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Ultramicrogasturbinegenerator
1.Introduction
The current trend towards miniaturization, portability and more in general ubiquitous
Menu intelligence, has led to the development of a wide range of new products such as laptops,
cellularphones,PDAs,etc.However,thepowerrequirementsofsuchsystemshavereceived
Home much less attention: typically, traditional batteryoperated electronic systems are used.
Nevertheless, the energy density of most fuel types is still 100 times more than that of the
mostperformingbatteries,whichmakestheuseofafuelbasedmicropowerunitinteresting.
Gasturbine Such power units can be based on a wide range of operating principles, ranging from fuel
Scavenger cells and thermoelectric devices, to combustion engines and gas turbines. While fuel cells
are expected to offer the highest efficiency, micro gas turbines are expected to offer the
highestpowerdensity.
Projectpartners
Afirstprototypeofaturbinedrivenbycompressedairshowsthatspeedisthelimitingfactor
Contact
forbothpowerandefficiency.Thenextstep,thedevelopmentofacompletegasturbine,is
many times more difficult, and is not simply the scaling down of larger gas turbines. Major
problems are the high rotational speed (> 500,000 rpm) and temperature (> 1200 K), and
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theefficiencyofthecomponents.

2.Microgasturbine
Gasturbinesareamongstthemostadvancedsystemsastheycombineextremeconditions
in terms of rotational speed with elevated gas temperatures (up to 2100 K for military
engines).Miniaturisationofsuchasystemposestremendoustechnicalproblemsasitleads
to extremely high rotational speeds (e.g. 106 rpm). Moreover scaling down the system
unfavourablyinfluencestheflowandcombustionprocess.Fabricatingsuchdevicesrequires
newmaterialstobeexplored(suchasSi3N4 and SiC) and also requires threedimensional
micromanufacturingprocesses.

ThemicrogasturbinedevelopedbytheBelgianPowerMEMSprojecthasarotordiameterof
20mmandwillproduceapoweroutputofabout1000W.Thesystembasicallyconsistsofa
compressor, regenerator, combustion chamber, turbine and electrical generator, as
illustratedinfigure1.

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Figure1:Gasturbinegeneratorlayout.

Figure 1 shows the general layout of the microturbine generator. The system basically
consistsofacompressor,recuperator,combustionchamber,turbineandelectricalgenerator.
Intotalithasadiameterofaround100mmandalengthof110mm.Thecompressorand
turbineimpellersare20mmindiameter.

Inordertoaccomodatetherelativelylargevolumeofboththecombustionchamberandthe
recuperator in a compact way, an annular design was chosen for both components. As a
consequenceoftheadoptedlayout,thehottestpartthecombustionchamberisenclosed
by the recuperator on the outside and by the exhaust diffuser on the inside. This allows to
recycleheatlossesfromthecombustionchamber.Anexhaustdiffuserisaddedtocreatea
subambientpressureattheturbineexit,suchthatmorepowercanbeextracted.

Toavoiddemagnetisationofthemagnets,thegeneratorislocatedawayfromthehotparts
and the inlet air is aspirated through cooling channels in the generator stator. Generator,
compressorandturbinearemountedonasingleshaftforsimplicityandreliability.

3.Thermodynamiccycle
The thermodynamic cycle has been determined and optimised in an iterative way. Fixed
values are the compressor diameter (20 mm), nominal shaft speed and max. turbine inlet
temperature(TIT).Themax.TITissetbymateriallimitsto1200K.Thenominalshaftspeed
was set to 500,000 rpm as models predicted that with the given compressor diameter, a
pressure ratio of 3 is achievable. Below this value efficiency drops sharply, while higher
valuesoffersmallerefficiencyimprovements.

Adetailedgasturbinemodelwasbuiltcontainingcompressorandturbinemaps,andmodels
forthecombustionchamberandrecuperator.Aniterativeprocesswasusedtooptimisethe

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efficiencyoftheindividualcomponentsaswellastheglobalcycle.Thefollowingparameters
wereobtained:

Nominalmassflow:
20g/s
Pressureratio:3.0
Power
Compressor:
3800W
Turbine:
5083W
Net
mechanical
output: 1180
W
ts polytropic
efficiency
Compressor:
66%
Turbine: 78
%
Turbine inlet
temperature: 1200
K
Cycleefficiency
Without
recuperation: Fig.2:Mechanicalpowervs.speedandturbineinlet
11% temperature(TIT)(withoutrecuperator).
With
recuperation:
20%

While the primary goal of the optimisation was the maximisation of the cycle efficiency, a
major result was an enlargement of mass flow and power, this way reducing thermal and
flowlossesinarelativesense.

An offdesign analysis has been performed to investigate stability, transient behaviour and
startup.Figure2showsthemechanicalpowerasfunctionofspeedandTIT,indicatingthat
aminimalTITof600Kisrequiredforstartup.

4.Bearings
Thebearingsmustoperatethroughoutthewholedomainofpossibletemperatureconditions
during startup and in steady state operation. Maximum temperatures between 100C and
1000Ccanbeexpecteddependingontheexactlocationofthebearings.

Rotor imbalance can result in dangerously high dynamic radial loading, and therefore, the
eccentricityofthemasscentreshouldbebalancedwithinafewmicrometer.

Itisclearthatconventionalballbearingsarenotfeasibleregardingspeedandtemperature.
Magnetic bearings could offer a solution regarding speed, but the high temperature
dissuadestheuseofpermanentmagnetsasthesecoulddemagnetise.Consequently,such
bearingsshouldbeconstructedwithelectromagnetswhichconsumeaconsiderableamount
ofelectricalenergy.

