Progress on the European Gas Turbine Program “AGATA”

Abstract

The four-year European Gas Turbine Program “AGATA” was started in January 1993 with the objective of developing three critical components aimed at a 60 kW turbogenerator in an hybrid electric vehicle: a catalytic combustor, a radial turbine wheel and a static heat exchanger. The AGATA partners represent car manufacturers as well as companies and research institutes in the turbine, catalyst, and ceramic material fields in both France and Sweden. This paper outlines the main results of the AGATA project for the first three-year period. Experimental verification of the components started during the third year of the program. A high-pressure/temperature test rig for the combustor and the heat exchanger tests has been built and is now being commissioned. A high-temperature turbine spin rig will be ready late 1995. The turbine wheel design is completed and ceramic Si3 N4 spin disks have been manufactured by injection molding and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). A straight blade design has been selected and FEM calculations have indicated that stress levels that occur during a cold start are below 300 MPa. The catalytic combustor final design for full-scale testing has been defined. Due to the high operating temperature, 1350°C, catalyst pilot tests have included aging, activity, and strength tests. Based on these tests, substrate and active materials have been selected. Initial full-scale tests including LDV measurements in the premix duct will start late 1995. The heat exchanger design has also been defined. This is based on a high-efficiency plate recuperator design. One critical item is the ceramic thermoplastic extrusion manufacturing method for the extremely thin exchanger plates another is the bonding technique: ceramic to ceramic and ceramic to metal. Significant progress on these two items has been achieved. The manufacturing of quarter scale prototypes is now in process.