Florida Turbine Technologies, Inc.

Scott A Baker

Joseph D Brostmeyer

Timothy J Miller

An apparatus, system, and process for testing a gas turbine engine or other test object under a cold condition, such as a compressor of a gas turbine engine, a combustor of a gas turbine engine, or an afterburner of an aero gas turbine engine, using compressed air stored in an underground storage reservoir of a CAES system along with an air turbine or an air injector. High-pressure, but low-volume, compressed air from a CAES system can be converted into a low-pressure, but high-volume, flow of compressed air using an air injector to supply enough compressed air to test a combustor or an afterburner. High pressure compressed air from the CAES system can be used to drive an air turbine that then drives a compressor for testing.

Apparatus and process for testing a large combustor using a CAES facility

A non-vitiated compressed air heater facility that can heat a non-vitiated compressed air from around 1,100 degrees F. to over 1,600 degrees F. using three heat exchangers oriented in a vertical direction and connected in series, where each heat exchanger uses a number of heat pipes with burners to produce a hot gas at around 2,000 F that counter flows with non-vitiated compressed air flowing over the heat pipes to add heat to the non-vitiated compressed air flowing through the heat exchangers. The non-vitiated compressed air heated to at least 1,600 F can be used to test an aero vehicle in a wind tunnel under high Mach # conditions, or can be used to supply non-vitiated compressed air to test a large combustor of a gas turbine engine.

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Jupiter, FL, United States of America

Scott A Baker