Comparative study of steam injection effects on operation of gas turbine cycles
In the present work, gas turbine cycles are modified with steam injection between the combustion chamber exit and the gas turbine inlet. Heat recovery steam generators, utilising the exhaust gases, provide these cycles with the injected steam at saturated vapour. The irreversibility of the different composing units of the cycles and the variation of gas properties owing to steam injection as well as changes in the interrelation of component performance parameters are taken into account. The isentropic temperature ratio and maximum to minimum cycle temperature ratio are varied over some ranges that slightly exceed their practically acceptable bounds in order to comprehensively investigate their effects on cycle characteristics. At the chosen values of the operating parameters, the enhancement achieved in the overall efficiency for the simple, reheat (with steam injection at high and low pressures) and partial oxidation (with steam injection at high and low pressures) gas turbine cycles are of about 20∼30%, 120∼200%, 10∼12%, 120∼260%, 20% respectively. The present modified cycles technique can be considered among the possible ways to improve the performance of gas turbine cycles-based power plants at feasible costs.
Advanced power cycles with mixture as the working fluid
The world demand for electrical power increasescontinuously, requiring efficient and low-cost methods forpower generation. This thesis investigates two advanced powercycles with mixtures as the working fluid: the Kalina cycle,alternatively called the ammonia-water cycle, and theevaporative gas turbine cycle. These cycles have the potentialof improved performance regarding electrical efficiency,specific power output, specific investment cost and cost ofelectricity compared with the conventional technology, sincethe mixture working fluids enable efficient energyrecovery.This thesis shows that the ammonia-water cycle has a betterthermodynamic performance than the steam Rankine cycle as abottoming process for natural gas-fired gas and gas-dieselengines, since the majority of the ammonia-water cycleconfigurations investigated generated more power than steamcycles. The best ammonia-water cycle produced approximately40-50 % more power than a single-pressure steam cycle and 20-24% more power than a dual-pressure steam cycle. The investmentcost for an ammonia-water bottoming cycle is probably higherthan for a steam cycle; however, the specific investment costmay be lower due to the higher power output.A comparison between combined cycles with ammonia-waterbottoming processes and evaporative gas turbine cycles showedthat the ammonia-water cycle could recover the exhaust gasenergy of a high pressure ratio gas turbine more efficientlythan a part-flow evaporative gas turbine cycle. For a mediumpressure ratio gas turbine, the situation was the opposite,except when a complex ammonia-water cycle configuration withreheat was used. An exergy analysis showed that evaporativecycles with part-flow humidification could recover energy asefficiently as, or more efficiently than, full-flow cycles. Aneconomic analysis confirmed that the specific investment costfor part-flow cycles was lower than for full-flow cycles, sincepart-flow humidification reduces the heat exchanger area andhumidification tower volume. In addition, the part-flow cycleshad lower or similar costs of electricity compared with thefull-flow cycles. Compared with combined cycles, the part-flowevaporative cycles had significantly lower total and specificinvestment costs and lower or almost equal costs ofelectricity; thus, part-flow evaporative cycles could competewith the combined cycle for mid-size power generation.Keywords:power cycle, mixture working fluid, Kalinacycle, ammonia-water mixture, reciprocating internal combustionengine, bottoming cycle, gas turbine, evaporative gas turbine,air-water mixture, exergy
Knocking in an Internal-Combustion Engine
The question remains open of the relation between the phenomena of knocking in the engine and the explosion wave. The solution of this problem is the object of this paper. The tests were conducted on an aircraft engine with a pyrex glass window in the cylinder head. Photographs were then taken of various combinations of fuels and conditions.