Analysis of a High Temperature Supercritical Brayton Cycle for Space Exploration

This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the supercritical Brayton cycle, a power generation system for space exploration. Supercritical working fluids increase efficiency due to increased compressibility at the critical point but have not been investigated at the high temperatures necessary for space power generation. Through computer simulation, the viability of the supercritical Brayton cycle is verified for space exploration. Several working fluids are evaluated. Results show efficiency increases of 221% over the sodium Rankine cycle and 105% over thermoelectric conversion. For future cycles at 1600 K, sulfur is the best working fluid. Given present materials constraints, iodine is the best fluid at 1200 K.