ME-460

Gas Turbines
(Elective Course)
Fall-2020

31 October 2020 Lecture by Asst. Prof. NAEEM 1

REFERENCE BOOK:

Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach (7th Ed.)

Yunus A. Cengel, Michael A. Boles
McGraw-Hill

Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle

The Brayton Cycle

Art: 9-8
Page 503
 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• Gas turbines are described thermodynamically by the
Brayton cycle
• In this cycle both the compression and expansion
processes take place in rotating machinery
• Gas turbines usually operate on an open cycle, as
shown:

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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• In Brayton cycle:
1. air is compressed isentropically by compressor
2. combustion occurs at constant pressure
3. heated air expands through the turbine
4. heat is rejected into the atmosphere

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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• The open gas-turbine cycle can be modeled as a closed
cycle using the air-standard assumptions.

This closed loop Brayton cycle is made up of four internally

reversible processes:

• 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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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
When the changes in kinetic and potential
energies are neglected, the energy balance
for a steady-flow process can be expressed,
on a unit mass basis, as:

Heat transfers to and from the working fluid are:

Thus the thermal efficiency of the ideal Brayton cycle under

the cold-air standard assumptions is:

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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
Consider the T-s diagram.
Note that processes 1-2 and 3-4
are isentropic, and also P2 = P3
and P4 = P1, thus:

T4 T3
Such that T1T3  T2T4  
T1 T2
 T1   1 

Also  1    1  k 1 
 T2   P2 P1  k 
Hence if the pressure ratio P2 / P1 = rp,
the thermal efficiency of the cycle can
be expressed as:
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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• The efficiency relation shows that under the cold-air-
standard assumptions, the thermal efficiency of an ideal
Brayton cycle depends on:
• the pressure ratio of the
gas turbine
• specific heat ratio of the
working fluid
• The thermal efficiency
increases with both of these
parameters.
• This is also the case for
actual gas turbines.

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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• The highest temperature in the cycle
occurs at the end of the combustion
process (state 3)
• It is limited by the maximum
temperature that the turbine blades
can withstand.
• This also limits the pressure ratios
that can be used in the cycle.
• For a fixed TIT (Turbine Inlet Temperature)
T3, the net work output per cycle:
• increases with the pressure ratio
• reaches a maximum
• then starts to decrease

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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• Therefore, there should be a compromise between the
pressure ratio (thus the thermal efficiency) and the net work
output.
• With less work output per cycle, a larger mass flow rate
(thus a larger system) is needed to maintain the same
power output, which may not be economical.
• In most common designs, the pressure ratio of gas
turbines ranges from about 11 to 16.
• The air in gas turbines performs two functions:
• It supplies necessary oxidant for the combustion process
• It serves as a coolant to keep the temperature of various
components within safe limits.

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 Ideal Gas Turbine Cycle
• In gas turbines, an air–fuel mass ratio of 50 or above is very
common.
• In a cycle analysis combustion gases can be treated as air
• Also, since (mass of fuel << mass of air), one can assume a
constant mass flow rate throughout the cycle.
• Back work ratio is very high; usually more than one-half of the
turbine work output is used to drive the compressor.
• Hence a Gas Turbine power plant requires a larger turbine to
provide the additional power requirements of the compressor.
• Therefore, the turbines used in gas-turbine power plants are
larger than those used in steam power plants of the same net
power output.

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 Deviation of Actual Gas-Turbine Cycles from
Idealized Ones
• In actual plants pressure drops during heat transfer process
and also due to irreversibilities:
• the actual work input to the compressor is more
• the actual work output from the turbine is less
• This deviation can be accurately accounted for by utilizing the
isentropic efficiencies of the turbine and compressor.

• Isentropic efficiencies of the compressor

and turbine are defined as:

and

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REFERENCE BOOK:

Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach (7th Ed.)

Yunus A. Cengel, Michael A. Boles
McGraw-Hill

Gas Turbine Cycle

Performance Improvement

Art: 9-9 & 9-10

Page 510  513
 Brayton Cycle With Regeneration
• In gas-turbine engines, the temperature of the exhaust gas
leaving the turbine is considerably high.
• Thus the high-pressure air leaving the compressor can be
heated by transferring heat to it from the hot exhaust gases in
a counter-flow heat exchanger.
• The heat exchanger is termed as regenerator or a recuperator,
whereas this process is called the Regeneration.

