Thermodynamics Lecture 6

T H E R M O DY N A M I C S 2
BRAYTON CYCLE
Open Brayton Power Cycle
Working Principal
Fresh air enters the compressor at ambient temperature
where its pressure and temperature are increased.
The high pressure air enters the combustion chamber
where the fuel is burned at constant pressure.
The high temperature (and pressure) gas enters the turbine
where it expands to ambient pressure and produces work.
Features:
• Gas-turbine is used in aircraft propulsion and electric
power generation.
• High thermal efficiencies up to 44%.
• Suitable for combined cycles (with steam power plant)
• High power to weight ratio, high reliability, long life
• Fast start up time, about 2 min, compared to 4 hr for
steam-propulsion systems
• High back work ratio (ratio of compressor work to the
turbine work), up to 50%, compared to few percent in
steam power plants.
Closed Brayton Power Cycle
The additional complexity of this Brayton cycle model is a
function of including a closed circuit for fluid involved in
the combustion or heating process.
• In a power plant, such a fluid could be gas heated from
combustion of oil, coal, or natural gas or from nuclear
fission.
• In engines, the fluid would most likely be the gas
produced via combustion.
• The resulting high pressure fluid does not expand
through the turbine itself. Instead, the heat exchanger
represented by the gray box transmits most of the heat
by conduction and convection, although some efficiency
losses are incurred.
• Another heat exchanger cools the gaseous working fluid
after it passes through the turbine.
• This system is closed because circuits of fluid are
employed; the fluid which expands through the turbine
is not merely expelled as exhaust.
Brayton cycle
• The Brayton cycle was proposed by George Brayton in 1870 for use
in reciprocating engines.
• Modern day gas turbines operate on Brayton cycle and work with
rotating machinery.
• Gas turbines operate in open-cycle mode, but can be modelled as
closed cycle using air-standard assumptions.
• Combustion and exhaust replaced by constant pressure heat
addition and rejection.
Joule or Brayton cycles are used either in open or closed systems in

heat engines or in power plants exclusively with gas turbines. The
Brayton cycle is also known as the gas turbine cycle since it uses gases
(other than steam) which can be compressed but not liquefied by a
condenser
The air-standard Brayton cycle is an ideal cycle that approximates the
processes incorporated within the standard gas-turbine engine. In the
following description of the ideal Brayton cycle, the initial state is taken
where atmospheric pressure air enters the inlet of a steady flow
compressor. This cycle is shown for constant specific heats on P-v, and T-s
diagrams.
Process 1-2: an isentropic compression of atmospheric air from the inlet
to the compressor to the maximum pressure in the cycle,
Process 2-3: a constant-pressure combustion process (heat addition),
Process 3-4: an isentropic expansion of the products of combustion from
the inlet to the turbine to the exhaust of the turbine at atmospheric
pressure.
Process 4-1: a constant-pressure heat rejection process until the
temperature returns to initial conditions.
The thermal efficiency of this cycle is found as the net work delivered by
the cycle divided by the heat added to the working substance. From this
definition of the cycle thermal efficiency, we may write;
The energy balance for a steady-flow process can be expressed as:
The heat transfer to and from the working fluid can be written as:
Since the constant pressure heat rejection is equal to the change of
enthalpy in process from state 4 to state 1, and the heat added in a
constant pressure process from state 2 to state 3 is the change of enthalpy
between these two states, we may write for the case of constant specific
heats
Note that the process from state 1 to state 2 is an isentropic compression

and the process from state 3 to state 4 is an isentropic expansion, and that P3
= P2 and that P4 = P1. Hence, we may write
where γ is the ratio of specific heats. Canceling through the appropriate
terms yields an expression for the ideal Brayton cycle thermal efficiency for
constant specific heats as;
❖The thermal efficiency of a Brayton cycle is therefore a function of the

cycle pressure ratio and the ratio of specific heats.
Maximum Pressure Ratio
Given that the maximum and minimum temperature can be prescribed for the Brayton cycle, a change
in the pressure ratio can result in a change in the work output from the cycle.
The maximum temperature in the cycle T3 is limited by metallurgical conditions because the turbine
blades cannot sustain temperatures above 1300 K. Higher temperatures (up to 1600 K can be obtained
with ceramic turbine blades). The minimum temperature is set by the air temperature at the inlet to
the engine.
Gas Turbine
- The compressor which draws air into the engine, pressurizes it, and
feeds it to the combustion chamber literally at speeds of hundreds of miles
per hour.
- The combustion system, typically made up of a ring of fuel
injectors that inject a steady stream of fuel (e.g., natural gas) into the
combustion chamber where it mixes with the air. The mixture is burned at
temperatures of more than 2000 degrees. The combustion produces a high
temperature, high pressure gas stream that enters and expands through the
turbine section.
- The turbine is an intricate array of alternate stationary and rotating
aerofoil-section blades. As hot combustion gas expands through the turbine,
it spins the rotating blades. The rotating blades perform a dual function:
they drive the compressor to draw more pressurized air into the
combustion section, and they spin a generator to produce electricity.
Land based gas turbines are of two types:
(1) Heavy frame engines

