Thermodynamic Study of Improving Efficiency

of a Gas Turbine Locomotive

Ilia Krupenich, Andrey Tkachenko and Evgeny Filinov

Department of Aircraft Engine Theory, Samara National Research University, Samara, Russian Federation

Keywords: Gas Turbine Locomotive, Gas Turbine Plant, Mathematical Model, Climatic Characteristics, Conceptual

Design Stage.

Abstract: Although railroad electrification has multiple benefits and is one of the global initiatives to promote

transportation sustainability, 50% of the railroads are still off the electrical grid. Use of the gas turbine as a

source of mobile electricity is one of the promising technologies, crucial for the transition to electrical traction.

This paper is a part of the project of PSC KUZNETSOV on developing the gas turbine locomotive. Current

issues include low performance and resulting high exhaust temperature. These issues are because of high

hydraulic losses due to the limited roof area used for the air intake.

Aim of this work is to find optimal thermodynamic operation point which provides efficiency boost, lower

exhaust temperature and requires least alterations to the design. This data will be the basis for the next stages

of development, including optimization of the turbomachines and structural design for strength improvement.

This study used the numerical simulation of the thermodynamic behavior of the gas turbine power plant.

Firstly, the virtual model of the engine was developed using the CAE-system ASTRA and the parameters of

the engine provided by the PSC KUZNETSOV. Secondly, model adequacy was assured using the

experimental data on climatic characteristics of the gas turbine power plant. The third step was to investigate

how would removing the first one, two or three stages of the low-pressure compressor alter its characteristics,

and the performance of the engine. Altered low-pressure compressor (LPC) required adjustments of the

operating points of all turbines, so this issue was addressed at the next step. Finally, the thermodynamic

characteristics of the power plant were calculated using the optimized compressor (three- and four-stage

variants) and turbine. Optimization aimed at keeping target performance indicators while providing lower air

flow rate and decreased exhaust temperature. It also included restrictions on the rotational speeds, geometry

and other parameters to keep the stress-strain state of the engine elements close to the baseline.

The results of this research show two promising solutions for the 6MW and 8.3MW variants of the power

plant having air flow rates 27 and 17 percent lower than the baseline, respectively.

The results of this study would be used to design the altered engine components: optimize blade geometry

and strength of the critical elements of the engine.

1 INTRODUCTION

Transportation is one of the major sources of global

warming emissions and air pollution that harms

public health. Almost one third of the greenhouse

emissions can be attributed to the transportation

sector. Reducing transportation-related GHG

emissions, and understanding the impacts of climate

change on transportation systems are concerns of

many decision makers. Electrifying the transportation

sector is a proactive strategy to promote

sustainability: it enables significant economic and

environmental benefits and new opportunities for

consumer engagement (Jones 2018, Smith 2012,

Taptich 2016).

Railroad electrification increases reliability and

traffic capacity of railroad, reduces operating costs

and ecological impact, makes railway transport more

comfortable. This is why a lot of effort is made

towards the electrification (Bartosh, 1972; Lee, 1975;

Duffy, 1998; Goldshtein, 2019; Rowe, 2015; Marin,

2010; Desjouis, 2015).

The percentage of electrified railways in

Switzerland is almost 100%, in Sweden this number

is above 60% (which is more than 7500 km), in Italy

– 50% (8000 km). Despite multiple benefits of

railroad electrification and numerous initiatives

worldwide to promote transportation sustainability

332

Krupenich, I., Tkachenko, A. and Filinov, E.

Thermodynamic Study of Improving Efﬁciency of a Gas Turbine Locomotive.

DOI: 10.5220/0007948003320337

In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications (SIMULTECH 2019), pages 332-337

ISBN: 978-989-758-381-0

(Walmsley, 2015; Goldshtein, 2019; D'Ovidio, 2017;

Hao, 2017; Lu, 2016; Puschmann, 2016), more than

half of the railroads are still out of the electrical grid

(Ryzhkova, 2013). Electrification of the rail systems

faces various challenges (Stamatopoulos, 2016;

Azadeh, 2018; Allen, 2018; Krastev, 2016; Mousavi,

2015) and use of the gas turbine as a source of mobile

electricity is one of the promising technologies,

crucial for the transition to electrical traction.

