Paper 7: Gas Turbine/Electric Cars in Commuter Service

Author(s):  
W. J. Ronan

The rapid growth of metropolitan areas has created the need for high-speed commuter services around the world. The locomotive-hauled train cannot provide the rapid acceleration and fast braking required to move increasing numbers of people over commutation distances. It is being replaced by the self-propelled or ‘multiple unit’ car. This paper describes research carried out by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York, to develop high-speed equipment for commuter services, and deals firstly with electric cars and secondly with a dual powered car taking power from a third rail and also powered by gas turbines. The tests carried out are described and conclusions reached are stated.

Author(s):  
Patrick Nau ◽  
Zhiyao Yin ◽  
Oliver Lammel ◽  
Wolfgang Meier

Phosphor thermometry has been developed for wall temperature measurements in gas turbines and gas turbine model combustors. An array of phosphors has been examined in detail for spatially and temporally resolved surface temperature measurements. Two examples are provided, one at high pressure (8 bar) and high temperature and one at atmospheric pressure with high time resolution. To study the feasibility of this technique for full-scale gas turbine applications, a high momentum confined jet combustor at 8 bar was used. Successful measurements up to 1700 K on a ceramic surface are shown with good accuracy. In the same combustor, temperatures on the combustor quartz walls were measured, which can be used as boundary conditions for numerical simulations. An atmospheric swirl-stabilized flame was used to study transient temperature changes on the bluff body. For this purpose, a high-speed setup (1 kHz) was used to measure the wall temperatures at an operating condition where the flame switches between being attached (M-flame) and being lifted (V-flame) (bistable). The influence of a precessing vortex core (PVC) present during M-flame periods is identified on the bluff body tip, but not at positions further inside the nozzle.


Author(s):  
Dominik Ebi ◽  
Peter Jansohn

Abstract Operating stationary gas turbines on hydrogen-rich fuels offers a pathway to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the power generation sector. A key challenge in the design of lean-premixed burners, which are flexible in terms of the amount of hydrogen in the fuel across a wide range and still adhere to the required emissions levels, is to prevent flame flashback. However, systematic investigations on flashback at gas turbine relevant conditions to support combustor development are sparse. The current work addresses the need for an improved understanding with an experimental study on boundary layer flashback in a generic swirl burner up to 7.5 bar and 300° C preheat temperature. Methane-hydrogen-air flames with 50 to 85% hydrogen by volume were investigated. High-speed imaging was applied to reveal the flame propagation pathway during flashback events. Flashback limits are reported in terms of the equivalence ratio for a given pressure, preheat temperature, bulk flow velocity and hydrogen content. The wall temperature of the center body along which the flame propagated during flashback events has been controlled by an oil heating/cooling system. This way, the effect any of the control parameters, e.g. pressure, had on the flashback limit was de-coupled from the otherwise inherently associated change in heat load on the wall and thus change in wall temperature. The results show that the preheat temperature has a weaker effect on the flashback propensity than expected. Increasing the pressure from atmospheric conditions to 2.5 bar strongly increases the flashback risk, but hardly affects the flashback limit beyond 2.5 bar.


Author(s):  
Wyatt Culler ◽  
Janith Samarasinghe ◽  
Bryan D. Quay ◽  
Domenic A. Santavicca ◽  
Jacqueline O’Connor

Combustion instability in gas turbines can be mitigated using active techniques or passive techniques, but passive techniques are almost exclusively used in industrial settings. While fuel staging, a common passive technique, is effective in reducing the amplitude of self-excited instabilities in gas turbine combustors at steady-state conditions, the effect of transients in fuel staging on self-excited instabilities is not well understood. This paper examines the effect of fuel staging transients on a laboratory-scale five-nozzle can combustor undergoing self-excited instabilities. The five nozzles are arranged in a four-around-one configuration and fuel staging is accomplished by increasing the center nozzle equivalence ratio. When the global equivalence ratio is φ = 0.70 and all nozzles are fueled equally, the combustor undergoes self-excited oscillations. These oscillations are suppressed when the center nozzle equivalence ratio is increased to φ = 0.80 or φ = 0.85. Two transient staging schedules are used, resulting in transitions from unstable to stable operation, and vice-versa. It is found that the characteristic instability decay times are dependent on the amount of fuel staging in the center nozzle. It is also found that the decay time constants differ from the growth time constants, indicating hysteresis in stability transition points. High speed CH* chemiluminescence images in combination with dynamic pressure measurements are used to determine the instantaneous phase difference between the heat release rate fluctuation and the combustor pressure fluctuation throughout the combustor. This analysis shows that the instability onset process is different from the instability decay process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zygfryd Domachowski ◽  
Marek Dzida

Abstract The use of inlet air fogging installation to boost the power for gas turbine engines is widely applied in the power generation sector. The application of fogging to mechanical drive is rarely considered in literature [1]. This paper will cover some considerations relating to its application for gas turbines in ship drive. There is an important evaporative cooling potential throughout the world, when the dynamic data is evaluated, based on an analysis of coincident wet and dry bulb information. This data will allow ships’ gas turbine operators to make an assessment of the economics of evaporative fogging. The paper represents an introduction to the methodology and data analysis to derive the direct evaporative cooling potential to be used in marine gas turbine power output loss compensation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Matthews ◽  
Anna Cobb ◽  
Subodh Adhikari ◽  
David Wu ◽  
Tim Lieuwen ◽  
...  

