• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1178-1185
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• 2011

In the present study, a recuperator is suggested to improve the thermal efficiency of a micro gas turbine. Primary design parameters of the recuperator are determined from the ideal cycle analysis. The counter flow plate-fin heat exchanger with offset strip fins is chosen as the type of the recuperator. In order to satisfy the design constraints which are the minimum effectiveness and the maximum pressure drop, the optimization for the internal structure of the recuperator is performed with varying the fin spacing and the fin height of offset strip fins. Also the effects of the thermal conductivity of fins and separation plates and the longitudinal heat conduction on the thermal performance of the recuperator are investigated.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1068-1076
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• 2006

A plate-fin type recuperator for a gas turbine/fuel cell hybrid power generation system was designed, manufactured, and tested. Performance analysis shows that the performance of the system is directly affected by the performance of the recuperator. Therefore, the recuperator should be designed and manufactured carefully, and its performance should be tested and verified before it is integrated into the system. In this paper, the developing procedure including designing, manufacturing, and testing of a cross flow plate-fin type recuperator was presented. Performance test results showed that the design requirements of the recuperator were almost satisfied. Based on the test results, improved design to reduce the size of the recuperator was suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.24-28
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• 2009

To improve its efficiency, most of the industrial furnace had been used recuperator. However, commonly used metal recuperator is not suitable under condition of temperature higher than $1000^{\circ}C$. The other hand, ceramic recuperator is able to use in high temperature condition. In the present study, the design program based on the basic heat exchanger design theory, and CFD modelling are applied to ceramic recuperator to verify the design results. Using design program to find the optimum design factor on the variation of recuperator condition. The result of this study are as follows : Thinner fin-plate thickness reduces pressure drop and increases heat-transfer rate, However, thin plate or plate with thin thickness(< 5 mm) is difficult to manufacture, due to limited mechanically strength.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.2105-2110
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• 2004

Plate-fin type recuperators for the gas turbine/fuel cell hybrid power generating system were designed using commercial design software, MUSE. Heat transfer efficiency and total pressure drop in the recuperator were calculated to confirm required recuperator performance. Both counter flow and cross flow type plate-fin recuperators were designed. Results show that the counter flow type has higher efficiency and short core length, but the cross flow type is simpler to construct because the cross flow type does not need additional distributors. Two or three headers for the each recuperator core will be designed and tested to evaluate best header design. The designed recuperators and headers which will be designed later will be constructed, tested, and used in gas turbine/fuel cell hybrid power generating system.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.72-78
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• 2015

In the present study, a recuperator to improve the thermal efficiency of a micro gas turbine is considered. The counter flow plate-fin heat exchanger with offset strip fins is chosen as the type of the recuperator. From the optimization study as varying design parameters of the recuperator determined from the ideal cycle analysis, the internal structure of the recuperator is determined. The recuperator is made from stainless steel 304. In order to evaluate performance of the recuperator, experimental investigation is performed. The effects of inlet temperature of hot-side of the recuperator on the thermal performance of the recuperator are investigated. As a result, effectiveness of the recuperator obtained from the experiments is well consistent with that obtained from the correlations.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.819-825
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• 2006

In a SOFC/GT (solid oxide fuel cell/gas turbine) hybrid power generation system, the recuperator is an indispensible component to enhance system performance. Since the expansion ratio to the recuperator core is very large, generally, the effective header design to distribute the flow uniformly before entering the core is crucial to guarantee the required performance. In the present study, we focus on the design of a diffuser type recuperator header with a 90 degree turn inlet port. To reduce the flow separation and recirculation flows, multiple horizontal vanes are used. The number of horizontal vanes is varied from 0 to 24. The air flow velocity is measured at 40 points just behind the core outlet by using a hot wire anemometer. Then, the flow non-uniformity is evaluated from the measured flow velocity. The experimental results showed that inlet air velocity did not effect on relative flow non-uniformity. According to increasing the number of horizontal vanes, flow non-uniformity reduced about $40{\sim}50%$ than without using horizontal vanes.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.80-87
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• 2003

Micro gas turbines are designed with low turbine inlet temperature and pressure ratio. To overcome the efficiency defect of the simple cycle, adoption of the recuperator is an inevitable choice. In addition to the design performance, we should also pay attention to the off-design performance of gas turbines since they usually operate at part-load conditions for a considerable amount of the time. This study aims at analyzing off-design performance characteristics of micro gas turbines and addressing the importance of the recuperator in the part load operation. Comparative analyses have been performed to evaluate the part load performance differences among various design and operating options : simple vs recuperative cycles, single vs two shaft configurations, various operating strategies for the single shaft configuration (fuel only control, variable speed operation, variable inlet guide vane control), and current vs advanced engines. Major finding is that maintaining turbine at high level is crucial in efficient operation of micro gas turbines.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.847-856
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• 2013

In this study, thermal performance of recuperators with plain and offset strip fins is investigated to enhance the thermal efficiency of a micro gas turbine. Thermal cycle analysis is conducted to determine major design parameters of a single-pass counterflow recuperator. In order to evaluate the performance of the recuperator, the effectiveness and the pressure drop in the recuperators are chosen as the objective function and the design constraint, respectively. The optimized geometries for internal structure of the recuperators with plain and offset strip fins are obtained with varying the fin spacing and height. From the result, the recuperator with offset strip fins has better thermal performance when the fin spacing, s, is smaller than 1.45mm and the thermal performance of the recuperator with plain rectangular fins is higher than that with offset strip fins in the region of $s{\geq}1.45mm$. In addition, it is found that the entrance region effect and the longitudinal wall heat conduction effect should be taken into account for accurately predicting the thermal performance of the recuperators with both plain and offset strip fins.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.7 no.3 s.24
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• pp.39-47
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• 2004

Micro gas turbines are designed with low turbine inlet temperature and pressure ratio. To overcome the efficiency defect of the simple cycle, adoption of the recuperator is an inevitable choice. In addition to the design performance, we should also pay attention to the off-design performance of gas turbines since they usually operate at part-load conditions lot a considerable amount of their lifetime. This study analyzes off-design performance characteristics of micro gas turbines and addresses the importance of the recuperation process doting the part load operation. Comparative analyses have been performed to evaluate the part load performance differences among various design and operating options : simple vs recuperative cycles, single vs two shaft configurations, various operating strategies for the single shaft configuration, and current vs advanced engines. Major finding is that maintaining high turbine exhaust temperature is crucial for efficient operation of micro gas turbines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.889-891
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• 2017

Usually piston or rotary engines are installed at UAV's under 100 kg payload class. Those engine are less expensive and easy to get, but they require higher operating and maintenance costs due to shorter life and unique fuel usage. They are also too noisy to operate in urban area and have too strong vibration to carry sophisticated payloads. On the contrary, a gas turbine engine has drawbacks like higher specific fuel consumption and weight to power ratio, even it has many operating and maintenance benefits. This study aims to design a small turboshaft engine with a recuperator to overcome those demerits. A tilt rotor UAV(TR-60) developed by KARI was chosen as an imaginary target aircraft, and engine power and size were derived from it. This paper describes engine requirements, design process, and initial reference point cycle design.