Soviet Union started to develop gas turbine

locomotives in 1954. Several models were developed

and the prototypes were designed, manufactured and

tested. These projects were closed in 1970-s, as they

were unable to compete with diesel and electrical

locomotives.

This research is a part of the joint project of

Samara National Research University and JSC

Kuznetsov on development of the gas turbine

locomotive within the framework of Russian

Federation Government decree №218 of 09.04.2010

“On the measures of governmental support of the

cooperation between russian institutions of higher

education, state scientific institutions and

organizations executing complex projects of

development of high technology manufacturing” and

the Subprogramme “Institutional development of

research and development sector” of the State

Programme “Development of science and

technologies” for 2013-2020.

Initial version of the gas turbine locomotive faced

several issues including low efficiency and resulting

high exhaust temperature. These issues are because of

high hydraulic losses due to the limited roof area used

for the air intake. Multi-discipline team of researchers

and engineers is currently working to address these

drawbacks, and this paper describes the first stade of

the development - thermodynamic optimization of the

power plant.

This study included the following stages:

adjustment and verification of the mathematical

models of gas turbine power plant using the

experimental data (Kuz'michev, 2014); investigation

of the performance of the gas turbine power plant

with decreased number of stages of low pressure

compressor; development of thermodynamic

measures for improving the efficiency and operability

of a gas turbine locomotive. This work aims at finding

the optimal thermodynamic operation point which

provides efficiency boost, lower exhaust temperature

and requires least alterations to the design. This data

will be the basis for the next stages of development,

including optimization of the turbomachines and

structural design for strength improvement.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Validation of the Gas Turbine

Power Plant Simulator

First of all, the verification of the mathematical

models used to develop the in-house software code

ASTRA is required to confirm that the numerical

simulation results agree with the experimental data

(Baturin, 2017; Rybakov, 2016). This was done by

calculating the climatic characteristics of the initial

gas turbine power plant and comparing the results

with the experimental data provided by the JSC

Kuznetsov. Figure 1 shows the results of this

comparison at the sea level at 6 MW.

It is evident that the results of simulation are

identical to the experimental data and thus the

mathematical models used to develop the software

code show adequate accuracy and may be used for

further investigations.

2.2 Influence of Number of LPC Stages

on the Throttle Performance

As the roof area of locomotive is limited, the efficient

air flow rate is restricted too. High hydraulic losses at

the inlet air filter occur because of high airflow

velocity. Unfortunately, this air flow rate is less than

the required air flow rate of the gas turbine engine for

the operational conditions. To address this issue we

investigated the behavior and parameters of engine

with 1-2 low pressure compressor (LPC) stages

removed.

First, operation of the gas turbine power plant

with removed stage(s) of the LPC was investigated.

According to the equations of joint operation of

engine components, the operating points on the

performance map of low pressure compressor will

hold the same position (with minor assumptions). At

the same time, the performance map itself will alter.

The experimental parameters of each stage

provided by the JSC Kuznetsov were used to obtain

the performance maps of the 3- and 4-stage LPC. The

non-dimensional performance map of the 4-stage

LPC (one stage removed) will remain unaltered. To

dimensionalize this performance map, we consider

that the efficiency (

st i



) and pressure (

st i



) ratios of

each remaining stage remain unchanged. The overall

pressure ratio (

LPC



) and efficiency (

LPC



) of the

remaining stages of low pressure compressor may be

calculated using the parameters of each stage.

Thermodynamic Study of Improving Efﬁciency of a Gas Turbine Locomotive

333

Figure 1: Comparison of the numerical simulation of the climatic characteristics and experimental data.

The temperature at the second stage inlet

decreases with the first stage removed, thus the

altered value of reduced rotational speed of the

compressor (

LPC.red.alt

) in the design point may be

calculated as the rotational speed reduced by the

parameters at the inlet of the second stage. This value

is used to dimensionalize the altered performance

map of the low pressure compressor and perform the

design-point calculations of the power plant.

The performance map of 3-stage low pressure

compressor (two stages removed) is calculated in the

same manner.

Figure 2 shows the performance maps of the 5-, 4-

and 3-stage low pressure compressors with

operational points plotted.

