Micro Gas Turbine With Ceramic Rotor

Abstract

A series of operation tests by using a desktop size gas turbine has been successfully carried out. In the first step of the tests, we have concentrated ourselves on the operation at elevated temperatures. Thus the duration of the bench test at each rotation speed was set to be 1 minute. The baseline machine is J-850 (Sophia Precision, Co., Ltd.) originally made for model airplanes. In this study, we replaced an INCONEL 713C alloy turbine rotor with 5.5 cm diameter into a type SN235 ceramic rotor (Kyocera Corporation). Mixture of 70% white kerosene and 30% gasoline was used as the fuel. The running test was made at the rotational speeds up to 140,000 r.p.m. in the atmospheric air. The basic performance of the small gas turbine was found as follows: At 140,000 r.p.m., 1) the turbine inlet temperature was estimated to be higher than 1,200. This estimation was supported by the observation of the partially melted INCONEL alloy nozzle located before the ceramic rotor. But the ceramic rotor revealed no damages. 2) The compression ratio and the thrust of the ceramic rotor turbine attained at 140,000 r.p.m. were 3 and 100 N, respectively. 3) Total energy level of the exhaust gas jet was 240 kW at the same rotation speed. Experiences learned from the present running tests suggest that the small gas turbine system employed in this study could be a useful tool to quicken the cycle of R & D of micro ceramic gas turbines with reasonable costs.