Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesela CycleStirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Contents:

Jet Gas Turbine

Carnot cycle
Otto cycle
Diesel cycle
Stirling cycle
Ericsson cycle
Brayton cycle

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Introduction
Gas power cycles

Heat engines in
which working fluid
is gas

Heat source

QH
Heat
engine

Sample
applications

QL

Heat sink

Internal Combustion Engines

Gas Turbines

Wnet

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Carnot Cyle

Represents most efficient cycle that operates

between two fixed temperatures TH and TL
Efficiency of Carnot heat engine:

th,Carnot

Not practical for real-life applications

Carnot

Acts as reference against

which actual cycles can be
compared.

TL
= 1
TH

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Carnot Cyle
Processes in a Carnot cycle:
1 - 2 Isothermal heat addition
2 - 3 Isentropic expansion
3 - 4 Isothermal heat rejection
4 - 1 Isentropic compression

Enclosed area in T-s & P-v diagrams

=> net work done by the cycle

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Reciprocating engines
Examples of gas power cycle applications
that involve piston-cylinder units
Types of reciprocating engine

Spark-ignition
engine

Compression-ignition
engine

Combustion initiated
by a spark
Ideal process described
by Otto cycle
Combustion initiated
by compression
Ideal process described
by Diesel cycle

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Reciprocating engines
TDC

: Top dead centre

BDC

: Bottom dead centre

Stroke

: Distance between TDC

and BDC

Bore

: Diameter of the piston

Clearance volume : Minimum

volume when piston at TDC
r

: Compression ratio

Vmax VBDC
r=
=
Vmin VTDC

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Reciprocating engines
MEP

: Mean Effective Pressure

: Fictitious pressure that if it
acted on piston during entire
power stroke would produce
same amount of net work
produced during actual cycle

wnet
MEP =
Vmax Vmin

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Otto cycle

Represents ideal cycle for spark-ignition (SI) engines

Processes in 4-stroke engine cycle:

Air-fuel
mixture is
compressed

Spark plug
ignite and
combustion
starts

High
pressure gas
drives
piston down

Otto: stroke by stroke

Exhaust gas
driven out
by piston

Fresh airfuel mixture

drawn in

Gas Power Cycle

Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Otto cycle

Differences between Otto and actual 4-stroke engines

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle
Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle
Otto Cycle

4-stroke engine

Actual Cycle

1 - 2 1. Piston moves upward from BDC to TDC

2. Air-fuel mixture is compressed isentropically.

Isentropic compression
(Compression stroke)

2 - 3 1. Spark plug fires and combustion takes place

Constant-volume heat
2. Piston moves downward from TDC to BDC, addition
(Power or expansion stroke)
converting heat energy to work
3 - 4 1. Piston moves upward from BDC to TDC
2. Exhaust valve open and exhaust gas is removed

Isentropic expansion
(Exhaust stroke)

4 - 1 1. Piston moves downward from TDC to BDC

2. Intake valve open and air-fuel mixture drawn in

Constant-volume heat
rejection
(Intake stroke)

Otto
Cycle

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

2-stroke cycle

All four processes in take place in 2 strokes

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

2-stroke cycle

Compression stroke: Air-fuel mixture drawn

in,squeezed in combustion chamber

Power stroke: Combustion takes place,

burned gas removed

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

2-stroke cycle
2-stroke engines generally less efficient than 4-stroke due to:
incomplete expulsion of exhaust gases
partial expulsion of fresh air-fuel mixture
Advantages of 2-stroke engines:
simple and inexpensive
high power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratios
=> suitable for small size and light applications

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

1st. Law Analysis:

T

P
3

Qin
2

Qin
4
1

Qout

Qout
s

For closed system:

q w = u qin = u3 u 2

qout = u4 u1
wnet = qin qout

th ,Otto

wnet
=
qin

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

1st. Law Analysis:

