Maintaining Turbine Efficiency by cyc/e design, caaling inlet air and c/eaning the campressar The effici ency of gas turbi nes i s cruci al to the performance of any power generation plant that uses a turbi ne. Effi cienci es have risen steadily over the years, partly through the adopti on of modified worki ng cycles and higher operati ng temperatures. However, mai ntai ni ng these efficiencies requi res a well desi gned method of cooling inlet ai r and a programme of compressor cleaning The gas turbi ne i s one of the most remarkable machines that mankind has created. A well engi neered turbi ne can be extremely efficient and powerful while, on the other hand, it does not require many engineeri ng errors to turn a gas turbine into a poorly performing machine with a low efficiency. When the idea ofa gas turbine was fi rst outli ned more !han a hundred years ago there were strong doubts that it would work at all. The first person to give proof of concept was the Norwegian engi neer Aegidi us El l i ng who, i n 1903, managed to build and run a gas turbine. AII the power produced by the Ell i ng engi ne was needed to drive the compressor - that is, the engi ne produced no useful power. However, the key thing to the Elling machine was that it did run. From there, any improvement i n machi ne design would result in useful power bei ng
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