Compact Energy Recovery Units for Vehicular Gas Turbines

This paper describes the results of efforts sponsored by the German government to develop a compact exhaust gas recuperator for the gas turbine engine of a heavy military vehicle.

The power pack for the new generation of modern armoured tracked vehicles requires optimized recuperator dimensions and short interconnecting ducts to comply with the installation requirements.

Extensive analytical and experimental research work concerning heat transfer and fluid dynamics, thermo-mechanical behaviour, fatigue and shock dynamics has led to a broad technology basis and an advanced heat exchanger design.

The high power density as well as the mechanical reliablity of the profile tube matrix concept have been demonstrated in numerous test series with characteristic matrix elements and prototypes.