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:
“All good conversation, manners, and action, come from a spontaneity which forgets usages, and makes the moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods are saltatory and impulsive.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The personal touch between the people and the man to whom they temporarily delegated power of course conduces to a better understanding between them. Moreover, I ought not to omit to mention as a useful result of my journeying that I am to visit a great many expositions and fairs, and that the curiosity to see the President will certainly increase the box receipts and tend to rescue many commendable enterprises from financial disaster.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“In night when colours all to black are cast,
Distinction lost, or gone down with the light;
The eye—a watch to inward senses placed,
Not seeing, yet still having power of sight—
Gives vain alarums to the inward sense”
—Fulke Greville (1554–1628)