Jet Impingement Cooling in Gas Turbines for Improving Thermal Efficiency and Power Density

Abstract

The gas turbine is an engine which produces a great amount of energy depending upon its size and weight. Gas turbines are used for aircraft propulsion and land based power generation. Thermal efficiency and power output (power density) of gas turbines increase with increasing turbine rotor inlet temperatures (RIT). Today there are gas turbines, which run on natural gas, diesel fuel, naphtha, methane, crude, low-Btu gases, vaporized fuel oils, and biomass gases. The last 20 years has seen a large growth in gas turbine technology which is mainly due to growth of materials technology, new coatings, and new cooling schemes. In a simple gas turbine cycle (Figure 1), low pressure air is drawn into a compressor (state 1) where it is compressed to a higher pressure (state 2). Fuel is added to the compressed air and the mixture is burnt in a combustion chamber. The resulting hot products enter the turbine (state 3) and expand to state 4 and the air exhausts. Most of the work produced in the turbine is used to run the compressor and the rest is used to run auxiliary equipment and to produce power. Figure 2 shows schematic of cross section of a small gas turbine.