Overview
ThetaGen aimed to scavenge energy from a turboshaft and convert it into electrical power to feed the engine control unit. It defined and specified such a power block, benchmarks potential technologies, developed a demonstrator and proved the concept through actual measurements on an engine. It gathers companies over four European countries: an aircraft manufacturer, two research labs, an expert in thermoelectric devices, a thermal expert and a power block manufacturer.
Funding
Results
Executive Summary:
ThetaGen aimed to scavenge thermal energy from a helicopter turboshaft and convert it into electrical power to feed the engine control unit.
It defined and specified such a power block, benchmarks potential technologies, aimed to develop a demonstrator and prove the concept through actual measurements on an engine.
It gathered companies over four European countries: an aircraft manufacturer (EVEKTOR, Czech republic) , a research lab (CNRS, France), an expert in thermoelectric devices (TERMOGEN AB, Sweden), a thermal expert (EPSILON, France) and a power block manufacturer (TRONICO, France).
The project failed to design the expected demonstrator because:
1. A current turboshaft is not a friendly environment for a thermo generator. It has not been designed for, and it does not fit with any evolution. No practical solution could be found with the current design;
2. In future turbo shafts, several evolutions have to be considered: anchoring devices on the combustion chamber and/or the compressors, cooling the fuel circuit and/or the fuel tank, improve the oil circuit.
3. A wide range of temperature is definitely not practical at system level. To narrow the temperature domain in all flight conditions it should be nice to use the combustion chamber as a hot source (more or less stable) and the oil circuit as a cool source (temperature controlled for other reasons). The fuel circuit can also be a nice cool source if properly refreshed.