Analysis of the Application of a Triggered Isomer Heat Exchanger as a Replacement for the Combustion Chamber in an Off-the-Shelf Turbojet

<p>The objective of this research was to determine the feasibility of using a nuclear reaction heat source such as the electromagnetically triggered decay of an isomer in a solid-state heat exchanger to power an off-the-shelf gas turbine engine. Two primary performance measures examined were the total pressure decrement across the heat exchanger and the total temperature capability leaving the heat exchanger. The analysis included the use of acommercialsoftware package ANSYS// 5.6.1 running on a 700 MHz Pentium?? III PC. This package includes the FLOTRAN ?? computational fluid dynamics program a finite element program based on unstructured meshes with multiple discretization schemes turbulence models and advection options. Boundary conditions on velocity pressure temperature heat flux and heat generation are available and were used in this research. Three basic geometries of heat exchanger were explored in this research: Concentric annular tubes radial trapezoidal fins and a dual concentric annulus of rectangular fins. These were selected due to the simplicity of geometry and potential ease of manufacture. In addition because the flow through all of these geometries could be reasonably approximated by a series of two dimensional flow fields run times were on the order of 1 day a significant reduction from 3-D flow calculations. All three configurations produced sufficient heat transfer. Pressure ratios across the heat exchangers varied in the range from 94.597O to 97.5%. Turbine inlet temperatures varied from 986 K to 1150 K (1775??R to 2070??R). In the J-57 engine these conditions will produce a static sea-level thrust of approximately 37000 N (8300 lb.) to 47000 N (10600 lb.) compared to 46000 N (10300 lb.) for the conventional engine.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>