Throttle characteristics of the gas turbine power

plant at the sea level and standard atmospheric

conditions were calculated for each variant of low

pressure compressor. The results show that removing

the low pressure compressor stages without

readjustment of the joint operation of the engine

components (without changing the flow capacities of

turbines) does not provide required improvements.

Figure 2: Relative position of the operational line at the

performance maps of 5-, 4- and 3-stage low pressure

compressors.

2.3 Adjusting Operation Points of the

Low-pressure and Free Turbines

The parameters of gas turbine power plant at the sea

level, standard atmospheric conditions, three levels of

net power output (10 MW, 8.3 MW and 6 MW), and

3-, 4- and 5-stage variants of LPC were calculated.

For these calculations the flow capacity of low

pressure turbine varied in the range of 0…-15% and

the flow capacity free turbine varied in the range of

SIMULTECH 2019 - 9th International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications

334

0..-30%.The results for the 5-stage low pressure

compressor are shown in Figure 3, for the 4-stage

LPC – in Figure 4, and for the 3-stage LPC – in

Figure 5. It must be noted that the power level of

10 MW was unattainable for the 3-stage LPC variant

due to the turbine inlet temperature constraints.

Figure 3: Impact of readjustment of the flow capacities of

the low pressure turbine and free turbine for the 5-stage

variant of low pressure compressor at 10 MW.

Figure 4: Impact of readjustment of the flow capacities of

the low pressure turbine and free turbine for the 4-stage

variant of low pressure compressor at 8.3 MW.

The results show that the most efficient variants

of flow capacity readjustments are:

 5-stage LPC power-plant: δA(LPT) = – 5% and

δA(FT) = – 10%;

 4-stage LPC power-plant: δA(LPT) = – 10% and

δA(FT) = – 20%;

 3-stage LPC power-plant: δA(LPT) = – 15% and

δA(FT) = – 30%.

Figure 5: Impact of readjustment of the flow capacities of

the low pressure turbine and free turbine for the 3-stage

variant of low pressure compressor at 6 MW.

2.4 Influence of the Turbines’

Operation Points Adjustment on

the Throttle Characteristics

Throttle characteristics of the power-plant were

calculated for the flow capacity readjustment variants

described in the previous section. The results are

compared to the initial throttle characteristics in

Figure 6.

Figure 6: LP spool rotational speed variation along the

throttling characteristic for the 3-, 4- and 5-stage LPC

variants with initial and readjusted flow capacities at sea

level.

3 CONCLUSIONS

This study has the following principal results.

 Experimental characteristics of the gas turbine

power plant match the ones of the virtual

prototype, showing adequacy of the simulation

Thermodynamic Study of Improving Efﬁciency of a Gas Turbine Locomotive

335

and mathematical models behind the CAE system

ASTRA.

 Reducing the number of compressor stages proved

to be an effective way of altering the operation

point of the gas turbine in case a substantial

change is necessary. Distortion of the

performance map of the compressor changes the

conditions of the joint operation of the

corresponding turbine, so its operating point needs

to be adjusted. Joint operation of the compressor

and turbine is adjusted by changing the area of

characteristic cross-sections.

 Parameters of the upgraded power plant were

calculated for the 6 MW (3-stage low-pressure

compressor) and 8.3 MW (4-stage LPC) variants,

with the corresponding air flow rates 27 and 17

percent below the baseline engine, respectively.

 Restrictions on the rotational speeds and air-gas

channel geometry were applied during the

optimization to preserve the stress-strain state of

the critical elements of the engine and keep most

of its parts unaltered. Subsequent strength

analyses will provide more specific data on this

matter.

 Results of the thermodynamic optimization will

be used as the initial input for the in-detail

simulation (Filinov, 2018), optimization of

turbomachines (Matveev, 2018; Marchukov,

2017; Popov, 2017, ) and other engine’s elements

(Falaleev, 2017; Zubrilin, 2017), adjustments of

the engine design and developing the

manufacturing process of the engine parts

(Kokareva, 2018).

 Results of the engine development project would

be used to develop the method of combined use of

the mathematical models suitable for the amount

of available information at each design stage.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the Ministry of education

and science of the Russian Federation in the

framework of the implementation of the Program of

increasing the competitiveness of Samara University

among the world's leading scientific and educational

centers for 2013-2020 years.

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