Abstract Understanding thermoacoustic instabilities is essential for the reliable operation of gas turbine engines. To complicate this understanding, the extreme sensitivity of gas turbine combustors can lead to instability characteristics that differ across a fleet. The capability to monitor flame transfer functions in fielded engines would provide valuable data to improve this understanding and aid in gas turbine operability from R&D to field tuning. This paper presents a new experimental facility used to analyze performance of full-scale gas turbine fuel injector hardware at elevated pressure and temperature. It features a liquid cooled, fiber-coupled probe that provides direct optical access to the heat release zone for high-speed chemiluminescence measurements. The probe was designed with fielded applications in mind. In addition, the combustion chamber includes an acoustic sensor array and a large objective window for verification of the probe using high-speed chemiluminescence imaging. This work experimentally demonstrates the new setup under scaled engine conditions, with a focus on operational zones that yield interesting acoustic tones. Results include a demonstration of the probe, preliminary analysis of acoustic and high speed chemiluminescence data, and high speed chemiluminescence imaging. The novelty of this paper is the deployment of a new test platform that incorporates full-scale engine hardware and provides the ability to directly compare acoustic and heat release response in a high-temperature, high-pressure environment to determine the flame transfer functions. This work is a stepping-stone towards the development of an on-line flame transfer function measurement technique for production engines in the field.


Prima Donna ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 89-118
Author(s):  
Paul Wink

This chapter, “An Athenian Interlude,” analyzes a major turning point in Callas’s life associated with her move, at age thirteen, from New York City to Athens. In Athens, she experienced poverty, personal humiliation, and, during the World War II years, threats to her life. But her singing benefited from the strong mentorship she received from Elvira de Hidalgo, which helped launch her operatic career. Callas’s success as a singer with the Greek National Opera fueled resentment among her older and more established colleagues who envied her talent and resented being dethroned by a mere teenager who spoke Greek with an American accent. Poverty and conflicted relations at home with her mother and sister failed to compensate Callas for hostility at work. A significant gain in weight further undermined her self-confidence. Her experiences during the seven years spent in Athens exacerbated the split between Callas, the self-assured artist, and Maria, the vulnerable young woman.


Author(s):  
R. P. op het Veld ◽  
J. P. van Buijtenen

This paper investigates the layout and achievable efficiencies of rotating components of a Helium gas turbine. This is done by making a preliminary design of the compressor and turbine needed for the power conversion in a combined heat and power plant with a 40 MWth nuclear high temperature reactor as a heat source. State of the art efficiency values of air breathing gas turbines are used for the first calculations. The efficiency level is corrected by comparing various dimensionless data of the Helium turbomachine with an air gas turbine of similar dimensions. A single shaft configuration with a high speed axial turbine will give highest performance and simple construction. If a generator has to be driven at a conventional speed, a free power turbine configuration must be chosen. The choice of the configuration depends among others on the cost and availability of the asynchrone generator and frequency convertor.


1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor de Biasi ◽  
J. W. Sawyer

Reviews the world trends since 1966 in the application of gas turbines on both naval and merchant ships. States that the total horsepower increased from 1.9 to 5.8 million in a four-year period, with some 5.5 million horsepower in propulsion. Indicates a definite growth in commercial use from 100,000 to 390,000 hp. Attributes the significant gain in total power due primarily to the availability of proven engines, that are competitive with other prime movers, in the 20,000 hp and above size. Predicts significant increase in use of the marine gas turbine for naval as well as merchant ships when the overall ship, its utilization and supporting shore facilities are considered jointly.


Author(s):  
John Confurius

The profits that can be gained by use of inlet air cooling on gas turbines has been recognised for quite some time now and the systems installed throughout the world have shown the users in the gas turbine field that cooling indeed can be used to boost power at times when the ambient temperature reaches or exceeds the ISO rating temperature of the gas turbine. Drawback however being that the initial investment asked of the gas turbine user is rather large thus only justifying a cooling system in regions where the outdoor temperatures exceed the ISO rating time and again due to the climate in that region. Lately gas turbine users in colder climates have become interested in power augmentation during their short summer, however there is no justification for an investment like necessary when installing one of the presently available systems on the market. As the question reached us from more and more of our clients it stimulated us to go out and search for a low-investment solution to this problem. This resulted in the world’s first low pressure gas turbine inlet cooling system.


Author(s):  
Panteleimon Kazatzis ◽  
Riti Singh ◽  
Pericles Pilidis ◽  
Jean-Jacques Locquet

The power-speed requirements of warships and the poor part load efficiency of simple cycle gas turbines has given rise to the design of many ship installations where two types of gas turbines are used. A large type for high speed, at full power, and a small one for cruise. It is common to mount two units of each type. This design results in a large amount of bulky and heavy ducting, much more voluminous and heavy than the gas turbines themselves. The present paper outlines an investigation into a novel intercooled split-cycle with some deck mounted components. This reduces the requirement for internal ducts in the ships hull, essentially, to those needed by the cruise engine. The engine performance has been predicted and a comparison is carried out between a traditional installation and the one investigated. An estimate has been carried out of the flow conditions of the duct to assess the change in losses for operation in the cruise and the full power condition. The new scheme appears to be promising.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document