FY17 GRC: Tuna-Inspired Heat Pipe for High OPR Gas Turbines

One minute per flight is globally equivalent to 4.8 tons of CO2 added to the atmosphere per year. Aviation accounts for $1.5T of U.S. economic activity and has generated a positive trade balance of $78.3B in 2014 and supports 11.8M jobs. The aviation industry is set to expand and thus CO2 emissions are set to rise unless aggressive CO2 emission reduction goals are met. One way to achieve this is to reduce fuel burn by improving the efficiency of gas turbine engines by increasing the OPR. This cannot be achieved using conventional technology due to the high turbine temperatures that would arise. For gas turbine engines heat pipes have never been used due to constraints in manufacturing, heat transfer and safety concerns (alkali metal leakage). In 5-10 years - advance turbine technology to higher OPR in the short term. In 10-20 years - enable thermal management for electric motors and hybrid gas electric architectures. Heat pipes have been studied and used for application in Sterling engines for in-space application and there is an existing infrastructure to develop heat pipe or related technology for aeronautics.