Turbine Thermodynamics

Brayton Cycle   

    On the How it works page, I described what is known as an open cycle. An open cycle is where you have a combustion process and - as a result of the compression process - combustion products. The open cycle can be modeled as a closed cycle by replacing the combustion process by a “constant-pressure heat-addition process from an external source, and the exhaust process is replace by a constant-pressure heat-rejection process to the ambient air” (Ҫengel 517). This is known as the Brayton cycle and it is made up of four reversible processes: isentropic compression, constant-pressure heat addition, isentropic expansion, and constant-pressure heat rejection.