The Heat Transfer Performance of Porous Gas Turbine Blades

Abstract

It is well known that the performance of the practical gas turbine cycle, in which compression and expansion are non-isentropic, is critically dependent upon the maximum temperature of the working fluid. In engines in which shaft-power is produced the thermal efficiency and the specific power output rise steadily as the turbine inlet temperature is increased. In jet engines, in which the gas turbine has so far found its greatest success, similar advantages of high temperature operation accrue, more particularly as aircraft speeds increase to utilise the higher resultant jet velocities. Even in high by-pass ratio engines, designed specifically to reduce jet efflux velocities for application to lower speed aircraft, overall engine performance responds very favourably to increased turbine inlet temperatures, in which, moreover, these more severe operating conditions apply continuously during flight, and not only at maximum power as with more conventional cycles.