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Steam turbine, since the beginning of its career arvurlti t,llc turn
of the nineteenth century, has becorne the most important prime
mover for power generation and a widely used power plant for marine
application. However, it has an inherent disadvantage of the need to
produce high pressure, high temperature steam. This involves the
installation of a bulky and expensive steam generating equipment,,
a boiler or a nuclear reactor. The hot gases produced in the boiler
furnace or reactor core never reach the turbine. They merely are
used t o produce an intermediate working fluid, namely steam.
Clearly, a much more cornpact power plant results when the water
to steam step is eliminated a,nd the hot gases tl.lemselves are used
to drive the turbine. Diesel piston engines started replacing bulky
stearn power plant,s for power generation. Gasoline engines were
used in early days for aircraft propulsion. A device known as the gas
turbine came into existence to a limited extent in certain types of
superchargers used with piston engines.
The earliest patent on gas turbine was that of the Englishman,
John Barber, in 1879. Early designs were unsuccessful, largely due
to two factors:
1.2
Fuel
Combustion chamber
Air
Products of combustion
Compressor
Turbine
Fig. 1.1 A simple gas turbine
clit,io~l;~lly
fitted. 'L'llc~sc.rc~li~lr~~rrc~rrts
arc used to increase the power
oulp~itand efficiency of the plant at the expelrse of added complexity, weight and cost. The way these conrponents are added not only
affects the maximum overall thermal efficiency but also the variation
of thermal efficiency. Each arrangement is to be chosen depending
on its suitability for a given application.
Thus, it is seen that a simple gas turbine consists mainly of three
components. Of the three, two are rotating machines and the third
one is a heat addition device. However, more complex system is possible with the addition of auxiliary devices such as heat exchanger,
intercooler and reheater. In order to understand the working principle and cycle arrangements one slrould first have some fundamental
knowledge of rotating machines. This will be taken up in Chapter 3
after the review of some basic principles in Chapter 2.
Review Questions
REVIEW OF BASIC
PRINCIPLES
2.1
INTRODUCTION
2.2
DEFINITIONS A N D LAWS
I3chLi)rcl disc.ussing the various aero-thermodynamic aspects of com1)rc'ssors i~n(lt,urhincs, let us review some important definitions used
i l l I,II(> ~ L I I ~ L ~ Y
ofS ~c:omprcssible
S
flow useful for rotating machines.
Ilowovc~r,ttio rciltlclr. is advisccl to refer t,o standard text books on
t,tic~i~ino(lyti~~
1111~1
. t ~ ~fli~icl
i ( ' ~ clyr1t~n1ic.s
for 111or(\(lc~t,:~ils.