Abstract The paper investigates the variants of intercooler effectiveness on exergo-economic and exergo-sustainability indicators of modified Brayton cycles. The objective is to ascertain how the variant in the intercooler effectiveness… Click to show full abstract
Abstract The paper investigates the variants of intercooler effectiveness on exergo-economic and exergo-sustainability indicators of modified Brayton cycles. The objective is to ascertain how the variant in the intercooler effectiveness affects the exergy-based parameters. However, to achieve this, a component by component exergy-cost balances was established. The considered cycles include: the non-specific cycle (Case 1) comprising a gas turbine (GT), intercooler (IC), heat exchanger (HE) and reheat system (REH), others include (GT+H+REH +ST, Case 2), (GT+HE +IC +REH +ST+FWH, Case 3) and (GT+HE+IC+REH +ST+2 FWH, Case 4). The calculated cycle efficiencies (Cases 1–4) varies from 17.59% to 28.84% for intercooler effectiveness of 0.75 and 0.95. The exergy destruction within this range was 0.97%, 1.26%, 0.89% and 1.23% (Cases 1, 2 3 and 4) respectively. The component exergy destruction cost (CEDC) fluctuated between 3 . 85 ≤ CEDC ≤ 229 . 1 $ / hr , 5 . 61 E − 06 ≤ CEDC ≤ 229 . 1 $ / h , 1 . 46 E − 06 ≤ CEDC ≤ 229 . 1 $ / hr and 5 . 61 E − 06 ≤ CEDC ≤ 229 . 1 $ / hr for same order. Additionally, the exergo-sustainability indicators: exergy waste ratio (EWR), environmental effect factor (EFF) and exergetic sustainability index (ESI) were estimated between 17 . 59 ≤ EEF ≤ 28 . 84 % , 0 . 433 ≤ EWR ≤ 0 . 635 9 , 1.55≤ EFF ≤3.60 and 0.277≤ ESI ≤0.644. Conclusively, the intercooler and other modifications have a marginal effect but Cases 4 and 3 was most sustainable with considerable ESI.
               
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