Measured Effects of Flow Leakage on the Performance of the GT-225 Automotive Gas Turbine Engine

A GT-225 regenerative gas turbine engine was used to obtain engine performance data with varied rates of simulated internal leakage. Regenerator hot surface rim and crossarm seal leaks as well as regenerator cold surface seal leaks were simulated. Instrumentation was included in external ducting to measure the leakage rates. Data were taken at three gasifier turbine speeds with turbine inlet temperature held constant by means of the variable power turbine nozzle and also with varied turbine inlet temperatures resulting from operation with the nozzle fixed at the design area. Component performance data were calculated from the engine measurements to determine the loss mechanisms associated with the leakage. The GT-225 was most sensitive to hot surface rim seal leakage, followed closely by the hot surface crossarm seal leakage, and then the cold surface leakage. Performance was degraded much more when turbine inlet temperature was fixed (by about a factor of three for specific fuel consumption) than for the fixed geometry mode. The effects of leakage became less severe as gasifier turbine speed was increased. The engine performance deterioration due simply to the flow bypass is compounded by induced losses in regenerator and compressor performance leading to very large changes in engine performance, e.g., specific fuel consumption increased up to 80 percent and power decreased as much as 40 percent with 8 percent additional leakage.