Microturbine with Heat Exchanger with Regeneration Ratio Equal 95%

Abstract

Using microturbines, which have very small emissions, seems to be very promising for Russia where using “green” energy is ineffective in most parts of its vast territory. There are significant opportunities for using microturbines in vehicles. Ordinary microturbines have smaller efficiency and therefore bigger fuel consumption than piston internal combustion engines. The increase in the efficiency of microturbines to the level of piston engines and higher can be obtained by using a heat exchanger with the high regeneration ratio (95–97%) and acceptable sizes. In this paper, the construction of such heat exchanger is presented. In addition, the results of the simulations are provided that show that using ceramics for making the heat exchanger’s disc makes it possible to significantly reduce deformation of the disc and therefore reduce air leakage. Other results of microturbine design are presented (the results of the thermodynamic calculations of the engine’s working cycle, the results of flow simulation in the compressor and turbine stages, and the results of flow and combustion simulation in combustion chamber). It is shown that a microturbine’s efficiency can reach 38% and there are possibilities to increase it further.