Today many reasons are available for comprehensive change of energy generation and consumption methods. Global warming, high price of fossil fuels and geopolitical problems linked to them in addition to limitations of their mining are the most important factors to boost researches into finding new ways to consume and generate energy.

Most of the ways currently available to adapt conventional power systems to today’s demands dedicate power to requirements. To reduce emission, noise and other factors, recently known as crucial, power suffers maximum cost.

However, can we find a way to save power when emission is considerably being reduced?

This question encouraged the author to explore such a way. Accordingly, he considered the most essential parameter influencing a power system emission, is the adaptive ability to environmental elements and user demands or Context-Awareness.    

In this way, reducing energy consumption of available devices is one of the most effective methods. This work needs few changes in infrastructures and it can satisfy requirements in mid and long terms with minimum const. However, such a development should not increase complexity of systems, in fact more complicated systems potentially can raise cost and reduce tendency to use them. 

Author believes introducing new definitions, mostly used in IT world, into power and propulsion systems is capable to turn these devices into desirable way compatible with today and future demands.

One of the most prominent factors to heighten performance and fuel efficiency of power and propulsion systems is their capability to adapt to operating conditions. In fact, many of the optimizations have been carried out toward improving this capability. However, author believes a new view is necessary to create real adaptive capability in them.

Since early in the 2000, author has focused his researches on creating new generation of gas turbines with superior ability to adapt to user demands and environment requirements. This category of engines has played an important role in power generation and propulsion, and then adaptive capability is crucial to heighten its performance. As a result author tried to introduce “Context-Awareness” into gas turbine engines. Context-Awareness, a definition created in IT and computer world, urges such a dynamic structure that system would be able to understand user demands and environmental elements as input and adapts itself to them as output.

In first phase changing available configuration toward context-aware system was considered. To cast proper dynamic adaptation capability into gas turbine engine construction, creating an open access to components individually is essential. However, existing consistency among them is crucial to generate power and thrust. In a word, coherent consistency should replace strong link among engine’s components.

Individual operation of turbine on the framework of free power unit and combustor, which reflects user demands, are able to adapt to Context-Awareness, however, approaching gas turbine engine to desirable characters requires making essential changes in power transmission and compressor operation.

In order to pursue this idea, author introduced a new generation of axial flow compressors (see article 3, 4) and a novel hybrid cycle which is suitable to be operated in vehicles (see article 2).

However, imposing suitable specification on conventional compressor increases complexity besides difficulties to adapt configuration to desirable character. On the other hand conventional form has not enough capacity to rise up to such an advanced system.

As such author attempted to design the new generation of compressors which are inherently capable to support Context-Awareness. Accordingly, this principle was considered that the compressor should be capable to operate by several simple components, which are able to work independently and coherently under integrated management. Moreover, author has believed that an advanced device operates based on its molecular properties rather parts. Such a device consumes energy and works by components forming its molecular structure. A good sample of such a device is a computer processor, which performs heavy duties by millions of components when all of them form a part. Such a view led author to design a novel compressor by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEA). In fact, its effect on the gas turbines can be similar to transistor effect on the electronic devices early in the 1970s. This device mimics behavior of a type of muscles to produce gullet like rather linear movement. For more details, (see article 1).