Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
BRAYTON CYCLE: THE IDEAL CYCLE FOR
GAS-TURBINE ENGINES
Gas turbine
The two major application areas
of the gas turbines are:
1) Aircraft propulsion
2) Electric power generation
The gas turbine used in conjunction
with steam turbines to produce
electric energy. It serves as the heat
source for the steam.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 1
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
BRAYTON CYCLE: THE IDEAL CYCLE FOR
GAS-TURBINE ENGINES
Types
Gas turbines usually operate on an open cycle. Fresh
air at ambient conditions is drawn into the compressor,
where its temperature and pressure are raised.
The high pressure air proceeds into the combustion An open-cycle gas-turbine engine
chamber, where the fuel is burned at constant pressure.
For closed type, the compression and expansion
processes remain the same, but the combustion process
is replaced by a constant-pressure heat-addition
process from an external source, and the exhaust
process is replaced by a constant pressure heat-
rejection process to the ambient air.
A closed-cycle gas-turbine engine
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 2
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
IDEAL BRAYTON CYCLE
Cycle description
The ideal cycle that the working fluid undergoes in
this closed loop is the Brayton cycle, which 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
In gas turbine power plants the ratio
between the compressor work to the
turbine work is called the Back Work
Ratio (BWR)
BWR= Wc/Wt
Usually ½ of the turbine output work
used to drive the compressor
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
IDEAL BRAYTON CYCLE
Cycle Analysis
Assumptions
1) Steady flow
2) Neglect potential and kinetic energies
Energy balance
Heat transfers to and from the working fluid are
the thermal efficiency of the ideal Brayton cycle under the cold-
airstandard assumptions becomes
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 4
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
IDEAL BRAYTON CYCLE
Cycle Analysis
Processes 1-2 and 3-4 are isentropic, and
P2 =P3 and P4 =P1. Thus,
Substituting these equations into the thermal efficiency
relation and simplifying give
In most common designs, the pressure ratio of gas turbines
ranges from about 11 to 16.
k is the specific heat ratio=1.4 for air
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 5
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
IDEAL BRAYTON CYCLE
Cycle Analysis
The highest temperature in the cycle occurs at the
end of the combustion process (state 3), and it is
limited by the maximum temperature that the
turbine blades can withstand
For fixed values of Tmin and Tmax, the net work of
the Brayton cycle first increases with the pressure
ratio, then reaches a maximum at
and finally decreases.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 6
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
IDEAL BRAYTON CYCLE
Deviation of Actual Gas-Turbine Cycles from Idealized Ones
Some pressure drop during the heat-
addition and heat rejection processes is
inevitable. More importantly, the actual
work input to the compressor is more, and
the actual work output from the turbine is
less because of irreversibilities.
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Example
A gas-turbine power plant operating on an ideal Brayton cycle has a pressure ratio of 8.
The gas temperature is 300 K at the compressor inlet and 1300 K at the turbine inlet.
Utilizing the air-standard assumptions, determine (a) the gas temperature at the exits of
the compressor and the turbine, (b) the back work ratio, and (c) the thermal efficiency.
Assumptions
1) Steady operating conditions exist.
2) The air-standard assumptions are applicable.
3) Kinetic and potential energy changes are negligible.
4) The variation of specific heats with temperature is to
be considered.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 8
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Relative pressure Pr is defined as the quantity exp(s°/R) and is a dimensionless quantity that is a
function of temperature only since s° depends on temperature alone. Relative pressure is used to
relate the ratio of final to initial pressure in isentropic processes of ideal gases where variable specific
heats are required.