Air bearings seem most suited for this application. Aerostatic as well as aerodynamic ones
can be used. Aerodynamic bearings are preferred as they need no external supply of
pressurisedgas(e.g.tappedfromthecompressor)astheyareselfpressurising.Themain
drawbackistheshortphaseofdryfrictionduringstartupandstop.

The speed of air bearings is usually limited by selfexcited instabilities (fractionalspeed

whirl).However,wesucceededinsuppressingthisinstabilityandrealisedarecordspeedof
1200000rpmonaerodynamicbearings.

5.Compressorandturbine
As stated before, the efficiency of all components is critical. This is especially true for the
compressorandturbine,requiringefficienciesofatleast6070%,valueslyingfarabovethe
numbersobtainedfortheformer air driven turbine.Thus, it is clearly a challenge to obtain
therequiredefficiencydespitethelowReynoldsnumbers,increasedheattransfer,andlower
relativegeometricaccuracyofthecomponents.Thecompressorandturbineimpellershave

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been optimized by a multidisciplinary method, optimizing simultaneously stress and

aerodynamicperformance.Theresultinggeometriesareshowninfigure3.

Fig.3:Stressesinoptimizedcompressorandturbinegeometries.
Compressor Turbine
tsefficiency 66% 78%
ttefficiency 68% 81%
Max.vonMisesstress 364MPa 458MPa
Power 3800W 5083W

6.Recuperator
Heat recuperation is often used to improve the overall cycle efficiency of standard gas
turbines.Insmallsizedgasturbinesthisimprovementishowevermuchmorequestionable.
Indeed, both achievable compressor pressure ratios and turbine inlet temperatures are
significantlylowerandpressuredropsaremuchlargercomparedtoconventionallysizedgas
turbines. The additional pressure drop introduced by the small channels in the recuperator
shouldnotundothebenefitsofheatrecuperation.

In conventionally sized recuperators, complex, well designed fin configurations are used in
order to improve the gasair heat transfer. In order to avoid these costly and difficult to

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machine fin configurations, alternative recuperator designs are needed for microscale
applications.

Therecuperatorconsistsof6identicalblockspositionedaroundthegasturbine.Thedesign
is determined by a multidimensional optimization in which cold and hot side recuperator
pressure drops are used as optimization parameters [9]. The optimal design has a heat
exchangereffectivenessof74.5%forrelativepressuredropsatcoldandhotsideof8.5kPa
and 5.5 kPa respectively. The recuperator blocks consist of alternating hot and cold plates
(52 in total), with longitudinal channels in counterflow (see fig. 6). Channels and collectors
are etched with a uniform depth in stainless steel plates, 63 by 25 mm in size. Total stack
heightis34mm.

Fig.6:Stackedrecuperatorblockandindividualhotandcoldplates.

7.Generator
The generator operates at much higher speeds and temperatures than conventionally. For
reasonsofmechanicalstrength(centrifugalload),aswitchedreluctancemachineischosen
for the generator. Permanent magnets and coils are placed on the stator to avoid damage
resultingfromhighstresses.Thetemperatureloadisminimisedasthegeneratorislocated
atthelowesttemperaturesideofthedevice(thecompressorside)andbyextracoolingwith
theinletair.

Thehighspeedresultsalsoinhighoperatingfrequencieswhichintroduceskineffectsinthe
electrical circuit and eddy currents in the magnetic circuit. To reduce the magnetic losses,
boththegeneratorsrotorandstatorcorehavealaminatedstructurefromnanocrystalline
foils.Thegeneratoralsoservesasastartupmotor.

8.Fabrication
Therotorandbearinggeometriesarethemostcriticalcomponentsforproduction.Bearing
surfaceshavetobeproducedandalignedwithmicrometeraccuracy.Especiallythebearing
surfaces on the rotor are critical as this rotor consists of 4 assembled components.
Compressor and turbine impellers have a complex 3D blade geometry due to their axial
radial design. Unigraphics NX 3.0 CAD/CAM software is used for modelling and tool path
generation.

The titanium (Ti6Al4V) compressor is produced by 5axis milling on a Kern micromilling

machine,withtoolsdownto0.5mmindiameter.Theblankincludingtheprecisebearingand
matingsurfacesismachinedonaHembruglathe.

The ceramic turbine is produced by diesinking electrical discharge machining (EDM). An

electrically conductive ceramic composite is chosen with good mechanical, thermal and
machining properties: Si3N4TiN. The graphite EDM electrodes are machined by 3axis
micromilling.TheroughnessafterEDMis2.3mRa,suchthatpostprocessingbygrinding
or abrasive flow machining is required. For future large series production ceramic powder
injection moulding is envisaged. The ceramic bearing surfaces on the turbines backside
arefinishedwithdiamondgrindingtoolstomicrometertolerancesand0.10mRa.

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Fig.5:Impellerprototypes.Left:ceramicturbine.Right:compressor.Bothdiameter20mm.

9.Testing
To test the performance of the most critical components without the overhead of the
completesystem,aspecialsetupisbuilt,containingonlycompressor,turbine,diffuserand
bearings:asocalledturboshaftsetup.

Replyoncontent:Jan.Peirsatmech.kuleuven.be
Copyright2008KatholiekeUniversiteitLeuven,DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering

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