Gas turbine engine for car use?

**s_quilicot** · June 13th, 2009 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by ghosthunter

A turbine engine is more efficient than a piston engine because it only has ONE moving part. No vibrations, minimal friction (no sliding parts). That is compared to the over two dozen essential moving parts in a typical 4 cylinder 4 stroke engine.

Although I have no real numbers, past automotive turbine engines run at 30,000 to 60,000 rpms.

Typically you would have an electric motor to start rotating the turbine's rotor. When the minimum RPM is reached, fuel is injected and ignited. Once operating temperature is reached, the engine can be throttled up to normal operating speed.

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/turbine.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine
http://www.mtu.de/en/take-off/how_engines_work/

GH. what kind GT engine? Turbo Fan or Turbo jet?

**roberto_minosa** · June 13th, 2009 03:26 PM

So basically the plan is to use the gas turbine engine as a generator??? Nice. Non-nuke powered aircraft carriers and other ships use that kind of engines for drive and/or electricity. Given that it turns crazy rpm's, wouldn't that be good for power generation to charge electric cars??? If only we could make one that doesn't burn too much fuel, and doesn't make too much power. The turbine engine on the Y2K jet bike has something like 400HP. I heard it came from a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter.

**ghosthunter** · June 13th, 2009 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by roberto_minosa

So basically the plan is to use the gas turbine engine as a generator??? Nice. Non-nuke powered aircraft carriers and other ships use that kind of engines for drive and/or electricity.

Compared to nuke power, turbines are still expensive in terms of fuel requirement. NUke power is still better for carrier or submarine.

But gas turbine engines have advantages when compared to traditional diesel engines for heavy vehicles because the engine itself is lightweight and produces lots of power. Applications would include fast naval patrol boats, medium class tanks for quick engagements, etc.

Given that it turns crazy rpm's, wouldn't that be good for power generation to charge electric cars???

Depends. We already have gas turbine power generators. They are relatively lightweight enough to be movable (on barges or flatbed trucks) but they consume a lot of expensive fuel.

If only we could make one that doesn't burn too much fuel, and doesn't make too much power. The turbine engine on the Y2K jet bike has something like 400HP. I heard it came from a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter.

There are gas turbine engines as small as a microchip.

There are also small ones that goes into model jet planes.

http://www.amtjets.com/

But what I am referring more into is the exact engine Chrysler used for their turbine car project.

Interestingly Chrysler's turbine car project was only stopped in the 80s jsut before they went into production.

**ghosthunter** · June 13th, 2009 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by s_quilicot

GH. what kind GT engine? Turbo Fan or Turbo jet?

It would be more similar to a turbo jet because the turbine part of the rotor should be big enough to convert the thrust to mechanical rotary power. This is pretty much what modern fast patrol boats use today.

Turbo fan engines use a large air by-pass ducting to channel air around the engine and into the exhaust for additional thrust, similar to what modern jumbo jets use today.