3.

7 Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle (or Joule cycle) represents the operation of a gas turbine engine.
The cycle consists of four processes, as shown in Figure 3.13 alongside a sketch of
an engine:

• a - b Adiabatic, quasi-static (or reversible) compression in the inlet and

compressor;
• b - c Constant pressure fuel combustion (idealized as constant pressure heat
addition);
• c - d Adiabatic, quasi-static (or reversible) expansion in the turbine and
exhaust nozzle, with which we
1. take some work out of the air and use it to drive the compressor, and
2. take the remaining work out and use it to accelerate fluid for jet
propulsion, or to turn a generator for electrical power generation;
• d - a Cool the air at constant pressure back to its initial condition.

Figure 3.13: Sketch of the jet engine components and corresponding thermodynamic
states

The components of a Brayton cycle device for jet propulsion are shown in
Figure 3.14. We will typically represent these components schematically, as in
Figure 3.15. In practice, real Brayton cycles take one of two forms. Figure 3.16(a)
shows an ``open'' cycle, where the working fluid enters and then exits the device.
This is the way a jet propulsion cycle works. Figure 3.16(b) shows the alternative, a
closed cycle, which recirculates the working fluid. Closed cycles are used, for
example, in space power generation.
 Figure 3.14: Schematics of typical military gas turbine engines. Top: turbojet with
afterburning, bottom: GE F404 low bypass ratio turbofan with afterburning (Hill and
Peterson, 1992).

Figure 3.15: Thermodynamic model of gas turbine engine cycle for power generation

[Open cycle operation] [Closed cycle operation]

Figure 3.16: Options for operating Brayton cycle gas turbine engines
3.7.1 Work and Efficiency

The objective now is to find the work done, the heat absorbed, and the thermal
efficiency of the cycle. Tracing the path shown around the cycle from - - - and
back to , the first law gives (writing the equation in terms of a unit mass),

Here is zero because is a function of state, and any cycle returns the system to
its starting state3.2. The net work done is therefore

where , are defined as heat received by the system ( is negative). We thus

need to evaluate the heat transferred in processes - and - .

For a constant pressure, quasi-static process the heat exchange per unit mass is

We can see this by writing the first law in terms of enthalpy (see Section 2.3.4) or by

remembering the definition of .

The heat exchange can be expressed in terms of enthalpy differences between the
relevant states. Treating the working fluid as a perfect gas with constant specific
heats, for the heat addition from the combustor,

The heat rejected is, similarly,

The net work per unit mass is given by

The thermal efficiency of the Brayton cycle can now be expressed in terms of the
temperatures:

(3..8)

To proceed further, we need to examine the relationships between the different

temperatures. We know that points and are on a constant pressure process as
are points and , and ; . The other two legs of the cycle are
adiabatic and reversible, so

Therefore , or, finally, . Using this relation in the

expression for thermal efficiency, Eq. (3.8) yields an expression for the thermal
efficiency of a Brayton cycle:

(3..9)

The temperature ratio across the compressor, . In terms of compressor

temperature ratio, and using the relation for an adiabatic reversible process we can
write the efficiency in terms of the compressor (and cycle) pressure ratio, which is the
parameter commonly used:

(3..10)

Figure 3.17: Gas turbine engine pressures and temperatures

Figure 3.17 shows pressures and temperatures through a gas turbine engine (the
PW4000, which powers the 747 and the 767).
 Figure 3.18: Gas turbine engine pressure ratio trends (Jane’s Aeroengines, 1998)

Figure 3.19: Trend of Brayton cycle thermal efficiency with compressor pressure
ratio

Equation (3.10) says that for a high cycle efficiency, the pressure ratio of the cycle
should be increased. This trend is plotted in Figure 3.19. Figure 3.18 shows the
history of aircraft engine pressure ratio versus entry into service, and it can be seen
that there has been a large increase in cycle pressure ratio. The thermodynamic
concepts apply to the behavior of real aerospace devices!
3.7.2 Gas Turbine Technology and Thermodynamics

The turbine entry temperature, , is fixed by materials technology and cost. (If the
temperature is too high, the blades fail.) Figures 3.20 and 3.21 show the progression
of the turbine entry temperatures in aeroengines. Figure 3.20 is from Rolls Royce and
Figure 3.21 is from Pratt & Whitney. Note the relation between the gas temperature
coming into the turbine blades and the blade melting temperature.

