REGENERATION AND INTERCOOLING IN GAS TURBINE ENGINES FOR PROPULSION SYSTEMS

The needto reduce fuel consumption in modern gas turbine engines is evident, and with today's oil price levels it has become of primary importance. Infact oil price, and consequently aircraft fuel consumption, is one of the most important economic element in airlines management. Regeneration and intercooling are two of the most effective practices used in ground based power plants to achieve yhese goals. However they are not still used in gas turbine engine for propulsion systems mainly for the extra weight and size due to the presence of the heat exchangers and for the more complicated flow pattern that it comes from it. If we will be able in the near future to overcome these technical problems we can think that the same benefits obtained for the ground based plants could be transferred to propulsion systems. In particular turboprop engine seems to be the most suited to this purpose thanks to its smaller mass flow rate and its gas path. A thermodynamic cycle analysis is performed to put in evidence the advantages, in terms of power increase and fuel consumption reduction, of the introduction of regeneration and intercooling in a turboprop engine.