- Heavy frame engines are characterized by lower
compression ratios (typically below 15) and tend to be physically
large.
(2) Aeroderivative engines
-Aeroderivative engines are derived from jet engines, as the
name implies, and operate at very high compression ratios
(typically in excess of 30). Aeroderivative engines tend to be very
compact.
• One key to a turbine's fuel-to-energy efficiency is the
temperature at which it operates.
• Higher temperatures generally mean higher efficiencies
which, in turn, can lead to more economical operation.
• Gas flowing through a typical power plant turbine can be as
hot as 2300 degrees F, but some of the critical metals in the
turbine can withstand temperatures only as hot as 1500 to
1700 degrees F.
• Air from the compressor is used for cooling key turbine
components; however, the requirement for cooling the
turbine limits the ultimate thermal efficiency.
• To boost efficiency is to install a recuperator or waste heat boiler onto the
turbine's exhaust. A recuperator captures waste heat in the turbine exhaust
system to preheat the compressor discharge air before it enters the
combustion chamber.
• A waste heat boiler generates steam by capturing heat from the turbine
exhaust. These boilers are also known as heat recovery steam generators
(HRSG). High-pressure steam from these boilers can be used to generate
additional electric power with steam turbines, a configuration called a
combined cycle.
• A simple cycle gas turbine can achieve energy conversion efficiencies
ranging between 20 and 35 percent. With the higher temperatures
achieved in the turbine (2600oF), future gas turbine combined cycle plants
are likely to achieve efficiencies of 60 percent or more. When waste heat
is captured from these systems for heating or industrial purposes, the
overall energy cycle efficiency could approach 80 percent.
The Brayton Cycle with Regeneration
The high pressure air leaving the compressor can be heated by transferring heat
from exhaust gases in a counter-flow heat exchanger which is called a regenerator.
• Regeneration can be carried out by using the hot air exhausting from the turbine to
heat up the compressor exit flow.
• The thermal efficiency of the Brayton cycle increases as a part of the heat rejected is
re-used.
• Regeneration decreases the heat input (thus fuel) requirements for the same net work
output
• In the ideal case, the air exits the regenerator at the inlet temperature of the exhaust
gases, T4. One can write:
• The extent to which a regenerator approaches an ideal regenerator is called the

effectiveness, ε and is defined as;
• Under the cold-air-standard assumptions, the thermal efficiency of an ideal Brayton

cycle with regeneration is:
• The thermal efficiency depends upon the temperature as well as the pressure ratio.
The Brayton Cycle with Intercooling, Reheating, and
Regeneration
• The net work of a gas-turbine cycle is the difference between the turbine
work output and the compressor work input.
• It can be increased by either decreasing the compressor work or increasing
the turbine work, or both.
• The work required to compress a gas between two specified pressures can be
decreased by carrying out the compression process in stages and cooling the gas
in between: multi-stage compression with intercooling
• Similarly the work output of a turbine can be increased by: multi-stage
expansion with reheating.
• As the number of stages of compression and expansion are increased, the
process approaches an isothermal process.
• A combination of intercooling and reheating can increase the net work
output of a Brayton cycle significantly.
Actual/Real Brayton cycle
• Actual Brayton cycles differ from the ideal cycles in all the four
processes.
• The compression process and expansion processes are non-isentropic.
• Pressure drop during heat addition and heat rejection.
• The presence of irreversibilities causes the above deviations
• As a result of non-isentropic compression and expansion, the
compressor needs more work than the ideal cycle and turbine
generates less work.
• Isentropic efficiencies reflect the amount of deviation of the actual
compression/expansion processes from the ideal.
• Total pressure losses in the heat addition/rejection processes also need
to be considered.
• The deviation of actual compressors and turbines from the isentropic
versions can be accounted for by using the isentropic efficiencies.
• Where, 2a and 4a are the actual states at the compressor and turbine
exit and 2s and 4s are the corresponding isentropic states.
Other differences between ideal and
actual Brayton cycles
➢ Change of specific heats with temperature

➢ Heat exchanger effectiveness (in case of regenerative cycles)
➢ Mass flow rate of fuel
➢ Combustion efficiency
These parameters are often used in actual cycle analysis.

• Variants of the simple Brayton cycle
– Reheating
– Intercooling
– Regeneration
• Actual cycles with the above will be different from the ideal cycles
in terms of the irreversibilities present.
• Isentropic efficiencies, total pressure losses, heat exchanger

effectiveness for each additional components of the cycle.
• Actual Brayton cycle with intercooling
– Isentropic efficiencies of each stage of intercooling
– Heat exchanger effectiveness of the intercooling duct
• Actual Brayton cycle with reheating
– Isentropic efficiencies of each stage of reheating
–Total pressure loss and combustion efficiency during
reheating
• Actual Brayton cycle with regeneration
– Heat exchanger effectiveness
• Actual Brayton cycle with all three of these modifications need to
be analyzed considering the above discussed irreversibilities.
Brayton Cycles
END OF DISCUSSION

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T H E R M O DY N A M I C S 2

Joule or Brayton cycles are used either in open or closed systems in

The energy balance for a steady-flow process can be expressed as:

Note that the process from state 1 to state 2 is an isentropic compression

❖The thermal efficiency of a Brayton cycle is therefore a function of the

(1) Heavy frame engines

• The extent to which a regenerator approaches an ideal regenerator is called the

• Under the cold-air-standard assumptions, the thermal efficiency of an ideal Brayton

➢ Change of specific heats with temperature

These parameters are often used in actual cycle analysis.

• Isentropic efficiencies, total pressure losses, heat exchanger

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