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Turbine-electric transmission


A turbine-electric transmission system includes a turboshaft gas turbine connected to an electrical generator, creating electricity that powers electric traction motors. No clutch is required.

Turbine-electric transmissions are used to drive both railway locomotives (rarely) and warships.

A handful of experimental locomotives from the 1930s and 1940s used gas turbines as prime movers. These turbines were based on stationary practice, with single large reverse-flow combustors, heat exchangers and using low-cost heavy oil bunker fuel. In the 1960s the idea re-emerged, using developments in light weight engines developed for helicopters and using lighter kerosene fuels. As these turbines were compact and lightweight, the vehicles were produced as railcars rather than separate locomotives.

The patented US 8432048 B1, hybrid engine, is a turbine-electric transmission system that can be used to power warships, airplanes, and power plants. The gas turbine engine includes a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine which are necessary to harness mechanical energy. Inside the gas turbine engine air is taken in and compressed in the cold section of the engine, and brought to a higher pressure. Fuel is then sprayed in the air and ignites it so the combustion generates a high-temperature flow. The heated, high-pressure gas enters a turbine, where it expands down to the exhaust pressure, producing a shaft work output in the process. The exhaust is fed into the power turbine used to power an output shaft for whatever desired application. The power turbine is also connected to the electric generator, which converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. The electric generator driven by the power turbine charges the battery needed inorder to drive the motor that supplies compressed air into the combustor.


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