ME525 semester project - step 1

#1. A brief summary of the two videos you watched (10

points)
First one: Recent Advantages and Challenges in Gas Turbine Combustion,
Keith McManus
Summary: Trends in future gas turbine design based on combustion analysis.
Second one: Flames with Plasmas, Dr. Deanna Lacoste
Summary: introduction of plasma-assisted combustion and control of
combustion instabilities

#2. A detailed summary of one of the two videos (20

points)
First one: Recent Advantages and Challenges in Gas Turbine Combustion,
Keith McManus

Detailed summary: started form introduction of

configurations of gas turbine, then introduced

combustion performance requirements (e.g. emissions,

dynamics, reliability) and thermal analysis of jet engine

combustor chamber (e.g. temperature differences

between rich burn combustion & lean burn combustion

and effects of air dilution) and combustor design (e.g.

low emissions design) to help us establish some basic

knowledge on gas turbine combustor chamber. Finally,

introduced two fundamental research areas (fuel sprays

and combustion dynamics) which are critical in gas

turbine industries to show future technology areas that

are active and we can expect more activity in the future.

#3. A discussion of the selection of the ME 525 project

topic (20 points).

Compared to normal engines such as automotive engines,

which will be replaced by electric powered engines in the

future soon, since gas turbine engines can generate

power that is able to power airplanes (which electric-

powered engines can’t achieve at least within several

decades), it is crucial to realize future trends of those

engines so that human races can both improve working

efficiencies and reduce pollutants emissions of gas

turbine engines.