A. Analysis of the Ideal Cycle
B. Reheat Cycle The Brayton cycle in its ideal form consists of two
In the reheat gas turbine cycle, there are two turbines
isobaric processes and two isentropic processes. The two
used namely; high pressure turbine (HPT) and low pressure
isobaric processes consist of the combustor system of the
turbine (LPT). The gases first expand in the high pressure
gas turbine and the gas side of the HRSG. The two
turbine and then in low pressure turbine. The temperature
isentropic processes represent the compression
after expansion in the HPT becomes low and then further
(Compressor) and the expansion (Turbine Expander)
head added in the second combustor to increase the
processes in the gas turbine. A simplified application of the
temperature before expansion in the LPT. Generally the
first law of thermodynamics to the air- standard Brayton
temperature after expansion in the HPT has to be increases

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research

Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672
 Analysis of a Combined Regenerative and Reheat Gas Turbine Cycle using MATLAB

cycle (assuming no changes in kinetic and potential energy) As shown in figure 1, air enters the compressor at a state
has the following relationships: defined by T1 and P1. The compressor exit pressure, P2, is
given by:
Work of compressor (15)
(1)
is the compressor pressure ratio. The ideal compressor
Work of high pressure turbine discharge temperature, is given by the isentropic
(2) relation
(16)
Work of low pressure turbine
The compressor isentropic efficiency, defined as the
(3)
ratio of the compressor isentropic work to the actual
compressor work with both starting at the same initial state
Total work output
and ending at the same pressure level, may be written as:
(4)

(17)
Net turbine work is given by

(5) Here the steady-flow energy equation has been applied to

obtain expressions for the work for an irreversible adiabatic
Heat added to combustor 1 and combustor 2 given as compressor in the denominator and for an isentropic
follows: compressor in the numerator. Actual compressor discharge
(6) temperature is given as
(18)
(7)

Total heat input is given by: The work needed by the compressor, Wc:
(19)
(8)

Thus, the overall thermal cycle efficiency is
(9)
Assuming the compressor efficiency is and the
turbine efficiency is , then the actual compressor work
and the actual turbine work is given by:
After leaving the compressor at an elevated pressure and
temperature, the air then enters the combustion chamber,
where it completely oxidizes a liquid or a gaseous fuel
injected under pressure. Pressure and temperature at
exhaust of compressor by relation;
(20)

(21)
(10)
Where is the pressure ratio of compressor and is
(11)
polytrophic efficiency of the compressor.
Thus, the actual total output work is (22)
(12) In actual compressor process the work required by the
compressor for unite mass flow rate is given by the
The actual fuel required to raise the temperature from 2 following equation
to 3 is (22)
(13)
B. Combustion Chamber
Thus, the overall adiabatic thermal cycle efficiency can The combustion process raises the combustion gas
be calculated from the following equation: temperature to the turbine inlet temperature T3. One of the
(14) goals of combustion chamber design is to minimize the
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672
 MOHAMMED JASIM MOHAMMED, DR. MOHAMMAD TARIQ

pressure loss from the compressor to the turbine. Ideally,
then, P3= P2, as assumed by the Air Standard analysis. The
rate of heat released by the combustion process may then be
expressed as:
(23)
pressure drop, and the space requirements of the unit. The
compressor efficiency ( ), the turbine efficiency ( ),
and effectiveness of regenerator (heat exchanger) are
considered in this study. These parameters in terms of
temperature are defined as:

Where FAR is the mass fuel-air ratio and calculated by

equation: (30)
(24)
(31)
In this equation Te is the turbine inlet temperature, Ti is
stagnation or total exit temperature of HP compressor,
(32)
is the combustion efficiency.
Power output is given by
C. Turbine
Turbine produces power to drive engine compressor due (33)
to expansion of gas stream. The efficiency of gas turbine is Air to fuel ratio is given by
taken care by considering polytropic efficiency of turbine. (34)
Specific fuel consumption
(25)

[kJ/kg] (26) (35)

Fuel to air ratio is given by
The turbine power output is then ma (1+FAR) Wt,
where, as seen earlier, ma (1+ FAR) is the mass flow rate of (36)
combustion gas flowing through the turbine. The cycle Thermal efficiency is given by
thermal efficiency is the ratio of the network to the heat
supplied to the heater: (37)

E. Analysis Gas Turbine Cycle with Reheating

(27)
D. Regeneration Effect
In a simple gas turbine cycle the turbine exit temperature
is nearly always appreciably higher than the temperature of
the air leaving the compressor. Obviously, the fuel
requirement can be reduced by the use of a regenerator in
which the hot turbine exhaust gas preheats the air between
the compressor and the combustion chamber. In an ideal
case the flow through the regenerator is at constant pressure.
The regenerator effectiveness is given by the following
relationship:
(28)
Thus, the overall efficiency for this system's cycle can be
written as
(29)
Increasing the effectiveness of a regenerator calls for
more heat transfer surface area, which increases the cost, the
The very purpose of any modification in the basic cycle
is to increase the specific work output and cycle efficiency.
The specific work output from the cycle can be increased by
including reheater and carrying out the expansion in two
stages. The work output of the reheat (reheating is done to
its original temperature T5= T3). The turbine work
increases as the vertical distance between a pair of pressure
line increases with as increase in entropy as:
(38)
(39)
The pressure ratio of compression is given by
(40)
Where are the pressure ratio of
expansion-I and expansion-II. The net specific work output
of the cycle is given by:

