INTRODUCTION

1.1 PRIME MOVERS

The distinctive feature of our civilization, one that makes it different
from all others, is the wide use of power from mechanical means. At
one time the primary source of power, or prime mover, for the work
of peace and war was chiefly man's muscles. Even after animals had
been trained to help and after the wind and running streams had
been harnessed, rnaIl was mainly depending on his muscle power.
But when he learned to convert the heat of chemical reactions into
mechanical energy, it revolutionized the world. Machines which serve
this purpose are known as heat engines.
The first heat engine to have a revolutionary effect was the gun. It
is perhaps hard to realize that the vital difference between the bow
and the gun was the substitution of gunpowder for the bowman's
muscles, because the musket was much inferior to the bow in range
and accuracy. In principle, the gun is the ancestor of our internal
combustion piston engines.
Another revolution began when Watt perfected the steam piston
engine. Here, an intermediate working fluid was used, so that the
products of combustion did not act directly on the moving parts
of the mechanism. Later, the ancient principle of the turbine was
adopted to steam, and the piston engine took the back seat.
Among engines for the production of mechanical power there
were, a few years ago, three principal competitors in the field:
(i) the steam turbine plant,
(ii) the diesel piston engine and
(iii) bha gtusolinc piston on~it~cl.

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

SIMPLE GAS TURBINE

Iir order to produce an expansion through a turbine a pressure ratio

rrnlst be provided. Hence: the first necessary step in the cycle of
n gas turbine plant must be compression of the working fluid. If,
i~,ftert,he compression, the working fluid is to be expanded directly
in the turbine and there were no losses in either component, the
power developed by the turbine would just equal that, absorbed by the
compressor. Thus, if the two were coupled together, the combination
would do no more than turn itself round.
The power developed by the turbine can be increased by the addition of energy to raise the temperature of the fluid prior t o expansion.
When the working fluid is air, a very suit,able means of doing this
is by the combustion of fuel in the air which has been compressed.
Expansion of hot working fluid then produces a greater power oiltput
from the turbine than the power necessary t o drive the compressor.
The three main components are, therefore, a compressor, a combustion chamber and a turbine, connected together as shown in Fig. 1.1.

Fuel

(i) the low efficiency of the conlpressors and

(ii) the combustion temperature limitations imposed by the materials then available.
Serious development of the gas turbine began only after the second world war with shaft power in mind, but attention was soon
shifted to the turbojet engine for aircraft propulsion. Since then,
the gas turbine made a progressively greater impact in an increasing
variety of applications.
However, only in the recent past much research effort has been
focused on the design and development of efficient gas turbine units.
Of the various means of producing mechanical power available today
the gas turbine, in many respects, seems to be the most satisfactory
power plant. It is mainly due t o
(i) the absence of reciprocating and rubbing members which reduces the vibration and balancing problems,
(ii) high reliability,
(iii) low lubricating oil consumption and
(iv) high powor t o wcig1-11,rat,io.

Combustion chamber
Air

Products of combustion

Compressor

Turbine
Fig. 1.1 A simple gas turbine

In a practical cycle, losses do occur in both the compressor iuai

the turbine which increase the power absorbed by the compressor
and decrease the power output of the turbine. A certain minirrlllr~l
addition of energy in the form of fuel to the fluid will therefore bc: n!(,llir(:(lt)efore one c o m p o ~ l n c:iiIl
~ t (lrivc the &her. This f~l(~!l
procharl.i
1s) Ilet:firl I)owcr,
t,o colr~l)o~lt~l~l.
Iou.i(:x ii11d lowering of efti(:ic:ra:y
of i,Il(: I I ~ ~ L ( : IF~irt,l~(!r
I ~ I ~ ~ : ~ultiII,\t)~~
,
(11' I ' I I ~will
~ rl?~ldi,
in 11, lls(d111l)ow(!r

