Joao Amaral Teixeira

Gas turbine engines (GTEs) frequently operate in desert environments where the main components are exposed to erosive media such as sand and dust. In these circumstances, a crucial problem, particularly with compressor blades, is solid particle erosion (SPE). Positioned in the front of the GTE, the compressors suffer most from SPE in terms of inflicting damage on compressor hardware such as blades, decreasing the GTE’s working life and increasing fuel consumption, energy losses, and efficiency losses. Results obtained from Turbomatch, an in-house performance tool, showed that degraded compressors can experience increased turbine entry temperature (TET) and specific fuel consumption (SFC), which leads to a significant increase in the operating, maintenance and component replacement costs, in addition to fuel costs. Fitting erosion protective coatings (EPCs) is a conventional approach to reduce SPE of the compressor blades of aeroengines. Titanium nitride (TiN), applied via physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques, is often used to extend the life of compressor blades in erosive conditions. This paper reports the outcomes of a cost benefit analysis (CBA) of whether applying an EPC to the booster blades of an aeroengine is economically beneficial. The case study takes into account the available coatings potential of the market, in addition to all of the available technical data in the public domain regarding the compressor of the research engine. To identify the economic consequences of employing an EPC over the blades of a compressor, a CBA study was carried out by investigating consequent benefits and costs. The results indicate that under certain conditions the application of an EPC can be profitable.

Coolants play a major role in the performance of heat exchanging systems. In a marine gas turbine engine, an intercooler is used to reduce the compressed gas temperature between the compressor stages. The thermophysical properties of the coolant running within the intercooler directly influence the level of enhancement in the performance of the unit. Therefore, employing working fluids of exceptional thermal properties is beneficial for improving performance in such applications, compared to conventional fluids. This paper investigates the effect of utilizing nanofluids for enhancing the performance of a marine gas turbine intercooler. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-water with nanofluids at 0.01–0.10 vol % concentration were produced using a two-step controlled-temperature approach ranging from 10 °C to 50 °C. Next, the thermophysical properties of the as-prepared suspensions, such as density, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and viscosity, were characterized. The intercooler performance was then determined by employing the measured data of the MWCNTs-based nanofluids thermophysical properties in theoretical formulae. This includes determining the intercooler effectiveness, heat transfer rate, gas outlet temperature, coolant outlet temperature, and pumping power. Finally, a comparison between a copper-based nanofluid from the literature with the as-prepared MWCNTs-based nanofluid was performed to determine the influence of each of these suspensions on the intercooler performance.

Numerous studies are on-going on to understand the performance of generation IV (Gen IV) nuclear power plants (NPPs). The objective is to determine optimum operating conditions for efficiency and economic reasons in line with the goals of Gen IV. For Gen IV concepts such as the gas-cooled fast reactors (GFRs) and very-high temperature reactors (VHTRs), the choice of cycle configuration is influenced by component choices, the component configuration and the choice of coolant. The purpose of this paper to present and review current cycles being considered—the simple cycle recuperated (SCR) and the intercooled cycle recuperated (ICR). For both cycles, helium is considered as the coolant in a closed Brayton gas turbine configuration. Comparisons are made for design point (DP) and off-design point (ODP) analyses to emphasize the pros and cons of each cycle. This paper also discusses potential future trends, include higher reactor core outlet temperatures (COT) in excess of 1000 °C and the simplified cycle configurations.

Gas turbines (GTEs) are often utilised in harsh environments where the GT components, including compressor vanes and rotor blades, are subject to erosion damage by sand and dust particles. For instance, in a desert environment, the rate of damage made by solid particles erosion (SPE) becomes severe, and therefore results in degradation to the GTE parts, lowering the cycle efficiency, reducing the device lifetime, and increasing the overall cost of the operation. As such, understanding the erosion mechanism caused by solid particles and the effects associated with it is crucial for selecting the appropriate countermeasures and maintaining the system performance. This review paper provides a survey of the available studies on SPE effects on GTEs and surface protective coatings. Firstly, the ductile and brittle SPE mechanism is presented, as well as the ductile-brittle transition region. Then, an in-depth focus on the parameters associated with the SPE, such as particles properties and impingement conditions, is introduced. Furthermore, the existing theoretical models are shown and discussed. Afterwards, erosion resistant coating materials for surface protection and their selection criteria are covered in the review. Finally, the gap in knowledge and future research direction in the field of SPE on GTEs are provided.

Heat exchangers are key components in many of the devices seen in our everyday life. They are employed in many applications such as land vehicles, power plants, marine gas turbines, oil refineries, air-conditioning, and domestic water heating. Their operating mechanism depends on providing a flow of thermal energy between two or more mediums of different temperatures. The thermo-economics considerations of such devices have set the need for developing this equipment further, which is very challenging when taking into account the complexity of the operational conditions and expansion limitation of the technology. For such reasons, this work provides a systematic review of the state-of-the-art heat exchanger technology and the progress towards using nanofluids for enhancing their thermal-hydraulic performance. Firstly, the general operational theory of heat exchangers is presented. Then, an in-depth focus on different types of heat exchangers, plate-frame and plate-fin heat exchangers, is presented. Moreover, an introduction to nanofluids developments, thermophysical properties, and their influence on the thermal-hydraulic performance of heat exchangers are also discussed. Thus, the primary purpose of this work is not only to describe the previously published literature, but also to emphasize the important role of nanofluids and how this category of advanced fluids can significantly increase the thermal efficiency of heat exchangers for possible future applications.

This research investigates the pH value of stainless steel (SS) 316L/ deionised water (DIW), alumina (Al₂O₃)/DIW, and copper (I) oxide (Cu₂O)/DIW nanofluids prepared using a two-step controlled sonication temperature approach of 10°C to 60°C. The nanoparticles volumetric concentration of each family of as-prepared nanofluid ranged from 0.1 to 1.0 vol%, using as-received nanopowders, of 18 – 80 nm average particles size. Furthermore, the pH measuring apparatus and the measurement procedure were validated by determining the pH of commercially supplied calibration fluids, of pH 4, 7, and 10. Following the validation, pH correlations were obtained from the experimental measurements of the 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 vol% nanofluids in terms of varied sonication bath temperatures and volumetric concentrations. Those correlations were then combined into one robust pH_nf correlation and validated using the pH data of the 0.3 and 0.7 vol% nanofluids. The new proposed correlation was found to have a 2.18%, 0.92%, and 0.63%, average deviation from the experimental pH measurements of SS 316L, Al₂O₃, and Cu₂O nanofluids, respectively, with an overall prediction accuracy of ~ 92%.

This study demonstrates an electron beam physical vapour deposition approach as an alternative stainless steel thin films fabrication method with controlled layer thickness and uniform particles distribution capability. The films were fabricated at a range of starting electron beam power percentages of 3–10%, and thickness of 50–150 nm. Surface topography and wettability analysis of the samples were investigated to observe the changes in surface microstructure and the contact angle behaviour of 20 °C to 60 °C deionised waters, of pH 4, pH 7, and pH 9, with the as-prepared surfaces. The results indicated that films fabricated at low controlled deposition rates provided uniform particles distribution and had the closest elemental percentages to stainless steel 316L and that increasing the deposition thickness caused the surface roughness to reduce by 38%. Surface wettability behaviour, in general, showed that the surface hydrophobic nature tends to weaken with the increase in temperature of the three examined fluids.