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 Brayton Cycle With Regeneration
• The thermal efficiency of the
Brayton cycle increases as a result
of regeneration as air entering the
combustion gets pre-heated.
• This, in turn, decreases the heat
input (thus fuel) requirements for
the same net work output.
• From the T-s diagram note that the
highest temperature occurring
within the regenerator is T4 (from
turbine exit)
Under ideal case (perfect regenerator) air temperature at exit of
the regenerator may also be considered as T4 (no loss).
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 Brayton Cycle With Regeneration
• The actual and maximum heat
transfers from the exhaust gases to
the air can be expressed as:

and

• The extent to which a regenerator

approaches an ideal regenerator is
called the effectiveness () and is
defined as:

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 Brayton Cycle With Regeneration
• Under the cold-air-standard assumptions, the effectiveness
can be expressed as:

• Note that use of a regenerator with a very high effectiveness

requires a big regenerator and more cost.
• This cannot be justified economically unless the savings from
the fuel costs exceed the additional expenses involved.
• The effectiveness of most regenerators used in practice is
below 0.85.

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 Brayton Cycle With Regeneration
• Under the cold-air-standard
assumptions, the thermal
efficiency of an ideal Brayton
cycle with regeneration is:

• The plot shows that regeneration

is most effective at:
– lower pressure ratios and
– low minimum-to-maximum
temperature ratios (T1/T3).

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• Remember that the steady-flow
compression or expansion work is
proportional to the specific volume of
the fluid, i.e.


wSF  vdP  area to the left of P - v diagram
• Therefore, the specific volume of the
working fluid should be as low as
From the above plot, note
possible during a compression process that the adiabatic
and as high as possible during an compression requires the
expansion process. maximum work and the
isothermal compression
• This is precisely what intercooling and requires the minimum.
reheating accomplish.
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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• Note that: Wnet, cycle = (WT – Wc)
• Thus the net work of a gas-
turbine cycle can be increased by
either decreasing the compressor
work or increasing the turbine
work, or both.
• The work required to compress a
gas between two specified
pressures can be decreased by
using multistage compression
with intercooling.

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• As the number of stages is increased, the
compression process becomes nearly isothermal at
the compressor inlet temperature, and the
compression work decreases.
• Similarly, the work output of a turbine operating
between two pressure levels can be increased by
utilizing multistage expansion with reheating even
without raising the maximum temperature in the
cycle.

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• The working fluid leaves the compressor at a lower
temperature, and the turbine at a higher
temperature, when intercooling and reheating are
utilized.
• As such, the gases leaving the compressor can be
heated to a higher temperature before they enter
the combustion chamber because of the higher
temperature of the turbine exhaust.
• This lowers the primary heat input requirement in
the combustion chamber (Qin is saved)

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
The schematic and T-s diagrams of the cycle are shown:

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• The cycle proceeds as follows:
– The gas enters the first stage of
the compressor at state 1
– compressed isentropically to an
intermediate pressure P2.
– cooled at constant pressure to
state 3 (T3 = T1)
– compressed in the second stage
isentropically to the final pressure
P4.
– At state 4 the gas enters the regenerator, where it is heated
to T5 at constant pressure.

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• In an ideal regenerator, the gas
leaves the regenerator at the
temperature of the turbine
exhaust, such that T5 = T9.
• The primary heat addition process
takes place between states 5 and 6.
• The gas enters the first stage of the
turbine at state 6 and expands
isentropically to state 7.
• It is reheated at constant pressure to state 8 such that (T8 = T6),
where it enters the second stage of the turbine.

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• The gas exits the turbine at state 9
and enters the regenerator, where
it is cooled to state 10 at constant
pressure.
• The cycle is completed by cooling
the gas to the initial state.
• Note that the work input to a two-
stage compressor is minimized
when equal pressure ratios are
maintained across each stage.
• Note that this procedure also maximizes the turbine work
output.

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• Thus, for best performance we
have:

• For analyzing actual cycles,

irreversibilities in the system must
be considered.
• Note that for this cycle:
• The back-work ratio always improves.
• However, it may not be true for thermal efficiency.
• Rather intercooling and reheating always decrease the thermal
efficiency unless they are accompanied by regeneration.

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 Brayton Cycle With Intercooling,
Reheating and Regeneration
• Reason:
– intercooling decreases the average temperature at which
heat is added, and
– reheating increases the average temperature at which heat
is rejected.
• Therefore, in gas turbine power plants, intercooling
and reheating are always used in conjunction with
regeneration.

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 End of Lecture

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