Gas Turbine

Basics

• A Brayton cycle ( Jet Engine ) Optimized for Rotary Power Production rather than Thrust
• Can be used for Propulsion ( Turboprop / Turboshaft ) or for Pumping Large Volumes Fluids (Turbine Driven Pumps in Flood Control or Turbine Driven Pumps in Oil and Natural Gas Extraction + Refining), or for Electrical Generation
• Another use case is as an Energy Supplying alternative to Gas Flaring since they readily accept the Syngas / Light Hydrocarbon / Oil Mixtures often Present
• They have the Advantage of Energy Efficiency*, Reduced Part Count , and High Power Density
  • This comes at the cost of increased design (ie not finished device, but the planning / design process / modeling) complexity, and Precision Required (See Turbine Balancing )
• They can be "Fuel Agnostic" to an Extent, however anything with a high Ash Content should be avoided due to the issue of Abrasive Turbine Wear

Internal Links

• Micro Gas Turbine (The Size Most Relevant to OSE's Work)
• Micropower / PowerMEMS (These tend to use Rotary Engines or Gas Turbines due to lower part count and high power density, although Solid Oxide Fuel Cells seem to have made this research slow down due to simplicity (despite needing Catalysts consisting of Rare Earth Metals etc)
• Combined Cycle Engines tend to use a Gas Turbine + Steam Turbine (Or Recently Even a Supercritical CO2 Turbine !), and that is one of the most common modern thermal power plants, especially since they work well as Peaker Plants

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Gas Turbines
• An Article by the "Minor Metals Trade Association" Titled "Why don’t Gas Turbines Blades burn?"
• 8great Article that goes over Thermal Barrier Coatings