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Design and Performance Measurements of A 6 KW High-Speed Micro PDF
Design and Performance Measurements of A 6 KW High-Speed Micro PDF
Design and Performance Measurements of A 6 KW High-Speed Micro PDF
GT2015
June 15 19, 2015, Montral, Canada
GT2015-42620
Aki Gronman
, Juha Honkatukia, Petri Sallinen, Jari Backman, Antti Uusitalo
ABSTRACT
Small portable electricity generating systems are suitable in
remote locations where the access by vehicles is restricted or not
even possible. These kind of places include for example catastrophic areas after earthquakes or tropical cyclones. Such machines can also be used as auxiliary power units in motor or
sail boats. Gas turbine based electricity generation systems offer
a good alternative for typical engine-generator units which are
characterized by lower specific powers. It is suggested that the
power to weight ratio of a 6 kW micro gas turbine can be more
than eight times higher than that of the corresponding enginegenerator unit. The biggest drawback is the higher specific fuel
consumption; however, by introducing a recuperator, the specific
fuel consumption can be improved.
In this article, the design process and experiments of a 6
kW micro gas turbine prototype are described and discussed in
detail. The built non-recuperated prototype is based on a commercial, small jet engine originally designed to give thrust to
radio controlled model airplanes. The jet nozzle of the jet engine
was replaced by an axial power turbine which was directly connected to a small, high speed permanent magnet generator. The
experiments showed the potential of the prototype.
NOMENCLATURE
A heat transfer area, [m2 ]
Address
INTRODUCTION
Gas turbine based electricity generation systems offer a good
alternative for typical reciprocating engine-generator units which
are characterized by low power to weight ratios. In addition, gas
turbines can use various fuels, represent high reliability, and low
maintenance costs [1, 2]. It has been pointed out that the market potential of micro-scale gas turbines is uncertain, and it has
to be defined whether the potential is in large volume applications or in more specific applications [2]. The largest potential
in using micro gas turbines is identified to be in different industrial sectors, remote off-grid applications, and in burning waste
or biomass [2]. On the other hand, small portable electricity generating systems based on micro gas turbines (MGT) are suitable
in locations where the access is restricted or is not even possible
by vehicles. Such places include for example catastrophic areas
after earthquakes or tropical cyclones. Alternatively, they can be
also used as auxiliary power units in motor or sail boats.
Only few applications are currently available in the few kW
power scale. Visser et al. [3] presented a conceptual design of a
recuperated 3 kW micro gas turbine for combined heat and power
production for domestic applications. They proposed the use of
existing automotive turbochargers as an opportunity to reduce
the cost of micro gas turbines, due to the very large production
volumes of automotive turbochargers. Their test demonstrated a
power output of 2.7 kW and electric efficiency of 12.2%. In a
more recent paper [4], the efficiency of the system was reported
to have increased from 12.2% to 17.2% and the power output
from 2.7 kW to 3.4 kW. These performance improvements were
mainly achieved by redesigning and modifying the compressor,
turbine, combustor, and the recuperator. A recent study of Heshmat et al. [5] showed that a small turbogenerator can yield 8.8
kW power with an estimated efficiency of 12% without a recuperator.
Head and Visser [6] studied the size-related loss mechanisms in small-scale turbomachines. Their results indicated that
the obtainable efficiency reduces significantly when a microturbine is scaled down from about 30 kW power level. Their results
indicated that at power levels below 10 kW the efficiency drop
becomes very steep when scaling down the size of the turbomachinery. This loss of efficiency can be related to the Reynolds
number effects [7], which decrease the performance of small
scale turbomachinery in comparison with larger ones.
In addition to the design and optimization of the turbomachinery components, the use and design of the recuperator
has a significant impact on the gas turbine system performance,
weight, and cost. McDonald [8] presented a compact primary
surface recuperator concept aiming to provide cost effective recuperators for micro gas turbines by using all-welded heat exchanger construction. In a more recent paper [9], the development of recuperator materials was discussed in order to increase
the efficiency of micro-gas turbines. The temperature limitations
in the turbine and in the recuperator are the main reasons for
Tt,in [K]
c [-]
c [%]
t [%]
mech [%]
1011
2.67
65
75.3
95
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
40
50
60
70
80
Power turbine isentropic efficiency [%]
90
(a)
FIGURE 2:
(b)
calculated by the methods of Traupel [11] and Kacker and Okapuu [12], which predicted the isentropic efficiency to be 76.0 and
79.3 percent, respectively. The design chosen here was a 50%
reaction turbine to provide good off-design characteristics and a
simple design. The specific speed of the turbine was 0.73, which
means that typically the turbine should be a radial inflow type.
