BGT Flashcards
How does thrust relate to drag in steady level flight? What type of engine provides this force?
- Thrust = Drag
- Force provided by internal combustion engine (heat engine)
What are the two main types of internal combustion engines in aviation?
- 4 Stroke piston
- Gas turbine (Jet engine)
What types of jet engines are used on fixed-wing vs rotary-wing aircraft?
- Fixed: Turbo-jet, Turbo-prop, Turbo-fan
- Rotary: Turbo-Shaft
What does GTF stand for with respect to a type of gas turbine engine? What is it?
- Geared Turbo Fan
- It’s an engine where there is a reduction gearbox for the front fan.
How is propulsion generated when air is accelerated through the engine?
- Atmospheric air is accelerated as it passes through the engine.
- Force required to produce this action, has an equal and opposite reaction.
- Reaction force accelerates the apparatus in the opposite direction to the air.
What is the difference between the propeller and jet engine in terms of the acceleration of air?
- Propeller: Accelerates a large mass (slipstream) of air to a relatively little amount of speed.
Jet: Accelerates a smaller jet of air to a comparatively high speed.
Where does the jet reaction stem from? What is the common misconception?
- Jet reaction occurs internally.
- Not with the exhaust reaction with the atmosphere.
What is the resultant reaction (thrust) produced on the engine proportional to?
What relationship gives better efficiency and why?
- Mass of air accelerated.
- Change in the velocity of the air.
- Large mass of air and small velocity as it lowers the jet velocity in relation to the air, giving a higher propulsive efficiency.
What is Bernoulli’s principle?
- The sum of potential energy (pressure) and kinetic energy (velocity) of a fluid flow remains constant.
C = P(s) + 1/2ρV^2.
What is the Brayton Engine Cycle defined as?
- Continuous thermodynamic cycle of the gas turbine engine.
What is the Brayton Engine cycle widely known as? Why?
- Widely known as a constant pressure cycle.
- This is because, in the gas turbine engine, pressure is fairly constant across the combustion section as volume attempts to increase, thus increasing the gas velocity.
What is the most common air intake for a turbo-jet or turbo-fan engine? What is the advantage of using this air intake?
- Most common one for engines flying at subsonic or low supersonic speeds is a short, pitot-type circular intake.
- This type of intake makes full use of the ram air effect due to the forward speed, and suffers minimum loss of pressure with respect to aircraft attitude.
What are the comparative advantages of a centrifugal flow compressor compared to an axial-flow compressor?
- ) Easier to develop and manufacture.
- ) More robust compared to an axial flow compressor.
- ) Commonly used and favoured in smaller engines.
- ) Simplicity and ruggedness outweigh the disadvantages.
What are the comparative advantages of an axial flow compressor compared to a centrifugal flow compressor? (7)
- ) Consumes far more air than the centrifugal flow compressor.
- ) Because it consumes more air, it provides greater thrust for the same frontal area.
- ) Can be designed to attain higher pressure ratios.
- ) The ability to increase the pressure ratio by the addition of extra stages has led to the adoption of this compressor in most engine designs.
- ) Improved engine efficiency.
- ) Improved SFC for a given thrust.
- ) Easier to maintain.
What is the principle of operation of the centrifugal flow compressor? (2)
Does pressure rise in the impeller and diffuser? If so, what is the percentage of each?
What speed does the impeller required to be operated at? Why?
- Air arrives at the centre of the impeller in an axial direction and accelerates the air outward by centrifugal reaction due to its rotational speed. Air is continuously induced into the impeller.
- Air is then passed onto the diffuser section, where passages form divergent nozzles, causing air to spread, thus speed slows down and static pressure increases.
- Half of the pressure rises in the impeller and the other half rises in the diffuser.
- Maximising airflow and pressure rises through the compressor requires impellers to be operated at high tip speeds –> 1600 ft per second // 948 kts.
What does the impeller consist of? (construction)
What type of vane(s) are usually incorporated in a turbine engine? Why?
