Bringing Turbine Power to Small Aircraft

Turbines have been the propulsion engines of choice for large aircraft for many years, while small aircraft operators have had to be satisfied with piston engines, despite a desire for turbine power. The problem has been that low power turbines have unacceptable efficiency ratings of around 10 percent. Now, Turbotech S.A.S., a startup company in France, using ANSYS computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural simulation solutions, has patented a regenerative, high-temperature heat exchanger that increases the efficiency of low power turbines by a factor of 2–3. They achieved this by recycling what would normally be waste heat in the exhaust gases to preheat the air entering the combustor, resulting in less fuel required to generate the same amount of power. Turbotech views the turbogenerator as the “missing link” that will enable the future of hybrid-electric aeronautical propulsion.