STTR Phase I: Wave Rotor Constant-Volume Combustion for Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Abatement in Gas Turbine Engines

这个小型企业技术转移第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力可能是通过开发一种用于燃气轮机发动机的新型增压燃烧室，大幅提高发电厂、飞机和其他车辆的能效。如今，这些发动机消耗的天然气约占美国天然气总量的三分之一，发电量占美国的五分之一。该项目正在开发的新型波浪转子燃烧器将可能使燃气轮机的燃油消耗、碳排放和重量大幅降低，每个降低18-20%，同时降低其他排放。此外，这一研究项目可能会导致用于更轻和更高效的道路车辆的新型内燃机，用于分布式发电的发动机，混合动力汽车和机器人飞机，用于公用事业发电的更大的发动机，航空和船舶。该一期研究项目的目标是应用射流点火现象和脉动流动的研究，创造一种用于燃气轮机的新型波动型定容燃烧器。通过热反应气体的瞬时高速喷射点燃可燃混合物，可以实现快速重复燃烧。脉动流动导致高效和紧凑的气体压缩和膨胀过程。新燃烧室避开了活塞曲柄发动机的重量、振动、噪音和维护要求，以及燃气轮机的压力和温度限制。这一概念结合了多项创新。首先，与当前的布雷顿循环燃气轮机和奥托/柴油循环正排量发动机相比，恒容燃烧创造了一个从根本上更高效的热力循环。其次，脉动流动和压力波被用来进一步改善热力学，减轻发动机的尺寸和重量。第三，通过反应气体和激波火焰相互作用的受控射流实现加速燃烧。因此，这项研究实现了变革性的燃烧过程和一流的内燃机，同时保留了经过验证的紧凑型透平机械部件。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project will likely be the dramatic improvement in the energy efficiency of power plants, aircraft and other vehicles, through the development of a novel pressure gain combustor for gas turbine engines. Today, these engines consume about a third of all natural gas and generate one fifth of the electricity in the US. The novel wave-rotor combustor being developed in this project will likely enable reduction of fuel consumption, carbon emission and weight of gas turbines dramatically, each by a factor of 18-20% along with lowering other emissions. Further, this research project will potentially lead to new combustion engines for lighter and more efficient road vehicles, engines for distributed generation, hybrid vehicles and robotic aircraft, larger engines for utility power generation, aviation and ships. The objectives of this Phase I research project are to apply research on jet ignition phenomena and pulsatile flow to create the novel wave-rotor-constant-volume combustor for gas turbines. Ignition of a combustible mixture by transient high speed jets of hot reactive gas allows fast repeating combustion. Pulsatile flow results in efficient and compact gas compression and expansion processes. The new combustor circumvents the weight, vibration, noise and maintenance requirements of piston crank engines and the pressure and temperature limits of gas turbines. The concept combines multiple innovations. First, constant volume combustion creates a fundamentally more efficient thermodynamic cycle relative to current Brayton cycle gas turbine and the Otto/Diesel cycle positive displacement engines. Second pulsatile flow and pressure waves are used to further improve thermodynamics and reduce engine size and weight. Third, accelerated combustion is achieved through controlled jets of reactive gas and shock flame interaction. The research thus enables a transformative combustion process and a superior class of combustion engines, while retaining proven compact turbomachinery components.