Article
Article
Gas turbine
Article By:
Lewis, John H. Pratt and Whitney, East Hartford, Connecticut.
Day, William H. Pratt and Whitney, East Hartford, Connecticut.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.281700
One of a class of heat engines which use fuel energy to produce mechanical output power, either as torque through a rotating shaft (industrial gas turbines) or as jet power in the form of velocity through an exhaust nozzle (aircraft jet engines). The fuel energy is added to the working substance, which is gaseous in form and most often air, either by direct internal combustion or indirectly through a heat exchanger. The heated working substance, air co-mixed with combustion products in the usual case of internal combustion, acts on a continuously rotating turbine to produce power. The gas turbine is thus distinguished from heat engine types where the working substance produces mechanical power by acting intermittently on an enclosed piston, and from steam turbine engines where the working substance is water in liquid and vapor form. See also: Internal combustion engine; Steam turbine
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