Off-design performance of solar Centaur-40 gas turbine engine using Simulink

In the present study, a Simulink model based on Matlab software is used to calculate the off-design running point for single shaft Centaur 40 power generation gas turbine engine. The off-design calculations comprise two models, the first is the operation during engine starting (from 65% to 100% speed, no load) while the other is the engine operation during the loading (constant speed of 100%). For starting model the baseline parameter is the engine speed while the net power is the baseline parameter in the case of loading operation. Herein, the component characteristics maps, the air and air/fuel mixture properties as functions of temperature and the engine design point parameters are introduced to the calculating program. Because of the lack of real component characteristics, scaling law is followed to adapt these characteristics. The loading operation results are then compared with the field results to check the validity of Simulink model. Also the effects of the ambient temperature on the engine performance parameters at the design condition are investigated.