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Types of Brayton Cycle – Open – Closed – Reverse Cycle

Brayton Cycle – Turbine Engine

In 1872, an American engineer, George Bailey Brayton, advanced the study of heat engines by patenting a constant pressure internal combustion engine, initially using vaporized gas but later using liquid fuels such as kerosene. This heat engine is known as “Brayton’s Ready Motor. The original Brayton engine used a piston compressor and piston expander instead of a gas turbine and gas compressor.

Today, modern gas turbine engines and airbreathing jet engines are also constant-pressure heat engines. Therefore we describe their thermodynamics by the Brayton cycle. In general, the Brayton cycle describes the workings of a constant-pressure heat engine.

It is one of the most common thermodynamic cycles found in gas turbine power plants or airplanes. In contrast to the Carnot cycle, the Brayton cycle does not execute isothermal processes because these must be performed very slowly. In an ideal Brayton cycle, the system executing the cycle undergoes a series of four processes: two isentropic (reversible adiabatic) processes alternated with two isobaric processes.

Since Carnot’s principle states that no engine can be more efficient than a reversible engine (a Carnot heat engine) operating between the same high temperature and low-temperature reservoirs, a gas turbine based on the Brayton cycle must have lower efficiency than the Carnot efficiency.

A large single-cycle gas turbine typically produces for example 300 megawatts of electric power and has 35–40% thermal efficiency. Modern Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plants, in which the thermodynamic cycle of consists of two power plant cycles (e.g., the Brayton cycle and the Rankine cycle), can achieve a thermal efficiency of around 55%.

open Brayton cycle - Gas Turbine

Types of Brayton Cycle

Types of Brayton Cycle

Open Brayton Cycle (keywords)

Since most gas turbines are based on the Brayton cycle with internal combustion (e.g.,, jet engines), they are based on the open Brayton cycle. In this cycle, air from the ambient atmosphere is compressed to the compressor’s higher pressure and temperature. In the combustion chamber, the air is heated further by burning the fuel-air mixture in the airflow. Combustion products and gases expand in the turbine either to near atmospheric pressure (engines producing mechanical energy or electrical energy) or to a pressure required by the jet engines. The open Brayton cycle means that the gases are discharged directly into the atmosphere.

Closed Brayton Cycle

In a closed Brayton cycle, the working medium (e.g.,, helium) recirculates in the loop, and the gas expelled from the turbine is reintroduced into the compressor.  A heat exchanger (external combustion) is usually used in these turbines, and only a clean medium with no combustion products travels through the power turbine. The closed Brayton cycle is used, for example, in closed-cycle gas turbines and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.

Reverse Brayton Cycle – Brayton Refrigeration Cycle

A Brayton cycle that is driven in the reverse direction is known as the reverse Brayton cycle. Its purpose is to move heat from the colder to the hotter body rather than produce work. In compliance with the second law of thermodynamics. Heat cannot spontaneously flow from cold system to hot system without external work being performed on the system. Heat can flow from colder to the hotter body, but only when forced by external work. This is exactly what refrigerators and heat pumps accomplish. These are driven by electric motors requiring work from their surroundings to operate. One of the possible cycles is a reverse Brayton cycle, which is similar to the ordinary Brayton cycle, but it is driven in reverse via a network input. This cycle is also known as the gas refrigeration cycle or the Bell Coleman cycle. This cycle is widely used in jet aircraft for air conditioning systems using air from the engine compressors. It is also widely used in the LNG industry. The largest reverse Brayton cycle is for subcooling LNG using 86 MW of power from a gas turbine-driven compressor and nitrogen refrigerant.

open Brayton cycle - Gas Turbine
open Brayton cycle
closed Brayton cycle - pV Diagram
closed Brayton cycle
reverse Brayton cycle - cooling and heat pumps
reverse Brayton cycle

Types of Gas Turbines

In general, heat engines and also gas turbines are categorized according to a combustion location as:

  • Turbines with internal combustion. Most gas turbines are internal combustion engines. In these turbines, the high temperature is achieved by burning the fuel-air mixture in the combustion chamber.
  • Turbines with external combustion.  A heat exchanger is usually used in these turbines, and only a clean medium with no combustion products travels through the power turbine. Since the turbine blades are not subjected to combustion products, much lower quality (and therefore cheaper) fuels can be used. These turbines usually have lower thermal efficiency than turbines with internal combustion.
 
References:
Nuclear and Reactor Physics:
  1. J. R. Lamarsh, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Theory, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA (1983).
  2. J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.
  3. W. M. Stacey, Nuclear Reactor Physics, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, ISBN: 0- 471-39127-1.
  4. Glasstone, Sesonske. Nuclear Reactor Engineering: Reactor Systems Engineering, Springer; 4th edition, 1994, ISBN: 978-0412985317
  5. W.S.C. Williams. Nuclear and Particle Physics. Clarendon Press; 1 edition, 1991, ISBN: 978-0198520467
  6. Kenneth S. Krane. Introductory Nuclear Physics, 3rd Edition, Wiley, 1987, ISBN: 978-0471805533
  7. G.R.Keepin. Physics of Nuclear Kinetics. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co; 1st edition, 1965
  8. Robert Reed Burn, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Operation, 1988.
  9. U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Physics and Reactor Theory. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.

Advanced Reactor Physics:

  1. K. O. Ott, W. A. Bezella, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Statics, American Nuclear Society, Revised edition (1989), 1989, ISBN: 0-894-48033-2.
  2. K. O. Ott, R. J. Neuhold, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Dynamics, American Nuclear Society, 1985, ISBN: 0-894-48029-4.
  3. D. L. Hetrick, Dynamics of Nuclear Reactors, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 0-894-48453-2. 
  4. E. E. Lewis, W. F. Miller, Computational Methods of Neutron Transport, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 0-894-48452-4.

Other References:

Diesel Engine – Car Recycling

See above:

Brayton Cycle