The Combustion Gas Turbine: Its History, Development, and Prospects

Abstract

By “combustion gas turbine” is meant a turbine actuated by the steady flow of the products of a continuous combustion under pressure in a combustion chamber. Inventors appear to have been at work on the gas turbine since 1791, the original attractions of the proposal being its simplicity and the elimination of the reciprocating motion of the early steam engines. Simplicity remains the principal advantage of the gas turbine, though the first applications have been made possible by the needs of special chemical processes, such as the Houdry cracking process. The efficiency attainable under present conditions is 17–18 per cent, but this would be increased to 23 per cent if the gas inlet temperature could be raised from 1,000 to 1,300 deg. F. The proposed new fields of application of the gas turbine include locomotive and marine propulsion, blast furnace plants, and the power supply for wind tunnels.

Effective energy management by combining gas turbine cycles and forward osmosis desalination process

“…Gas turbine was first introduced by Brown Boveri in 1937 [12]. The low efficiency of the gas turbine cycle in the early days has been improved through various attempts which include technology development and modification of the process.…”

Griffith's early ideas on turbomachinery aerodynamics

“…In the thirties the most successful work on axial compressors was done by Brown Boveri in Switzerland and many units with constant reaction blading were built and used. The development of their early compressors was covered in 1940 by Seippel' 19 ' and also in the 1939 contribution by Meyer (20) on the combustion gas turbine. In Seippel's paper' 19 ' there was an interesting reference on p. Ill to Darrieus in France, and the building in 1927 of a small four-stage axial compressor and whose design was based on aerofoil theory.…”