Progress in Gas Turbine Performance

"The use of gas turbines for generating electricity dates back to 1939. Today, gas turbines are one of the most widely-used power generating technologies. Gas turbines are a type of internal combustion (IC) engine in which burning of an air-fuel mixture produces hot gases that spin a turbine to produce power. It is the production of hot gas during fuel combustion, not the fuel itself that the gives gas turbines the name. Gas turbines can employ a range of fuels, including natural gas, fuel oils, and synthetic fuels. Combustion occurs continuously in gas turbines, as opposed to reciprocating IC engines, in which combustion occurs intermittently. Progress in Gas Turbine Performance is of valuable for design, analyst, materials and maintenance engineers. Also manufacturers, researchers and scientists will benefit from the suitable and precise information delivered in this book. There has been a remarkable difference in the research and development regarding gas turbine technology for transportation and power generation. While being considered a key technology for base-load operations for many years, modern stationary gas turbines are in fact facing the challenge to balance electricity from variable renewables with that from flexible conventional power plants. The book intends in fact to provide a restructured picture along with a perspective view of some of the issues that characterize gas turbine technology in the different applications. It admirably describes the fundamentals of gas turbine performance and whole engine design for those who have not yet encountered them, while providing an abundance of reference material for those who are more advanced. This is particularly valuable because another facet of change in our industry is that engineers are unlikely to continue their careers concentrating on only aero, or industrial and marine engines."