Advanced Thermodynamic Analysis and Performance Enhancement of Gas Turbine Cycles with Intercooler and Recuperator

Gas turbines are widely used today as the most widely used type of turbomachinery in various industries including power generation, oil and gas, process power plants, aerospace, marine industries and even some domestic and small-scale applications. These cycles, which are considered the core of power generation and propulsion systems, have always been of interest to researchers because their optimization directly leads to reduced operating costs, increased energy sustainability and reduced environmental impacts. Key parameters in improving the performance of these cycles include increased thermal efficiency, exergy efficiency, reduced specific fuel consumption and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. In this study, advanced thermodynamic analysis and performance comparison of four distinct gas turbine cycle configurations including the basic Brayton cycle, the cycle equipped with heat recovery (recuperator), the cycle equipped with intercooler and the combined cycle of intercooler and recovery have been carried out using coding in the MATLAB environment. In this analysis, pressure losses in various components, changes in working fluid properties from air to combustion products, and the effect of increasing fuel mass on the outlet flow have been investigated. The results include accurate calculations of thermal efficiency, exergy efficiency, specific fuel consumption, output power, and carbon dioxide emission for each cycle and have been analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using T-s and P-v diagrams. The findings show that the simultaneous use of recuperator and intercooler can increase thermal efficiency by more than 45% and exergy efficiency by about 39%, and significantly reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.