Dirty air filters on a gas turbine could lead to which type of alarm?

When air filters in a gas turbine become dirty, they obstruct the flow of air into the combustion chamber. This increase in resistance leads to a condition where the pressure difference across the filters rises significantly – resulting in a high differential pressure alarm being triggered.

The differential pressure is a measure of the difference in pressure before and after the filter. As dirt and particulate matter accumulate in the filters, the pressure before the filter builds up while the pressure after the filter decreases, creating a greater differential pressure. This is a critical monitoring parameter, as excessive differential pressure can indicate that the filters need to be cleaned or replaced to ensure optimal operation and efficiency of the gas turbine.

While other conditions, such as low power output or low airflow, could also occur due to dirty filters, they are consequences of the high differential pressure rather than direct indicators. Similarly, high temperature might indicate another issue related to fuel combustion efficiency or other components, but the immediate and specific alarm that relates directly to the state of the filters is the high differential pressure.