High Efficiency Gas Turbine Recuperator

This thesis deals with the high efficiency gas turbine recuperator design and its production methods. First part of the work presents an analysis of basic constructions and materials used for present recuperators. The requirements on the recuperator for a low emission gas turbine power source are then specified and the recuperator is designed according to the available literature sources. The quality of the heat transfer surface is examined by CFD modeling using the commercial CFD code Star-CD. The second part deals with the recuperator manufacturing and experimental validation of the designed recuperator performance. This section describes ways to build the recuperator matrix, technologies available to assemble the recuperator and methodology of measurements. Experimental results are presented including a discussion of the uncertainties of determining individual variables. Finally the engineering equations are found based on the experimental data obtained, that can be employed to design the recuperator