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research

Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672
 Analysis of a Combined Regenerative and Reheat Gas Turbine Cycle using MATLAB

(41)

(42)

(43)

(44)

(45)

The best pressure , where reheating is carried out for Figure 4: Variation of Net work vs. TIT.
maximum specific work output can be obtained by equation:

(46)

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This paper presents the results of the combined cycle in
the form of graphs for various parameters. The software
developed in MATLAB 10 for the thermodynamic
calculations of the cycle and then graphs have been plotted
in menu driven software ‘Origin 6.1’.

Figure 5: Variation of Thermal efficiency vs. TIT.

Figure 3: Variation of Heat input vs. TIT.

Figure 3 represents the variations of heat supply to the

combustor at different turbine inlet temperatures (TIT) for
various ambient temperatures. Heat sully to the combustor
increases on increasing the turbine inlet temperatures.
Figure 4 shows the variation of Net work with TIT for
various overall pressure ratios. Net work increases on
increasing the TIT for a given OPR. Figure 5 shows the Figure 6: Variation of Work ratio vs. TIT.
variation of Thermal efficiency with TIT for different OPR.
It seems from the figure that the thermal efficiency increases Figure 7 shows the variation of Air rate with TIT and it
on increasing the TIT for a given value of OPR. Figure 6 is observed that the air rate decreases on increasing the TIT
shows the variation of Work ratio with TIT. Work ratio for a given value of OPR. Figure 8 represents the variation
decreases ion increasing the TIT and it is minimum for of specific fuel consumption (SFC) with TIT. The SFC
minimum OPR. decreases on increasing the TIT. The rate of decrease is less
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672
 MOHAMMED JASIM MOHAMMED, DR. MOHAMMAD TARIQ

at higher values of TIT. Figure 9 shows the variation of Net

power with TIT. The net power increases on increasing the
TIT. Figure 10 represents the variation of heat input with
TIT. The heat addition to the burner is decreases on
increasing the regenerative effectiveness. Overall heat input
increases on increasing the turbine inlet temperature. Figure
11 represents the variation of heat input in the burner at
various ambient temperatures. It has been observed that the
heat input decreases on increasing the ambient temperature.
At higher regenerative effectiveness, the heat input is
minimum. Figure 12 shows the variation of Net work and
thermal efficiency with TIT. The thermal efficiency and net
work both increases on increasing the TIT but after reaching
an optimum value; the rate of increase is low for thermal
efficiency while the network output increases continuously.
Figure 13 shows the variation of mass of fuel required in the Figure 9: Variation of Net power vs. TIT.
combustor one and two with TIT. It has been observed that
the fuel required in the first combustor is more as compared
to the second combustor. This is due to fact that the
temperature is well above after expansion in HPT.

Figure 10: Variation of Heat input to TIT.

Figure 7: Variation of Air rate vs. TIT.

Figure 11: Variation of Heat input vs. ambient

temperature.

Figure 8: Variation of SFC vs. TIT.

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research

Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672
 Analysis of a Combined Regenerative and Reheat Gas Turbine Cycle using MATLAB
Figure 12: Variation of Net work and thermal efficiency
vs TIT.
Figure 13: Variation of Mass of Fuel vs. TIT.
Figure 14: Variation of mass of fuel required in the
combustor 1 and 2 with TIT.
Figure 14 shows the variation of the mass of fuel
required in the combustor 1 and 2 at various OPR. Figures
show the improvement in cycle efficiency because of heat
recovery with respect to a simple open-cycle gas turbine.
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672
Cycle efficiency drops with an increasing pressure drop in
the regenerator. There are two types of heat exchangers
Regenerative and Recuperative. The term ``regenerative
heat exchanger'' is used for a system in which the heat
transfer between two streams is affected by the exposure of
a third medium alternately to the two flows. The heat flows
successively into and out of the third medium, which
undergoes a cyclic temperature. These types of heat
exchangers are widely used where compactness is essential.
For a regenerator assumed to have an effectiveness varies
from 75% to 95%, the efficiency of the regenerative cycle is
higher than its counterpart in the simple cycle.
The work output per kg of air is about the same or
slightly less than that experienced with the simple cycle.
Increasing the pressure ratio and the turbine firing
temperature increases the Brayton cycle efficiency. The
increase in the pressure ratio increases the overall efficiency
at a given firing temperature; however, increasing the
pressure ratio beyond a certain value at any given firing
temperature can actually result in lowering the overall cycle
efficiency. It should also be noted that the very high-
pressure ratios tend to reduce the operating range of the
turbine compressor. This causes the turbine compressor to
be much more intolerant to dirt build up in the inlet air filter
and on the compressor blades and creates large drops in
cycle efficiency and performance. In some cases, it can lead
to compressor surge, which in turn can lead to a flameout, or
even serious damage and failure of the compressor blades
and the radial and thrust bearings of the gas turbine.
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Volume.03, IssueNo.04, April-2014, Pages: 0665-0672