- Consists of a forged disc with integral, radial disposed vanes on one or both sides forming convergent passages in conjunction with the compressor casing.
- Vanes may be swept back, but for ease of manufacture, straight radial vanes are usually employed.
What is the purpose of the diffuser?
How is the diffuser constructed? (2)
Why are vane passages divergent?
- To slow down the speed of air and create a pressure rise.
- The diffuser assembly may be an integral part of the compressor casing, or a separate attached assembly.
- In each instance, it consists of a number of vanes formed tangentially to the impeller.
- The vane passages are divergent to convert the K.E. into pressure energy, and the inner edges of the vanes are in line with the direction of the resultant airflow from the impeller.
Describe the principle of operation of the axial flow compressor? (3)
- Airflow and compression occur parallel to the rotational axis of the compressor (hence the name).
- During operation, a rotor is turned at a high speed by a turbine so that air is continuously induced into the compressor, which is then accelerated by rotating blades, and swept rearward onto an adjacent row of stator vanes.
- Air is then decelerated in the following stator passage and the K.E. is translated into pressure.
What is the inlet guide vanes function?
They are stationary and their function is to direct airflow into the rotor at the most desirable angle.
What is the purpose of the rotor blades?
Where are they located?
How are they constructed?
- Purpose is to move the airflow rearward through each stage.
- Rotor blades are the first component on a stage of compression.
- Constructed of an aerodynamic design, constructed with a varying angle of incidence or twist, similar to that of a propeller.
- Rotor blades are the rotating blades with the compressor.
What is the purpose of the stator blades? (2)
How are they constructed? (2)
- Receive the air at high velocities, from the rotor blades, and act as a diffuser, changing K.E. to potential energy in the form of pressure.
- Correct the deflection given to the air by the rotor blades, and present the air at the correct angle to the next stage of rotor blades.
- Stator blades are aerofoil in shape and are stationary.
- Has a reducing cross-section of annulus as compressed air has a lower density.
What are the advantages of a multi-spool compressor compared to a single spool? (3)
- Dual and triple-spool compressors were developed for operational flexibility.
- Operational flexibility provide high compression ratios, quick acceleration and better control of stall characteristics to the engine (because each spool controls itself).
- Improved efficiency which means that the fuel can be shed more accurately, meaning it can be converted into work better.
What is the main advantage that a multi-spool compressor has as density reduces? (3)
- As altitude increases, air density allows the low-pressure compressor (N1) to speed up (as more air is fed into the compressor b/c of the reduced air density).
- This has the effect of recovering the subsequent pressure loss due to the rarified atmosphere through the high-pressure compressor (N2). N3 remains same optimum RPM
- This is applicable to any changes in atmospheric density.
What is a spool? (also name the other term for it)
List the different types of spool for both single and multi spool engines (i.e. Ng etc)
- Combination of a compressor and a turbine, also called a gas generator.
- Single spool engine is Ng.
- Multi spool engines are designated as N1, N2 and N3.
- N1 being the low-pressure compressor.
- N2 or N3 being the HP compressor.
- For a three-spool configuration, N2 is the intermediate compressor and N3 is the HP compressor.
What is a compressor stall defined as?
The abrupt loss of the efficiency of the axial flow compressor in a turbine engine when the AoA of the compressor blades departs too far from the design intention i.e when compressor blade AoA’s become excessive.
Are there any symptoms of an incoming compressor stall?
Typically no symptoms for a complete stall.
What are the possible symptoms of a surge?
What are the possible symptoms of a compressor stall?
- If a surge is about to occur, vibrations may occur. ( A surge is when the engine demands a pressure rise from the compressor, which is higher than what the blades can sustain).
- Temperature, fuel flow, and thrust indication fluctuations.
For a compressor stall:
- High gas temp (high EGT).
- Load bang or an engine sneeze (engine sneeze is a fully blown stall).
When will a compressor stall typically occur?
On the ground, when the engine goes through to full power.