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a                                                                                     b
                              Fig. 4.8 – An open-cicle a and a closed-cycle b gas-turbine engine
            these plants, the exhaust gases of the gas turbine serve as the heat source for the steam.
                  The  gas-turbine  cycle  can  also  be  executed  as  a  closed  cycle  for  use  in  nuclear
            power plants. This time the working  fluid is  not  limited to air, and a  gas with  more
            desirable characteristics (such as helium) can be used.
                  The majority of the Western world’s naval fleets already use gas-turbine engines for
            propulsion and electric power  generation. The General Electric  LM2500  gas turbines
            used to power ships have a simple-cycle thermal efficiency of 37 percent. The General
            ElectricWR-21 gas turbines equipped with intercooling and regeneration have a thermal
            efficiency  of  43  percent  and  produce  21.6  MW.  The  regeneration  also  reduces  the
            exhaust temperature from 600°C  to 350°C. Air is compressed to 3 atm before it enters
            the  intercooler.  Compared  to  steam-turbine  and  diesel-propulsion  systems,  the  gas
            turbine offers greater power for a given size and weight, high reliability, long life, and
            more convenient operation. The engine start-up time has been reduced from 4h required
            for a typical steam-propulsion system to less than 2 min for a gas turbine. Many modern
            marine propulsion systems use gas turbines together with diesel engines because of the
            high fuel consumption of simple-cycle gas-turbine engines. In combined diesel and gas-
            turbine systems, diesel is used to provide for efficient low-power and cruise operation,
            and gas turbine is used when high speeds are needed.
               The open  gas-turbine cycle described above (Fig. 16a) can be  modeled as a closed
            cycle (Fig. 4.8b)  by utilizing the air-standard assumptions. Here the compression and
            expansion  processes  remain  the  same,  but  the  combustion  process  is  replaced  by  a
            constant-pressure  heat-addition  process  from  an  external  source,  and  the  exhaust
            process is replaced by a constant-pressure heat-rejection process to the ambient air.
            The  ideal  cycle  that  the  working  fluid  undergoes  in  this  closed  loop  is  the  Brayton
            cycle, which is made up of four internally reversible processes:
                 1-2 Isentropic compression (in a compressor)
                 2-3 Constant-pressure heat addition
                 3-4 Isentropic expansion (in a turbine)

                 4-1 Constant-pressure heat rejection
                  The T-s and P-v diagrams of an ideal Brayton cycle are shown in Fig. 4.9. Large
            amount  of  work  is  consumed  in  process  4-1  for  a  gas  turbine  cycle  as  the  working



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