TABLE OF CONTENTS "The farther backwards you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."
Winston Churchill
The gas turbine is the most versatile item of turbomachinery today. It can be used in several different modes in critical industries such as power generation, oil and gas, process plants, aviation, as well domestic and smaller related industries.
A gas turbine essentially brings together air that it compresses in its compressor module, and fuel, which are then ignited. Resulting gases are expanded through a turbine. That turbine's shaft continues to rotate and drive the compressor which is on the same shaft, and operation continues. A separate starter unit is used to provide the first rotor motion, until the turbine's rotation is up to design speed and can keep the entire unit running.
The compressor module, combustor module, and turbine module connected by one or more shafts are collectively called the gas generator. Figure 1-1 illustrates a typical gas generator in schematic format.
The second half of this chapter will deal in more detail with different applications and their subdivisions. At this time, we will look at some typical examples of land, air, and sea use.
The gas turbine itself operates essentially in the same manner, regardless of whether it is on land, in the air, or at sea. However, the operating environment and criticality of the application in question, may...
