About this Research Topic

Background

Regulations by the European Union have moved towards a consistent reduction of pollutant emissions to match the single-digit goal by 2050. Although the energy produced from wind and solar sources is expected to play a significant role, gas turbines are considered a strategic solution to support the energy grid during power surges. In the aviation field, the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe targets a reduction of 75% of CO2 emissions. A flight lasting more than 500km would benefit from novel engine concepts associated with ultra-efficient gas turbines.

From that perspective, Pressure Gain Combustion (PGC) is a technology that could guarantee an increased thermodynamic cycle efficiency by 5%-15% if the compressor pressure ratio is below 10. The reduction in specific fuel consumption would be accompanied by using alternative fuels, primarily hydrogen, as a sustainable energy carrier. Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) and Rotating Detonation Combustion (RDC) are the most promising among the possible solutions that have been identified to generate a pressure gain in gas turbines.

CVC is characterized by a deflagrative-type flame that mimics the behavior of internal combustion engines, resulting in a pulsating exit flow characterized by very high turbulence. RDC exhibits high-frequency rotating shock waves at the exit plane, resulting in high non-uniformities. The engine's overall thermodynamic cycle efficiency depends on the component interactions, notably between the combustor and the turbine. The unsteady working conditions at the combustor exit section may yield a reduced turbine performance that mitigates the overall gain at the cycle level. Therefore, novel turbine concepts may be required. Combustor and turbine cooling also represent a challenge due to the increased temperature fluctuations and the pressure level in the combustor, which is higher than the one at the compressor exit. For all those reasons, academic and industrial researchers still discuss the final configuration of a PGC-equipped gas turbine.

This Research Topic aims to present innovative developments in the field of PGC technologies. Areas of particular interest to be covered in this Research Topic include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The experimental and numerical analysis of the combustor module (RDC, CVC)
- The design of the high-pressure turbine (either subsonic or supersonic)
- The development of numerical methods for high-fidelity simulation of compressible reacting flows using High-Performance Computing systems
- The design of cooling systems (steady, pulsating)
- Cycle modeling to determine the current state of the art on PGC

Keywords: Pressure Gain Combustion, Constant Volume Combustion, Rotating Detonation Combustion, Gas Turbine, Aeroengine, Experimental Methods, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Hi-Fidelity Methods, Adjoint Methods, Robust Design, High-Pressure Turbine, Cooling, Heat Transfer

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