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

该小型企业技术转让第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力可能是通过开发用于燃气涡轮机发动机的新型压力增益燃烧器，大幅提高发电厂、飞机和其他车辆的能效。如今，这些发动机消耗了美国约三分之一的天然气，产生了美国五分之一的电力。该项目中开发的新型波转子燃烧室可能会显著降低燃气轮机的燃料消耗、碳排放和重量，每项都降低沿着18-20%，同时降低其他排放。此外，该研究项目将可能导致用于更轻和更高效的道路车辆的新内燃机，用于分布式发电，混合动力车辆和机器人飞机的发动机，用于公用事业发电，航空和船舶的大型发动机。 第一阶段研究计划的目标是应用射流点火现象和脉动流的研究，以建立新型的波转子定容燃烧室的燃气轮机。通过热反应气体的瞬时高速射流点燃可燃混合物允许快速重复燃烧。脉动流导致高效和紧凑的气体压缩和膨胀过程。新的燃烧室规避了活塞曲柄发动机的重量、振动、噪音和维护要求以及燃气涡轮机的压力和温度限制。这个概念结合了多种创新。首先，相对于当前的布雷顿循环燃气涡轮机和奥托/狄塞尔循环容积式发动机，定容燃烧产生了根本上更有效的热力学循环。第二，脉动流和压力波用于进一步改善热力学并减小发动机尺寸和重量。第三，通过控制反应气体和激波火焰相互作用的射流实现加速燃烧。因此，该研究能够实现变革性的燃烧过程和上级级别的内燃机，同时保留经过验证的紧凑型发动机部件。

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.