2.

3 Brayton Cycle: The Ideal Cycle For Gas-Turbine Engines

The Brayton cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the workings of a constant pressure heat engine. Gas turbine engines and air breathing jet engines use the Brayton Cycle. Although the Brayton cycle is usually run as an open system (and indeed must be run as such if internal combustion is used), it is conventionally assumed for the purposes of thermodynamic analysis that the exhaust gases are reused in the intake, enabling analysis as a closed system.

Figure: Open-cycle gas-turbine engine.

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 chamber, where the fuel is burned at constant pressure. The resulting high-temperature gases then enter the turbine, where they expand to the atmospheric pressure while producing power. The exhaust gases leaving the turbine are thrown out (not recirculate), causing the cycle to be classified as an open cycle.

The open gas-turbine cycle described above can be modeled as a closed cycle by utilizing the air-standard assumptions. Here 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 heatrejection process to the ambient air.

Figure: Closed-cycle gas-turbine engine.

Figure: T-s diagram and P-v diagram

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 2-3 3-4 4-1 Isentropic compression (in a compressor) Constant-pressure heat addition Isentropic expansion (in a turbine) Constant-pressure heat rejection

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. This also limits the pressure ratios that can be used in the cycle. 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 two major application areas of gas-turbine engines are aircraft propulsion and electric power generation. When it is used for aircraft propulsion, the gas turbine produces just enough power to drive the compressor and a small generator to power the auxiliary equipment. The highvelocity exhaust gases are responsible for producing the necessary thrust to propel the aircraft

2.4 Rankine Cycle: The Ideal Cycle For Vapor Power Cycles Many of the impracticalities associated with the Carnot cycle can be eliminated by superheating the steam in the boiler and condensing it completely in the condenser. The cycle that results is the Rankine cycle, which is the ideal cycle for vapor power plants. The ideal Rankine cycle does not involve any internal irreversibilitys and consists of the following four processes:

1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1

Isentropic compression in a pump Constant pressure heat addition in a boiler Isentropic expansion in a turbine Constant pressure heat rejection in a condenser

Figure: Simple ideal Rankine cycle.

There are four processes in the Rankine cycle. These states are identified by numbers (in brown) in the above Ts diagram.

Process 1-2: The working fluid is pumped from low to high pressure. As the fluid is a liquid at this stage the pump requires little input energy.

Process 2-3: The high pressure liquid enters a boiler where it is heated at constant pressure by an external heat source to become a dry saturated vapor. The input energy required can be easily calculated using mollier diagram or h-s chart or enthalpy-entropy chart also known as steam tables.

Process 3-4: The dry saturated vapor expands through a turbine, generating power. This decreases the temperature and pressure of the vapor, and some condensation may occur. The output in this process can be easily calculated using the Enthalpy-entropy chart or the steam tables.

Process 4-1: The wet vapor then enters a condenser where it is condensed at a constant pressure to become a saturated liquid.

In an ideal Rankine cycle the pump and turbine would be isentropic, i.e., the pump and turbine would generate no entropy and hence maximize the net work output. Processes 1-2 and 3-4 would be represented by vertical lines on the T-S diagram and more closely resemble that of the Carnot cycle. The Rankine cycle shown here prevents the vapor ending up in the superheat region after the expansion in the turbine,which reduces the energy removed by the condensers.