A New Approach to Evaluating the In-Service Performance of Marine Gas Turbine Air Filters

Early work by the Naval Engineering Department of NGTE Pyestock, now RAE Pyestock, sought to define the Marine Aerosol through simple relationships between wind speed and aerosol size and distribution. Experience has shown the resulting Standard Aerosols to be unrepresentative of the actual conditions found in service. This paper describes a new approach using available ship and meteorological data and proven analytical techniques to generate a multivariable mathematical model of the Marine Aerosol embracing a wide envelope of operating conditions. It further describes how a simple model of a gas turbine air filter can be used in conjunction with the Marine Aerosol model and a model describing a ship propulsion system to predict the performance of the filter in terms of probable salt ingestion by the ship’s engines. This versatile design tool can be used for direct or comparative assessments of separator applications for marine gas tubine propulsion engines and generating sets.