The potential to recover waste heat from the exhaust gases of a turboprop engine and produce useful work through an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is investigated. A thermodynamic analysis of the engine’s Brayton cycle is derived to determine the heat source available for exploitation. The aim is to use the aircraft engine fuel as the working fluid of the organic Rankine cycle in order to reduce the extra weight of the waste heat recovery system and keep the thrust-to-weight ratio as high as possible. A surrogate fuel with thermophysical properties similar to aviation gas turbine fuel is used for the ORC simulation. The evaporator design as well as the weight minimisation and safety of the suggested application are the most crucial aspects determining the feasibility of the proposed concept. The results show that there is potential in the exhaust gases to produce up to 50kW of power, corresponding to a 10.1% improvement of the overall thermal efficiency of the engine.

中文翻译：

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涡轮螺旋桨发动机应用的有机朗肯循环

研究了从涡轮螺旋桨发动机的废气中回收废热并通过有机朗肯循环 (ORC) 产生有用功的潜力。推导出发动机布雷顿循环的热力学分析以确定可用于开发的热源。其目的是使用飞机发动机燃料作为有机朗肯循环的工作流体，以减少余热回收系统的额外重量并保持尽可能高的推重比。具有类似于航空燃气轮机燃料的热物理特性的替代燃料用于 ORC 模拟。蒸发器设计以及建议应用的重量最小化和安全性是确定建议概念可行性的最关键方面。