I have to admit that the idea of a constant volume combustion gas turbine is an intriguing one. And it's one I have thought of on several occasions myself. Unlike this particular design utilizing a rotary valve, my idea was basically the same as the one mentioned with a rotating combustion...
Candles help to reduce tobacco odor in yet another way. Specifically, the high temperature of the flame promotes the oxidation of odor causing compounds (such as cigarette tar) to odorless carbon dioxide and water. In other words, by acting as a 'thermal reactor', a candle flame basically 'burns...
My inclusion of cost in the list of advantages was, as you might guess, a mistake - just a simple oversight.
Then again, if reducing costs means lowering the efficiency to the point that it is less efficient than a reciprocating engine, what's the point in using a gas turbine?
I actually learned a great deal from the built-in tutorials. Also, Solidworks seems to be MUCH easier to master than, say, AutoCAD or Pro-Engineer (neither of which have any tutorials - go figure). If you do the tutorials and practice (perhaps by modeling car parts or something of that nature)...
I should sum this up by saying that, in the end, it is going to be COST that determines whether gas turbines will find their niche in land-based vehicles. In all other ways (maintenance, reliability, cost, efficiency, flex fuel capability, NVH, etc), current microturbines can better conventional...
This is true. But if we are referring to the gas turbine electric locomotives used by Union Pacific around 50 years ago, efficiency was probably the main factor that did them in. Simply put, early gas turbines were horrendously inefficient (this fact also did ALOT to kill early gas turbine cars...