Relative specific volume vr is defined as the quantity T/Pr and is a function of temperature only. Pr
is the relative pressure. Relative specific volume is used to relate the ratio of final to initial volume in
isentropic processes of ideal gases where variable specific heats are required.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 9
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
solution
(a) The air temperatures at the compressor and turbine exits
are determined from isentropic relations:
Process 1-2 (isentropic compression of an ideal gas):
Process 3-4 (isentropic expansion of an ideal gas):
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 10
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
solution
(b) To find the back work ratio, we need to find the work
input to the compressor and the work output of the turbine:
(c) The thermal efficiency of the cycle is the ratio of
the net power output to the total heat input:
which is sufficiently close to the value obtained by accounting for the variation of
specific heats with temperature
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 11
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
1) Increasing the turbine inlet temperature (firing temperature)
2) Increasing the efficiencies of the turbomachinary components
(compressor & turbine)
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
a. Brayton cycle with reheat
b. Brayton cycle with regeneration
c. Brayton cycle with intercooling
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 12
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
1) Increasing the turbine inlet temperature (firing temperature)
The turbine inlet temperatures have increased steadily from about 540°C in the
1940s to 1425°C and even higher today
The increase was available after the development of new materials and the
innovative cooling techniques for the critical components such as coating the
turbine blades with ceramic layers and cooling the blades with the discharge air
from the compressor
higher combustion temperatures increase the amount of nitrogen oxides (NOx),
which are responsible for the formation of ozone at ground level and smog
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 13
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
2) Increasing the efficiencies of the turbomachinary components
(compressor & turbine)
The performance of early turbines suffered
greatly from the inefficiencies of turbines and
compressors. However, the advent of computers
and advanced techniques for computer-aided
design made it possible to design these
components aerodynamically with minimal
losses.
The increased efficiencies of the turbines and
compressors resulted in a significant increase in
the cycle efficiency.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 14
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
a. Brayton cycle with reheat
T3 is limited due to metallurgical constraints excess air is extracted and fed
into a second stage combustor and turbine
turbine outlet temperature is increased with reheat (T6 > T4), therefore
potential for regeneration is enhanced
when reheat and regeneration are used together the thermal efficiency can
increase significantly
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 15
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
a. Brayton cycle with reheat
The optimum reheat pressure 𝑃 4 = 𝑃3 𝑃6
𝑃3 𝑃5
Or the pressure ratio across the two turbines are equal to =
𝑃4 𝑃6
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 16
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
b. Brayton cycle with regeneration
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, which is
also known as a regenerator or a
recuperator.
The thermal efficiency of the Brayton
cycle increases as a result of regeneration
since the portion of energy of the exhaust
gases that is normally rejected to the
surroundings is now used to preheat the
air entering the combustion chamber.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 17
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
b. Brayton cycle with regeneration
Air normally leaves the regenerator at a lower
temperature, T5. In the limiting (ideal) case, the
air exits the regenerator at the inlet temperature of
the exhaust gases T4.
Assumptions:
the regenerator is well insulated
changes in kinetic and potential energies are
negligible
the effectiveness ε and is defined as The
extent to which a regenerator approaches an
ideal regenerator If Air is
used
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 18
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
b. Brayton cycle with regeneration
The use of a regenerator with a very high effectiveness
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.
Under the cold-air-standard assumptions, the thermal
efficiency of an ideal Brayton cycle with regeneration is:
Better with Better without
regeneration regeneration
This figure shows that regeneration is most effective at
lower pressure ratios and low minimum-to-maximum
temperature ratios. Thermal efficiency of the ideal Brayton
cycle with and without regeneration.
Mechanical Power Engineering Department Dr. Ramy Shaltout 19
Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
Improvements of Gas Turbine
3) Adding modifications to the basic cycle
c. Brayton cycle with intercooling
The work required to compress in a steady flow device
can be reduced by compressing in stages cooling the
gas reduces the specific volume and in turn the work
required for compression
Compression with intercooling does not provide a
significant increase in the efficiency of a gas turbine
because the temperature at the combustor inlet would
require additional heat transfer to achieve the desired
turbine inlet temperature
The lower temperature at the compressor exit
enhances the potential for regeneration i.e. a larger ΔT
across the heat exchanger
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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Applied of Thermodynamics-2nd year
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