However, for the MGT studied here, the use of a radial turbine
would require more complex ducting between the gas generator
turbine and the power turbine. For this reason an axial turbine
was chosen for the prototype design. Therefore, a potential re-
P [kW]
[-]
Tt,in [K]
R [-]
ts [-]
ts [%]
N [rpm]
qm [kg/s]
6.1
864.3
0.5
1.26
76.0-79.3
40000
0.16
x 10
gen [%]
Pgen [kW]
N [rpm]
cos
97
40000
10
9
8
7
Mode 1
Mode 2
Mode 3
Mode 4
Mode 5
Mode 6
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
2
3
Rotational speed [rpm]
5
4
x 10
500
60
MGT 6 kW
EngineGenerator 6 kW
EngineGenerator 5.6 kW
50
Recuperator weight [kg]
600
400
300
200
100
0
0
m/A=1.2 kg/m2
2
m/A=1.6 kg/m
2
m/A=2.0 kg/m
40
30
20
10
10
20
30
40
50
Operating time [h]
60
70
0
0
80
0.2
0.4
0.6
Effectiveness []
0.8
0.8
(a)
30
25
A/V=1000 m2/m3
A/V=3000 m2/m3
A/V=5000 m2/m3
20
15
10
5
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Effectiveness []
(b)
electric efficiency without a recuperator, which is well comparable with the LUT design, where e = 6.5%. The cycle equipped
with a recuperator ( = 0.8) has an electric efficiency of 12.2%
[3] (measured Tt,in = 1334 K and c = 2.69). In the LUT design,
the electric efficiency with = 0.8 is 12.7%, and with lower suggested = 0.5, the electric efficiency is 9.1%. The power to
weight ratio of the LUT MGT is 0.19 kW/kg, and if the expected
weight of the optimized unit is considered, the PWR can be increased to a value of 0.28 kW/kg without a recuperator. The
weight optimized PWR with a recuperator ( = 0.5) is about 0.2
600
500
400
=0
=0.2
=0.4
=0.5
=0.6
EngineGenerator 6 kW
EngineGenerator 5.6 kW
300
200
100
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Operating time [h]
60
70
80
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The performance of the prototype is plotted in Fig. 10 (a)
and Fig. 10 (b) showing the measured values for the electric
power and efficiency, respectively. The electric efficiency is defined as
18
16
14
12
10
e = Pe /.
(1)
During the first test run, it was noticed that the electrical
power measured from the inverter was clearly below the design
value as shown in Fig. 10 (a). When the reasons for this were
studied, it was found out that the back pressure caused by the
power turbine was not as high as designed. This was found to be
due to the throat of the power turbine being larger than designed.
In order to improve the performance of the MGT, the throat was
decreased by narrowing the flow channel in the spanwise direction. The results after this modification are presented in Fig. 10
(a) as the Modified case. As can be noticed, this had a positive influence on the electric power. However, the back pressure
caused by the power turbine was still below the calculated value,
and an additional throat size reduction would be needed. This
difference between the designed and measured backpressure is
illustrated as static to static pressure ratio in Fig. 11 for different
rotational speeds for the modified case in comparison with the
design value. It is also noticeable that the power turbine did not
reach the design rotational speed. This was also concluded to be
due to the off-design operation of the gas generator during the
experiments. The peak efficiency is about 2.5%, which is clearly
lower than the target value of 5.9%.
6
4
2
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Effectiveness []
0.8
kW/kg, which is higher than the previously commercially available recuperated 2.6 kW MGT [15] had (PWR=0.04 kW/kg and
e = 6.1% with estimated Tt,in = 1087 K and c = 3.35).
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The non-recuperated micro gas turbine prototype is shown
in Fig. 9 (a) and Fig. 9 (b), the outer dimensions of the unit
2500
Original
Modified
2000
1500
1000
500
(a)
0
0.5
1.5
2
2.5
3
Power turbine rotational speed [rpm]
3.5
4
4
x 10
(a)
3.5
(b)
Original
Modified
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.5
PROTOTYPE (b).
