Unit 83 assignment 3:
Task 1:
a) “The basic operation of the gas turbine is a Brayton cycle with air as the working
fluid. Atmospheric air flows through the compressor that brings it to higher pressure.
Energy is then added by spraying fuel into the air and igniting it so the combustion
generates a high-temperature flow.”
b) To provide fuel, the FADEC would distribute the fuel from the tank to the engine for
the combustion chamber, the turbine would start to turn to suck in the oxygen from
the outside of the plane which would progress through the HP & LP compressors and
then in the combustion chamber would mix with the fuel to ignite the engine to
generate thrust.
c) “The starting torque is facilitated typically by AC or DC electric motors, similar to
automobile engines, pneumatic system - where compressed air or fuel gas is stored
to provide the initial torque, a separate combustion process with expansion of hot
gases ECIDSS the turbine wheel to develop the required torque.”
Task 2:
a) Compressor stalls cause the air flowing through the compressor to slow down or
stagnate and sometimes result in reverse flow, making the engine ineffective at
producing thrust. Therefore making one engine push the plane in an asymmetrical
direction, making the plane uneven to fly.
b) Surge is a dynamic instability that occurs in turbo-compressors. As the flow through
a compressor is reduced, a point is reached where the flow pattern becomes
unstable. Surge happens quickly, and conventional instruments usually fail to
recognize the effects of surge. This happens when the flow in the compressor is
reversed which damages the compressors ability to work normally, therefore, not
even being able to produce thrust as the compressor is broken.
Task 3:
a) Water injection was used to increase the thrust (usually for take-off) in early
turbojet-engine aircraft both civil and military. Normally it was injected into the inlet
of somewhere forward of the combustion chamber and had a two-fold purpose. This
uses fuel faster and decreases the efficiency of the combustion process.
b) The idea behind an afterburner is to inject fuel directly into the exhaust stream and
burn it using this remaining oxygen. This heats and expands the exhaust gases
further, and can increase the thrust of a jet engine by 50% or more. However, it uses
way more fuel per second do to the requirement of extra thrust at the cost of more
fuel. Making the engine be able to run for a shorter time.
Task 4:
So far as I can see the turbine inlet pressure increases as the more thrust that is generated,
this is most likely due to the requirement of air that is needed to compress and combust for
the thrust to increase in the first place, but the temperature will increase as the faster the
inlet spins the more friction will be present. Therefore, the higher the plane will go the
hotter the turbine inlet will go, as the air will be thinner, so requirement of air will be higher
which also means the faster the turbine will have to spin just to supply it all. In addition the
engine will also get hotter as the lack of thick air means the compressed air and fuel
combustion will greatly increase the temperature of the engine (but the oil cooling could
obviously still be installed). Also, the higher the Mach number the higher the temperature
due to friction, constant use of engine and the speeds of the turbine.
The compressor pressure ratio looks like 25:5 or in this case 5:1. This means that the
pressure at its highest point is 5 times more than the pressure at its lowest point. So as the
Mach number goes through to transonic and to supersonic, the pressure increases putting
more stress on the engine and making the turbine hotter linking back to my previous point.