Figure 3.20: Rolls-Royce high temperature technology

Figure 3.21: Turbine blade cooling technology [Pratt & Whitney]

For a given level of turbine technology (in other words given maximum temperature)
a design question is what should the compressor be? What criterion should be
used to decide this? Maximum thermal efficiency? Maximum work? We examine this
issue below.
 Figure 3.22: Efficiency and work of two Brayton cycle engines

The problem is posed in Figure 3.22, which shows two Brayton cycles. For maximum
efficiency we would like as high as possible. This means that the compressor exit
temperature approaches the turbine entry temperature. The net work will be less than

the heat received; as the heat received approaches zero and so does the
net work.

The net work in the cycle can also be expressed as , evaluated in traversing
the cycle. This is the area enclosed by the curves, which is seen to approach zero as

The conclusion from either of these arguments is that a cycle designed for maximum
thermal efficiency is not very useful in that the work (power) we get out of it is zero.

A more useful criterion is that of maximum work per unit mass (maximum power per
unit mass flow). This leads to compact propulsion devices. The work per unit mass is
given by:

where is the maximum turbine inlet temperature (a design constraint) and is

atmospheric temperature. The design variable is the compressor exit temperature,

, and to find the maximum as this is varied, we differentiate the expression for

work with respect to :

The first and the fourth terms on the right hand side of the above equation are both
zero (the turbine entry temperature is fixed, as is the atmospheric temperature). The

maximum work occurs where the derivative of work with respect to is zero:

(3..11)

To use Eq. (3.11), we need to relate and . We know that

Hence,

Plugging this expression for the derivative into Eq. (3.11) gives the compressor exit

temperature for maximum work as . In terms of temperature ratio,

The condition for maximum work in a Brayton cycle is different than that for maximum
efficiency. The role of the temperature ratio can be seen if we examine the work per
unit mass which is delivered at this condition:

Ratioing all temperatures to the engine inlet temperature,

To find the power the engine can produce, we need to multiply the work per unit
mass by the mass flow rate:
 (3..12)

The trend of work output vs. compressor pressure ratio, for different temperature

ratios , is shown in Figure 3.23.

Figure 3.23: Trend of cycle work with compressor pressure ratio, for different

temperature ratios

[Gas turbine engine core] [Core power vs. turbine

 entry temperature]
Figure 3.24: Aeroengine core power [Koff/Meese, 1995]

Figure 3.24 shows the expression for power of an ideal cycle compared with data
from actual jet engines. Figure 3.24(a) shows the gas turbine engine layout including
the core (compressor, burner, and turbine). Figure 3.24(b) shows the core power for
a number of different engines as a function of the turbine rotor entry temperature.
The equation in the figure for horsepower (HP) is the same as that which we just
derived, except for the conversion factors. The analysis not only shows the qualitative
trend very well but captures much of the quantitative behavior too.

A final comment (for this section) on Brayton cycles concerns the value of the thermal
efficiency. The Brayton cycle thermal efficiency contains the ratio of the compressor
exit temperature to atmospheric temperature, so that the ratio is not based on the
highest temperature in the cycle, as the Carnot efficiency is. For a given maximum
cycle temperature, the Brayton cycle is therefore less efficient than a Carnot cycle.

3.7.3 Brayton Cycle for Jet Propulsion: the Ideal Ramjet

A schematic of a ramjet is given in Figure 3.25.

Figure 3.25: Ideal ramjet [J. L. Kerrebrock, Aircraft Engines and Gas Turbines]

In the ramjet there are ``no moving parts.'' The processes that occur in this
propulsion device are:

• : Isentropic diffusion (slowing down) and compression, with a decrease

in Mach number, . , Mo>1

 • : Constant pressure combustion.
• : Isentropic expansion through the nozzle.

The ramjet thermodynamic cycle efficiency can be written in terms of flight Mach

number, , as follows:

and

so

12.3 The Euler Turbine Equation

The Euler turbine equation relates the power added to or removed from the flow, to
characteristics of a rotating blade row. The equation is based on the concepts of
conservation of angular momentum and conservation of energy. We will work with
the model of the blade row shown in Figure 12.2.
 Figure 12.2: Control volume for Euler Turbine Equation.

Applying conservation of angular momentum, we note that the torque, , must be

equal to the time rate of change of angular momentum in a streamtube that flows
through the device

This is true whether the blade row is rotating or not. The sign matters (i.e. angular
momentum is a vector - positive means it is spinning in one direction, negative
means it is spinning in the other direction). So depending on how things are defined,
there can be positive and negative torques, and positive and negative angular

momentum. In Figure 9.2, torque is positive when -- the

same sense as the angular velocity.

If the blade row is moving, then work is done on/by the fluid. The work per unit time,
or power, , is the torque multiplied by the angular velocity, :

If torque and angular velocity are of like sign, work is being done on the fluid (a
compressor). If torque and angular velocity are of opposite sign work is being
extracted from the fluid (a turbine). Here is another approach to the same idea:

• If the tangential velocity increases across a blade row (where positive

tangential velocity is defined in the same direction as the rotor motion) then
work is added to the flow (this happens in a compressor).
• If the tangential velocity decreases across a blade row (where positive
tangential velocity is defined in the same direction as the rotor motion) then
work is removed from the flow (this happens in a turbine).

