Just to add & for sharing purpose. We had procured 4 GTs for our cogen project. Had lengthy discussion with OEM on the safe distance requirements. As mentioned by the OEM (GENP), the formula that they normally use is 1.5 X DH
DH = (2 X H X W)/(H+W); H = Height of GTG air intake; W = Width of GTG air intake. For example, if H=W=5 m, then
DH=(2X5X5)/(5+5)=5m; Hence, safe distance = 1.5 X 5 = 7.5m.
It means that there should not be any physical obstruction (e.g. pipe rack, stuctural, etc) in front of the air intake.
For the side physical obstruction, the formula is DH/2 i.e. 2.5m.
In addition to the above, we also faced an issue regarding close proximity of the cooling tower to the GTG. This will of course affect the GT performance by:-
1) increasing inlet air temperature (less the air density less the GT net power)
2) increasing inlet air RH. The RH level will be not reduced by any installed droplet catcher or coalescer stage. High RH level will cause sensitive dust collected in the high efficiency filter stage to expand, or swell reducing the free area available for air to pass through. This reduced permeability, in turn, increases the restriction that the air filters impose on the turbine airflow (higher pressure drop). Furthermore some contaminants may chemically react with humidity increasing again pressure drop. Salt will deliquesce, too.
3)drift loss. This should be minimised installing a high-efficiency drift eliminators in the cooling tower. The GT filter house will be provided with its own drift-eliminator and coalescer stage to minimise droplet carry over. But finest droplets will generate again a higher pressure drop.
4) Furthermore additional problems may arise. Is the water safe? What chemicals are used? What microorganisms are in the water? Mist landing and then drying on steel surfaces can pose corrosion problems, too.
For this issue, the OEM's (GENP) recomendation is to locate cooling towers as far from GT inlets as possible and to avoid to have cooling towers located directly upwind of the GTG, in the prevailing wind direction.
In our case the distance is about 100m and not in the direction of prevailing wind.