output. However, there is a limit to the amount of fuel that can be

added per unit mass of air and therefore to the net power output.
The fuel-air ratio that may be used is governed by the working temperature of the highly stressed turbine blades. This temperature is
limited by the creep strength of the materials used in the turbine
blades and the working life required.
The two main factors which affect the performance of gas turbines are the eficiencies of various components and turbine working
temperature. The higher they are made, the better is the all-round
performance of the plant. It was, in fact, low efficiencies and poor
turbine materials which caused tire failure of a number of early attempts. For example, in 1904 two Elench engineers built a unit which
did little more than turn itself over, with compressor efficiency of
about 60% and the maximum gas temperature of about 740 K.
The overall efficiency of the gas turbine cycle mainly depends
upon the pressure ratio of the compressor. The development of science of aerodynamics and that of metallurgy made it possible to
employ very high pressure ratios (20:l) with an adequate compressor efficiency (85 - 90%) and high turbine inlet temperatures, up to
1500 K.
Two possible combustion systems were proposed: one at constant pressure and the other at constant volume. Theoretically, the
thermal efficiency of the constant volume cycle is higher than that
of constant pressure cycle. However, constant volume combustion
involves mechanical difficulties requiring valves to isolate the combustion chamber from the compressor and turbine. Combustion is
intermittent impairing the smooth running of the machine. After
certain initial at tempts, constant volume type combustion was discontinued.
In the constant pressure gas turbine, combustion is continuous
and valves are not necessary. It was soon accepted that the constant
pressure cycle had the greater possibilities for future development.
It is important to realize that in the gas turbine the process
of compression, combustion and expansion do not occur in a single conlponent as they do in a reciprocating engine. They occur in
components which are separate, in the sense that they can be designed, tested and developed individually and these components can
be linked together to form a gas turbine unit in a variety of ways.
The possible number of components is not limited to three already
mentioned. More compressors and turbines can be added with interc:hanll>c:rs
coolers between the c:ompressors, and reheat cornb~lstio~l
I~c:l,wc:c!r~t~lrl~ir~on.
Wt~t,c:rc:ool~:rsnod h(:~l;C X ( : ~ I U ~ P ; ( : ~(:HI)
H
n,tl-

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

1 .l W h a t i s the difference between our civilization and the ancient

ones and what action of the m a n revolutionized the world?

1.2 W h a t is a heat engine and what is its origin?

1.3 W h a t i s a steam engine and what are its cl~aracteristics?

1.4 W h a t i s the inherent disadvantage of a steam power plant?

1.5 Which were the three contemporary power plants for the production of power?
1.6 W h e n was the earliest gas turbine design attempted and what
was the result?

1.7 W h a t are the latest research e f o r t s i n gas turbines and wl1:y i s

this power plant con.sidered t o be satisfactory?
1.8 Compare the steam and gas turbine power plants.'
1.9 Explain with a neat sketch the details of a simple gas turbine
power plant.
1.10 Which parameter is most important t o determine the overall

eficic<ncyof a gas turbine cycle?

1.12 W h a t are the two types o f combustion system?

1.13 W h y constant pressure heat addition i s more advantageous in
a gas turbine?
1.14 W h a t advantage a gas turbine power plant h,as over reciprocating engine b o r n the point o f siiew of component developments?

REVIEW OF BASIC
PRINCIPLES

1.15 H o w m a 7 ~ yc o n ~ p o n e n t sare there in a simple gas turbine power

plant? Mention the additional components that can be added t o
irnpro.cie the power output and eficiency.

2.1

INTRODUCTION

Turbines and compressors are usually analyzed using thernlodynamic

and fluid dynamic equations. The thcrmodynarnic equations relate
temperature, pressure and volunle whereas the fluid dynamic equations relate force, rnass and velocity. The following are the laws that
are frequently used in dealing with problems of and operation of these
nlachines :
(i) energy equation in its various forms from the first law of thermodynamics,
(ii) temperature, entropy and gas relations from the second law of
thernlodynamics,
(iii) continuity relationships from the law of conservation of mass,
and
(iv) momentum equation from Newton's second law of motion.

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.