Technology for Brayton-cycle powerplants using solar and nuclear energy

Technical Report · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5554076

English, R E

Brayton cycle gas turbines have the potential to use either solar heat or nuclear reactors for generating from tens of kilowatts to tens of megawatts of power in space, all this from a single technology for the power generating system. Their development for solar energy dynamic power generation for the space station could be the first step in an evolution of such powerplants for a very wide range of applications. At the low power level of only 10 kWe, a power generating system has already demonstrated overall efficiency of 0.29 and operated 38 000 hr. Tests of improved components show that these components would raise that efficiency to 0.32, a value twice that demonstrated by any alternate concept. Because of this high efficiency, solar Brayton cycle power generators offer the potential to increase power per unit of solar collector area to levels exceeding four times that from photovoltaic powerplants using present technology for silicon solar cells. The technologies for solar mirrors and heat receivers are reviewed and assessed. This Brayton technology for solar powerplants is equally suitable for use with the nuclear reactors. The available long time creep data on the tantalum alloy ASTAR-811C show that such Brayton cycles can evolve to cycle peak temperatures of 1500 K (2240 F). And this same technology can be extended to generate 10 to 100 MW in space by exploiting existing technology for terrestrial gas turbines in the fields of both aircraft propulsion and stationary power generation.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (USA). Lewis Research Center
• OSTI ID: 5554076
• Report Number(s): N-86-21577; NASA-TP-2558; E-2761
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140700* -- Solar Thermal Power Systems
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210600 -- Power Reactors
Auxiliary
Mobile Package
& Transportable
220800 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Propulsion Reactors
42 ENGINEERING
425001 -- Engineering-- Power Cycles-- Brayton-- (1980-)
ALLOYS
BRAYTON CYCLE POWER SYSTEMS
ELECTRIC GENERATORS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ENERGY
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY SYSTEMS
ENGINES
EQUIPMENT
GAS TURBINE ENGINES
HEAT ENGINES
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
NUCLEAR ENERGY
POWER SUPPLIES
POWER SYSTEMS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
SOLAR ENERGY
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR REFLECTORS
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
TANTALUM ALLOYS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT