GAS POWER CYCLES

BRAYTON CYCLE

Ahmad - abu alhaj

 Objectives

✓ Evaluate the performance of gas power cycle for which

the working fluid ages throughout entire cycle

✓ Develop simplifying assumption applicable to gas power

cycle
✓ Analyze both closed and open gas power cycle

✓ Perform second law analysis of gas power cycle

Basic consideration in the analysis of power cycles and CARNOT CYCLE :

✓ The devices or systems used to produce a net

power output are often called engines, and the
thermodynamic cycles they operate on are called
power cycles.

✓ Thermodynamic cycles can also be

categorized as gas cycles and vapor cycles,
depending on the phase of the working fluid.
In gas cycles, the working fluid remains in
the gaseous phase throughout the entire
cycle, whereas in vapor cycles the working
fluid exists in the vapor phase during one
part of the cycle and in the liquid phase
during another part.
✓ Thermodynamic cycles can be categorized
yet another way: closed and open cycles. In
closed cycles, the working fluid is returned
to the initial state at the end of the cycle
and is recirculate. In open cycles, the
working fluid is renewed at the end of each
cycle instead of being recirculate.

✓ Heat engines are categorized as internal

combustion and external combustion
engines, depending on how the heat is
supplied to the working fluid.
 ✓ Heat engines are designed for the purpose of
converting thermal energy to work, and their
performance is expressed in terms of the thermal
efficiency, which is the ratio of the net work produced
by the engine to the total heat input

𝑾𝒏𝒆𝒕
ɳ= 𝑸𝒊𝒏

✓ Recall that heat engines that operate on a totally

reversible cycle, such as the Carnot cycle, have the
highest thermal efficiency of all heat engines operating
between the same temperature levels. That is, nobody
can develop a cycle more efficient than the Carnot cycle
✓ If the Carnot cycle is the best possible cycle, why do we
not use it as the model cycle for all the heat engines
instead of bothering with several so-called ideal cycles?

✓ The ideal cycles are internally reversible, but, unlike the

Carnot cycle, they are not necessarily externally reversible
✓ The idealizations and simplifications commonly employed
in the analysis of power cycles can be summarized as
follows:

1. The cycle does not involve any friction. Therefore, the

working fluid does not experience any pressure drop as it
flows in pipes or devices such as heat exchangers.

2. All expansion and compression processes take place in a

quasiequilibrium manner.

3. The pipes connecting the various components of a system

are well insulated, and heat transfer through them is
negligible.
✓ Neglecting the changes in kinetic and potential energies
of the working fluid is another commonly utilized
simplification in the analysis of power cycles. This is a
reasonable assumption since in devices that involve
shaft work, such as turbines, compressors, and pumps,
the kinetic and potential energy terms are usually very
small relative to the other terms in the energy equation.
Fluid velocities encountered in devices such as
condensers, boilers, and mixing chambers are typically
low, and the fluid streams experience little change in
their velocities, again making kinetic energy changes
negligible. The only devices where the changes in kinetic
energy are significant are the nozzles and diffusers,
which are specifically designed to create large changes in
velocity.
 ✓ The Carnot cycle is composed of four totally
reversible processes: isothermal heat addition,
isentropic expansion, isothermal heat rejection, and
isentropic compression.
𝑻𝑳
ɳ = 𝟏 − 𝑻𝑯

✓ Reversible isothermal heat transfer is very

difficult to achieve in reality because it would
require very large heat exchangers and it would
take a very long time (a power cycle in a typical
engine is completed in a fraction of a second).
Therefore, it is not practical to build an engine
that would operate on a cycle that closely
approximates the Carnot cycle.
✓ Thermal efficiency increases with an
increase in the average temperature at
which heat is supplied to the system or
with a decrease in the average
temperature at which heat is rejected
from the system.
AIR-STANDARD ASSUMPTIONS

1. The working fluid is air, which continuously circulates in a closed

loop and always behaves as an ideal gas.

2. All the processes that make up the cycle are internally

reversible.

3. The combustion process is replaced by a heat-addition process

from an external source

4. The exhaust process is replaced by a heat-rejection process that

restores the working fluid to its initial state.
BRAYTON CYCLE:
THE IDEAL CYCLE FOR GAS-TURBINE ENGINES
✓ The Brayton cycle was first proposed
by George Brayton for use in the
reciprocating oil-burning engine that
he developed around 1870

✓ Today, it is used for gas turbines only

where both the compression and
expansion processes take place in
rotating machinery. Gas turbines
usually operate on an open cycle
(1-2) Isentropic compression (in a compressor)

(2-3) Constant-pressure heat addition

(3-4) Isentropic expansion (in a turbine)

(4-1) Constant-pressure heat rejection

✓ Fresh air at ambient conditions is drawn into the
compressor, where its temperature and pressure are
raised. The high-pressure air proceeds into the
combustion chamber, where the fuel is burned at
constant pressure. The resulting high-temperature
gases then enter the turbine, where they expand to the
atmospheric pressure while producing power. The
exhaust gases leaving the turbine are thrown out (not
recirculate), causing the cycle to be classified as an
open cycle

✓ The open gas-turbine cycle described above can be

modeled as a closed cycle
 ✓ Notice that all four processes of the Brayton cycle
are executed in steady flow devices; thus, they
should be analyzed as steady-flow processes.
When the changes in kinetic and potential energies
are neglected, the energy balance for a steady-flow
process can be expressed.

where
WT the work done by the gas in the
turbine
WC the work done on the gas in the
compressor
cp is the heat capacity ratio
,
Development of Gas Turbines

✓ The early gas turbines built in the 1940s and even 1950s
had simple-cycle efficiencies of about 17 percent because
of the low compressor and turbine efficiencies and low
turbine inlet temperatures due to metallurgical
limitations of those times.
✓ Increasing the turbine inlet
(or firing) temperatures

✓ This has been the primary approach taken to improve gas-turbine efficiency.

✓ The turbine inlet temperatures have increased steadily from about 540°C
(1000°F) in the 1940s to 1425°C (2600°F) and even higher today

✓ Increasing the efficiencies of turbo

machinery components
✓ Adding modifications to the basic cycle

✓ BRAYTON CYCLE WITH REGENERATION

✓ THE BRAYTON CYCLE WITH INTERCOOLING, REHEATING,
AND REGENERATION
References

✓ thermodynamics- An engineering Approach, 5th

Edition
GAS POWER CYCLES
BRAYTON CYCLE