From the steady flow energy equation,

with

Then equating this expression of conservation of energy with our expression from
conservation of angular momentum, we arrive at:

or for a perfect gas with ,

(12..3)

Equation (12.3) is called the Euler Turbine Equation. It relates the temperature ratio
(and hence the pressure ratio) across a turbine or compressor to the rotational speed
and the change in momentum per unit mass. Note that the velocities used in this
equation are what we will later call absolute frame velocities (as opposed to relative
frame velocities).

• If angular momentum increases across a blade row, then and work

was done on the fluid (a compressor).

• If angular momentum decreases across a blade row, then and

work was done by the fluid (a turbine).

12.4 Multistage Axial Compressors

An axial compressor is typically made up of many alternating rows of rotating and
stationary blades called rotors and stators, respectively, as shown in Figures 12.3
and 12.4. The first stationary row (which comes in front of the rotor) is typically called
the inlet guide vanes or IGV. Each successive rotor-stator pair is called a compressor
stage. Hence compressors with many blade rows are termed multistage
compressors.
 Figure 12.3: A typical multistage axial flow compressor (Rolls-Royce, 1992).

Figure 12.4: Schematic representation of an axial flow compressor.

One way to understand the workings of a compressor is to consider energy

exchanges. We can get an approximate picture of this using the Bernoulli Equation,

where is the stagnation pressure, a measure of the total energy carried in the

flow, is the static pressure, a measure of the internal energy, and the velocity terms
are a measure of the kinetic energy associated with each component of velocity ( is
radial, is tangential, is axial).

The rotor adds swirl to the flow, thus increasing the total energy carried in the flow by
increasing the angular momentum (adding to the kinetic energy associated with the

tangential or swirl velocity, ).

The stator removes swirl from the flow, but it is not a moving blade row and thus
cannot add any net energy to the flow. Rather, the stator rather converts the kinetic
energy associated with swirl to internal energy (raising the static pressure of the
flow). Thus typical velocity and pressure profiles through a multistage axial
compressor look like those shown in Figure 12.5.

Figure 12.5: Pressure and velocity profiles through a multi-stage axial compressor
(Rolls-Royce, 1992).

Note that the IGV also adds no energy to the flow. It is designed to add swirl in the
direction of rotor motion to lower the Mach number of the flow relative to the rotor
blades, and thus improve the aerodynamic performance of the rotor.

12.5 Velocity Triangles for an Axial Compressor

Stage
Velocity triangles are typically used to relate the flow properties and blade design
parameters in the relative frame (rotating with the moving blades), to the properties
in the stationary or absolute frame.

We begin by ``unwrapping'' the compressor. That is, we take a cutting plane at a

particular radius (e.g. as shown in Figure 12.4) and unwrap it azimuthally to arrive at
the diagrams shown in Figure 12.6. Here we have assumed that the area of the
annulus through which the flow passes is nearly constant and the density changes
are small so that the axial velocity is approximately constant.

Figure 12.6: Velocity triangles for an axial compressor stage. Primed quantities are
in the relative frame, unprimed quantities are in the absolute frame.

In drawing these velocity diagrams it is important to note that the flow typically leaves
the trailing edges of the blades at approximately the trailing edge angle in the
coordinate frame attached to the blade (i.e. relative frame for the rotor, absolute
frame for the stator).

We will now write the Euler Turbine Equation in terms of stage design parameters:

, the rotational speed, and , the leaving angles of the blades.

From geometry,

and

so
or

So we see that the total or stagnation temperature rise across the stage increases
with the tip Mach number squared, and for fixed positive blade angles, decreases
with increasing mass flow. This behavior is represented schematically in Figure 12.7.

Figure 12.7: Compressor behavior

12.6 Velocity Triangles for an Axial Flow Turbine

Stage
We can apply the same analysis techniques to a turbine, Figure 12.8. The stator,
again does no work. It adds swirl to the flow, converting internal energy into kinetic
energy. The turbine rotor then extracts work from the flow by removing the kinetic
energy associated with the swirl velocity.
 Figure 12.8: Schematic of an axial flow turbine.

The appropriate velocity triangles are shown in Figure 12.9, where again the axial
velocity was assumed to be constant for purposes of illustration. As we did for the
compressor, we can write the Euler Turbine Equation in terms of useful design
variables:

Figure 12.9: Velocity triangles for an axial flow turbine stage.