Power plants – Combustion products used as motive fluid – With exhaust treatment
Patent
1998-03-30
1999-01-05
Casaregola, Louis J.
Power plants
Combustion products used as motive fluid
With exhaust treatment
F02C 708
Patent
active
058551123
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a gas turbine engine in which air compressed in a compressor wheel driven by a turbine wheel and then heated in a heat exchanger is mixed with fuel; the resulting air-fuel mixture is burnt in a combustor, and a generated combustion gas is utilized for the driving of the turbine wheel and the heat exchange in the heat exchanger.
BACKGROUND ART
Such a gas turbine engine is already known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 58-4172 and 58-55331 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 47-7453.
The above known gas turbine engine suffers from a problem that the flow of the compressed air and the combustion gas is liable to be circumferentially non-uniformized to generate a pressure loss, because the heat exchanger is disposed non-symmetrically about an axis, or is of a rotary type, or the combustor is disposed non-symmetrically about an axis. In addition, a higher-temperature section contacting with the combustion gas and a lower-temperature section contacting with the compressed air exist non-symmetrically within a casing. For this reason, there is a possibility that a thermal distortion may be generated by a difference between amounts of engine portions thermally expanded, thereby causing a disadvantage that the rotary shaft is flexed to impede the smooth rotation of the compressor wheel and the turbine wheel, or to damage the brittle ceramic parts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to suppress the pressure loss and the thermal distortion within the gas turbine engine to the minimum.
To achieve the above object, according to a first aspect and feature of the present invention, there is provided a gas turbine engine comprising a can-type combustor, a compressor wheel adapted to supply compressed air to the can-type combustor, a turbine wheel driven by a combustion gas generated in the can-type combustor for driving the compressor wheel, and a circular plate-type heat exchanger for conducting the heat exchange between the combustion gas discharged from the turbine wheel and the compressed air to be supplied to the can-type combustor, wherein the compressor wheel, the turbine wheel, the can-type combustor and the plate-type heat exchanger are disposed coaxially; the plate-type heat exchanger is disposed at a location radially outside the can-type combustor and axially offset from the compressor wheel and the turbine wheel; and a compressed-air passage for guiding the compressed air from the compressor wheel to the plate-type heat exchanger and a combustion gas passage for guiding the combustion gas from the turbine wheel to the plate-type heat exchanger are disposed radially outside the compressor wheel and the turbine wheel.
With such arrangement, the compressor wheel, the turbine wheel, the can-type combustor and the plate-type heat exchanger are disposed coaxially and therefore, the flows of the compressed air and the combustion gas within the engine can be axially symmetrized to decrease the pressure loss and achieve an increase in output power and a reduction in fuel consumption. In addition, the distribution of temperature within the engine can be axially symmetrized to suppress the generation of a thermal distortion to the minimum; to assure the smooth rotation of the compressor wheel and the turbine wheel, and to avoid the damage to the parts due to an ununiform thermal expansion. Moreover, the casing and the duct can be made from a thin material and axially symmetrized, thereby not only achieving a reduction in weight, but also decreasing the heat loss at the cold start by a decrease in heat mass to further reduce the fuel consumption. The plate-type heat exchanger is disposed at the location radially outside the can-type combustor and axially offset from the compressor wheel and the turbine wheel, and the compressed-air passage for guiding the compressed air from the compressor wheel to the plate-type heat exchanger and the combustion gas passage for guiding the combustio
REFERENCES:
patent: 2553867 (1951-05-01), Parducci
patent: 3818984 (1974-06-01), Nakamura et al.
patent: 3831374 (1974-08-01), Nicita
patent: 4141212 (1979-02-01), Koschier
patent: 4213297 (1980-07-01), Forster
patent: 5004044 (1991-04-01), Horgan et al.
Bannai Takashi
Endou Tsuneo
Izumi Masahiko
Ohya Ken
Casaregola Louis J.
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
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