Gas Turbine Handbook : Principles and Practices

Applications 17
Figure 2-6. Courtesy of Solar Turbines Incorporated. The Solar Centaur
50 is an industrial hybrid gas turbine with an ISO base load
rating of 4.35 megawatts.
life. Also, this configuration is difficult to service as the assembly
must be fitted through the exhaust duct. The designer is faced with a
number of constraints such as: output shaft length, high temperatures
(800°F to 1000°F), exhaust duct turbulence, pressure drop, and maintenance
accessibility. Insufficient attention to any of these details,
in the design process, often results in power loss, vibration, shaft or
coupling failures, and increased down-time for maintenance.
Cold End Drive
In the cold end drive configuration the output shaft extends out
the front of the compressor. Here the driven equipment is accessible,
relatively easy to service, and exposed to ambient temperatures only.
The single drawback to this configuration is that the compressor inlet
must be configured to accommodate the output shaft and the driven
equipment ( electric generator, pump, compressor, or speed increaser/
decreaser as necessary). This inlet duct must be turbulent free and