Gas Powered Cycles

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THE GAS POWERED CYCLE
• Cycles that uses air as the working fluid.
• classified into 2 main groups
• Gas turbine engines
• Internal combustion engines(I.C.E.)
Air Standard Cycle assumptions
• The working fluid is all air, which behaves as an ideal gas.
• All processes in the cycle are internally reversible.
• Heat-addition process is from an external source. (In actual
cycle is through combustion.)
• Heat-rejection process restores the working fluid to its initial
state. (In actual process is through the exhaust process.)

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Gas Turbine Engine
• The ideal air standard cycle for gas turbine is known as
• the Joule Cycle or
• Brayton Cycle or
• Constant pressure cycle.
• Usually of the Open Cycle type

• heat-addition process is from an

external source at constant-pressure
• the heat-rejection process is a
constant-pressure process to the
ambient air.
1-2 Isentropic compression (in a
compressor)
2-3 Constant-pressure heat addition
3-4 Isentropic expansion (in a turbine)
4-1 Constant-pressure heat rejection
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 The efficiency of a gas turbine

Then 4
Recall
For an adiabatic & isentropic process
RT
pv = constant
k
and pv = RT ∴p= v
Thus
RT k
v = constant gives Tv k −1 = constant
v
For process 1 to 2 k −1
k −1 k −1 T2 ⎛ v1 ⎞
T1v1 = T2v2 leads to = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
T1 ⎝ v2 ⎠
By the same reasoning, relating T and p
k −1
T2 ⎛ p2 ⎞ k
= ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
T1 ⎝ p1 ⎠ 5
Thus, for isentropic compression(1→2) and expansion(3→4)

We define the pressure ratio,

T2 = T1 (rp )
k −1
T3 = T4 (rp )
k −1
Then, k and, k

Then the ideal Brayton cycle efficiency is simplified to…..

** a criteria of performance

wc (h2 − h1 ) C p (T2 − T1 )
Also, the back work ratio(bwr), bwr = = =
wt (h3 − h4 ) C p (T3 − T4 ) 6

** bwr for a gas turbine cycle is nearly 50% of the turbine work
• k (specific heat ratio) is taken as constant throughout for air.
The thermal efficiency then depends totally on the pressure
ratio.
• The highest temperature in the cycle is at end of the
combustion process.
• It is only limited by the metalurgical limit of the blade material.
• The net work increases with the pressure ratio to a maximum
then falls back

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Deviation of the Actual Gas Turbine Cycle

As a result of
• pressure drops
• Irreversibilities in turbine and compressors
• heat losses

Isentropic efficiency of the compressor

Isentropic efficiency of the compressor

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Why gas turbine is widely used?(Advantages)
• High power to weight ratio as used in aircraft powerplant.
• Quick start operation ( as in power generation)
• Can be operated on liquid or gaseous fuel
• Can be coupled with a vapour power cycle for greater thermal
efficiency (Combined cycle). Refer to page 597.

Disadvantages
• low thermal efficiency.
• High startup cost in power generation industry
• High maintenance cost

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Cycle Modifications
1. Regeneration
• the temperature of the turbine exhaust gas is much higher than
the temperature of the compressed air leaving the compressor.
• the high-pressured air can be heated by the hot exhaust gases
in a counter-flow heat exchanger (a regenerator.)
• The ηth of the Brayton cycle increases due to regeneration
since less fuel is used for the same work output.

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When Cp air~Cp gas
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2. Multistage Compression With Intercooling
• to reduce the work input at the compressor.
• achieved through multistage compression with inter-cooling in
between

How work input is reduced ?

• (1AC) single-stage compression
• (1B) is the theoritical
compression and instantaneous
cooling (practically impossible)
• (1ABD) a two-stage
compression with intercooling

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On a T-s diagram (at the compression end)

• pressure 2-3 is known as

intercooling presure / intermediate
pressure
• for minimum wcomp then ideally
T1=T3
• total wcomp is now smaller
• wcomp=w12 + w34

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3. Multistage Expansion With Reheating
• compressed air is supplied in excess amount, more than
required for combustion.
• Excess air is used to burn extra fuel in a reheat combustion
chamber (RCC) raising the energy for the second stage
expansion in turbine
• Extra wturbine is produced.

The cycle now is…

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On a T-s diagram

• pressure 7-8 is the

intermediate presure
P6 P8
• for max wturb then P = P
7 9

• total wturbine is now larger

• wturbine=w67 + w89

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