Air-Steam Dual Loop Gas Turbine Engine With Pulse Detonation Combustion

Air-steam Dual Loop Gas Turbine Engine (DLGTE) consists of a gas turbine engine with Pulse Detonation Combustor (PDC) (operating by the Humphrey cycle) with the air as the working fluid and a steam turbine engine (operating by the Rankine cycle) with the steam as the working fluid. The temperature of the hot detonation products is reduced to Turbine Inlet Temperature (TIT) by exchanging heat energy between detonation products and water in a Detonation Products to Water Heat Exchanger (DPWHE). The thermodynamic cycle of operation of DLGTE with PDC is analyzed based on quasi-steady state one dimensional formulation, and a computer code is developed in MATLAB to simulate the engine performance at different compressor pressure ratios and TITs. C2H4/air is taken as the fuel-oxidizer. It is found that DLGTE with PDC achieves 40 to 47% thermal efficiency as against 20 to 35% of Base Line Gas Turbine Engine (BLGTE) and 27 to 40% of Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Engine (CCGTE) with a Steady Flow Combustor (SFC) depending on the cycle pressure ratios and TITs. The specific work output of DLGTE is found to increase from 875 to 1200 kJ/kg air as against 180 to 380 kJ/kg air of BLGTE and 200 to 430 kJ/kg air of CCGTE.