If specific heat is considered constant (i.e. approximate method):

qin = u3 u 2 = cv ,av (T3 T2 )

qout = u 4 u1 = cv ,av (T4 T1 )
th,Otto = 1

1
r

k 1

r = compression ratio
Cp
k=
Cv

Attention:
*Use suitable method
(exact or approximate)
consistently*

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Some notes:
Efficiency of Otto cycle increases with
compression ratio and specific heat ratio
At high compression ratio (above 8):
further increase in efficiency is
insignificant
premature ignition occurs =>
engine knock. Reduced by antiknock agent, e.g. tetraethyl lead
Typical efficiency of SI engines: 25 - 30%

th,Otto = 1

1
r k 1

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Diesel Cycle:
Represents ideal compressionignition (CI) engine
Consists of 4 processes
=> Almost similar to Otto cycle
Air compressed to
pressure &
temperature above
self-ignition
temperature of fuel
Combustion starts
on contact as fuel is
injected to hot air

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

1st. Law analysis:

Exact method: variable specific heat

qin = h3 h2 , qout = U 4 U1 )
th , Diesel

wnet
=
qin

Approximate method: constant specific heat

qin = C p (T3 T2 ) , qout = Cv (T4 T1 )

th , Diesel

V3 v3
1 rck 1
= 1 k 1
= = cutoff ratio
, rc =
r k (rc 1)
V2 v2

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Some notes:
At same compression ratio, Otto has
greater efficiency than Diesel engines
Advantages of Diesel engines:
able to operate at much higher
compression ratio (12 to 24)
i.e higher efficiency (35 - 40%)
able to use cheaper fuel, because
less constraint on premature
ignition problem

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Stirling & Ericsson cycle:

Stirling: Two constantvolume regeneration
Ericsson: Two constantpressure regeneration

Robert Stirling

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Stirling Engine

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Advantages:
Ideal Stirling and Ericsson cycles
have Carnot cycle efficiency
Combustion can be done externally
=> more choices of fuel types
Disadvantages:
Difficult to achieve in practice:
- involve heat transfer through
small temperature difference.
- require very large heat transfer
area and very long time.

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Brayton cycle:

Represents ideal gas-turbine engine cycle

Actual gas turbine

operate on open cycle

Assumptions:
Combustion process
=> const-pressure heat addition
Exhaust process
=> const-pressure heat rejection

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle
Made up of 4 processes:
1 - 2 Isentropic compression (compressor)
2 - 3 Const Pressure heat addition (heat exchanger)
3 - 4 Isentropic expansion (turbine)
4 - 1 Const Pressure heat removal (heat exchanger)

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

1st law analysis:

qin = h3 h2 , qout = h4 h1

win = h2 h1 , wout = h3 h4

wout,net = wout win

wout ,net = qin qout th,Brayton=

wout,net

If specific heats are assumed

constant (approximate method)

th, Brayton = 1

1
rp(k 1) / k

P2
, rp =
P1

qin

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Deviation from ideal Brayton cycle, due to:

pressure drops during heat addition and rejection
irreversibilities in compressor and turbine

compressor
turbine

ws h1 h2 s
=

wa h1 h2 a

wa h3 h4 a
=

ws h3 h4 s

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Main applications of Brayton cycle:

electricity generation => gas-turbine power plants
aircrafts

=> jet propulsion engines

marine

=> propeller prime mover

Efficiency of gasturbine power plant

can be increased
significantly by
combining with
steam power cycle
=> combined cycle
gas turbine (CCGT)

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
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Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Jet propulsion cycle:

1-2
2-3
3-4
4-5

Air pressure increased slightly in diffuser

Air is compressed in compressor
Heat addition (combustion) process in burner at constant pressure
Partial expansion of exhaust gas in turbine, producing just
enough power to drive compressor and other auxiliaries
5 - 6 Gas expansion in the nozzle to ambient pressure at high velocity
6 - 1 Heat rejection to surrounding at constant pressure

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Turbofan engine

Turboprop engine

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Advanced Thermo-fluids
Gas Power Cycles

Carnot Cycle Otto Cycle Diesel Cycle Stirling & Ericsson Cycle Brayton Cycle

Summary
Gas power cycles => Heat engines
with gas as working fluid
Otto cycle => spark ignition
internal combustion engine

Diesel cycle => compression

ignition internal combustion engine

3
Qin

Qin
4
1

Qout

2
1

Qout

Brayton cycle => open cycle gas turbine