1.5
2
2.5
3
Power turbine rotational speed [rpm]
3.5
4
4
x 10
(b)
some of the previous prototypes. In comparison with the enginegenerator units, the studied MGT without a recuperator seems to
be a feasible choice in terms of the overall weight (MGT+fuel)
if the operation time is less than 20 h. The power to weight ratio
of the MGT is 0.19 kW/kg, which can be considered an acceptable value. The maximum achievable PWR would be approximately 0.28 kW/kg without a recuperator. The electric efficiency
of MGT can be improved by adding a recuperator, but this will
increase the weight of the unit. It is suggested that a recuperator with = 0.5 can be included in a portable MGT and still
avoid excessive increase in the weight. The potentiality of the
1.3
[5] Heshmat, H., Walton II, J. F., and Hunsberger, A., 2014.
Oil-Free 8 kW High-Speed and High Specific Power Turbogenerator. In Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo, June
16-20, Dusseldorf, Germany., GT2014-27306.
[6] Head, A. J., and Visser, W. P. J., 2012. Scaling 3-36kW
Microturbines. In Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo
2012, June 11-15, Copenhagen, Denmark, GT2012-68685.
[7] Casey, M. V., 1985. The Effects of Reynolds Number on
the Efficiency of Centrifugal Compressor Stages. Journal
of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 107, April,
pp. 541 548.
[8] McDonald, C. F., 2000. Low-Cost Compact Primary
Surface Recuperator Concept for Microturbines. Applied
Thermal Engineering, 20, pp. 471497.
[9] McDonald, C. F., 2003. Recuperator Considerations for
Future Higher Efficiency Microturbines. Applied Thermal
Engineering, 23, pp. 14631487.
[10] Invernizzi, C., Iora, P., and Silva, P., 2007. Bottoming
Micro-Rankine Cycles for Micro-Gas Turbines. Applied
Thermal Engineering, 27, pp. 100110.
[11] Traupel, W., 1966.
Thermische Turbomaschinen,
Vol. I - Thermodynamisch-stromungstechnische Berechnung. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
[12] Kacker, S. C., and Okapuu, U., 1982. A Mean Line Prediction Method for Axial Flow Turbine Efficiency. Journal
of Engineering for Power, 104, pp. 111119.
[13] Rohlik, H. E., 1968. Analytical Determination of Radial
Inflow Turbine Design Geometry for Maximum Efficiency.
Tech. Rep. NASA TN D-4384, NASA.
[14] Saari, E., 2012. Thermodynamical and Mechanical Modelling Analysis of High-Speed Turbomachine Rotors. PhD
thesis, Lappeenranta University of Technology.
[15] Monroe, M. A., 2003. A Market and Engineering Study
of a 3-Kilowatt Class Gas Turbine Generator. Masters
thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Modified
Design
Pressure ratio []
1.25
1.2
1.15
1.1
1.05
1
0.5
1.5
2
2.5
3
Power turbine rotational speed [rpm]
3.5
4
4
x 10
gas-generator driven power turbine-generator MGT was also experimentally demonstrated to prove the concept. Due to the problems in the power turbine design, the electric power of the MGT
was below the targeted value.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The study was funded by Tekes (the Finnish Funding
Agency for Innovation) during the BOAT-MGT-project. The efforts during the completion of the project by Professor Jaakko
Larjola and Dr. Esa Saari are greatly acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] Pilavachi, P. A., 2000. Power Generation with Gas Turbine
Systems and Combined Heat and Power. Applied Thermal
Engineering, 20, pp. 14211429.
[2] Pilavachi, P. A., 2002. Mini- and Micro-Gas Turbines for
Combined Heat and Power. Applied Thermal Engineering, 22, pp. 20032014.
[3] Visser, W. P. J., Shakariyants, S. A., and Oostveen, M.,
2010. Development of a 3kW Micro Turbine for CHP Applications. In Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2010:
Power for Land, Sea and Air, June 14-18, Glasgow, UK,
GT2010-22007.
[4] Visser, W. P. J., Shakariyants, S., de Later, M. T. L.,
Haj Ayed, A., and Kusterer, K., 2012. Performance Optimization of a 3kW Microturbine for CHP Applications.
In Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2012, June 11-15,
Copenhagen, Denmark, GT2012-68686.