Brayton Cycle - Methods To Increase Power

Methods To Increase Power

The power output of a Brayton engine can be improved in the following manners:

  • Reheat, wherein the working fluid—in most cases air—expands through a series of turbines, then is passed through a second combustion chamber before expanding to ambient pressure through a final set of turbines. This has the advantage of increasing the power output possible for a given compression ratio without exceeding any metallurgical constraints (typically about 1000 °C). The use of an afterburner for jet aircraft engines can also be referred to as "reheat"; it is a different process in that the reheated air is expanded through a thrust nozzle rather than a turbine. The metallurgical constraints are somewhat alleviated, enabling much higher reheat temperatures (about 2000 °C). Reheat is most often used to improve the specific power (per throughput of air), and is usually associated with a drop in efficiency, this effect is especially pronounced in afterburners due to the extreme amounts of extra fuel used.
  • Overspray, wherein, after a first compressor stage, water is injected into the compressor, thus increasing the mass-flow inside the compressor, increasing the turbine output power significantly and reducing compressor outlet temperatures. In a second compressor stage the water is completely converted to a gas form, offering some intercooling via its latent heat of vaporization.

Read more about this topic:  Brayton Cycle

Famous quotes containing the words methods, increase and/or power:

    If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself.... If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.
    Mao Zedong (1893–1976)

    Official dignity tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires ...
    June Jordan (b. 1936)