Energy 111 (2016) 251e259

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Thermodynamic analysis of the part load performance for a small

scale gas turbine jet engine by using exergy analysis method
Cem Tahsin Yucer
Air Force Higher Vocational School, 35410 Gaziemir, Izmir, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A small scale gas turbine jet engine is analyzed in this study. To understand the performance of the jet
Received 11 June 2015 engine, experiments are conducted at four different load types (idle, part load one, part load two and full
Received in revised form load). According to the load types, the energy and exergy flows of the engine components and the overall
14 May 2016
jet engine are investigated. Parameters such as specific fuel consumption, fuel exergy depletion, relative
Accepted 26 May 2016
exergy consumption and exergetic improvement potential rate are studied to compare the effects of four
load types. Exergy efficiencies and exergy destructions are calculated to explain the thermodynamic
inefficiencies. The effect of the load type on the exergy efficiency is analyzed for the components and jet
Keywords:
Jet engine
engine itself. At the idle and the part load one cases, the maximum exergy efficiencies took place in the
Energy analysis gas turbine as 67.8% and 79.4% respectively. For the part load two and the full load cases, the maximum
Exergy analysis exergy efficiencies are calculated in the combustion chamber as 81% and 80.6% respectively. The
Gas turbine maximum exergy destructions took place in the combustion chamber for all of the load types. They were
Part load found to be 35 kW, 40.3 kW, 36.6 kW and 47.9 kW.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction economically, safely and with little environmental impact. Armed

Gas turbines are widely used in aircraft, since they are light,
small and they have high power/weight ratio. These gas turbines
operate according to an open cycle named propulsion cycle. Ideal
propulsion cycle is similar to simple ideal Brayton cycle. However,
in the propulsion cycle the gases in the turbine do not expand to the
atmospheric pressure.
Movement of an aircraft is achieved by accelerating a fluid in the
reverse direction of the aircraft's flight direction. This event is
performed by a highly accelerated fluid that is in small amount. This
is done in a jet or turbojet engine. Air decelerates in the diffuser and
its pressure increases. Compressed air exiting from the compressor
enters to the combustion chamber. Air is mixed with a fuel and fired
at a constant pressure. The exhaust gases at high pressure and
temperature are expanded in a turbine to operate the compressor.
Finally the gases are expanded to the ambient pressure in a nozzle
and leave the engine at a high speed.
In airline industry aircraft performance is an important aspect. It
is required to determine how aircraft can be operated efficiently,
E-mail addresses: ctyucer@gmail.com, tyucer@tekok.edu.tr.
forces study the performance characteristics in order to use aircraft
in a manner that provides the greatest possible advantage with
more effective support.
Exergy analysis is a key method which identifies the weaknesses
of a system. It reveals the potential of the system as the maximum
work. The early exergy applications to aircraft engines are done by
Clark and Horlock [1] and Lewis [2]. Exergy analysis is applied to
various types of aircraft engines such as turbojet, turbofan, scramjet
etc.
In some studies the authors carried out exergy analysis on the
aircraft engines [3e5] to observe the losses. The exergy destruction
values were calculated to compare the components of the engine.
Several parameters like specific fuel consumption, fuel exergy
depletion, exergetic improvement potential are used to evaluate
the performance of the components and the engine itself.
The paper of Amati et al. [6] carried out an exergy analysis of an
advanced hypersonic vehicle (scramjet). They explored the
scramjet-powered aircraft according to their different fuelling so-
lutions. The results show that a scramjet with an on-board kero-
sene reformer is advantageous in terms of thrust because of the
capability of better explosion of fuel.
There are several energy flows in an aircraft. These are

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.05.108
0360-5442/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
252 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259

pneumatics, hydraulics, electrics, fuel system, propulsion etc. In 2. System description

this study, aircraft engine and related propulsion system is
analyzed. The ability of system's energy to do work can be obtained 2.1. Jet engine module
by using exergy metrics. Most of the exergy potential in aircrafts is
destroyed in the engines. It is approximately 99% of all [5]. The module includes a complete gas turbine system with the
There are various studies using exergy analysis to investigate following subsystems:
real aircraft engines. However, experimental studies on real aero-
nautical vehicles can be complex and expensive. The investigation a) Jet engine, comprising compressor (1e2), combustion
of a small size turbojet may be very useful to evaluate the perfor- chamber (2e3) and turbine (3e4).
mance of real vehicles. b) Fuel system, including tank, fuel pump, quick acting gate
Turan [7] analyzed design parameters for energetic and exer- valve and control electronics.
getic performance evaluation of a small turbojet engine. Badami c) Starter and ignition system with starter motor, auxiliary fuel
et al. [8] described the results of an experimental and numerical valve and glow plug.
work which was performed on a turbojet engine. d) Measuring instruments and controls with temperature, flow
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can be used to analyze exergy rate, speed and pressure.
based studies. Because they do not have thermal or pressure based
energy systems. Then the aircraft engine can be examined to Jet engine consists of an axial turbine with a direct coupled
perform the exergy analysis more accurately. An exergy analysis for radial compressor and an annular combustion chamber. The tur-
a turbofan engine of an UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is studied by bine and the compressor form originally the propulsion unit for
€ hret et al. [9]. To make sustainability assessment, the exergy
Şo aircraft.
flows of a turbofan engine is examined by Turan [10] to understand At the combustion chamber, the air is fed to the flame tube.
the exergetic performance. Liquid fuel is passed from the rear into so-called evaporator tubes.
There are studies investigating small scale jet engines to analyze These tubes are used to gasify the fuel and then fuel is mixed with
parametric values and thermodynamic properties for education the primary air in the combustion chamber. Combustion gases flow
purpose. Pourmovahed et al. [11] determined the effect of engine into the diffuser of the turbine and are accelerated. The turbine and
speed on thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC) and engine compressor wheels are fitted to a common shaft. The exhaust gas
emissions. Saad [12] presented a study which combines theoretical jet passes through the nozzle to increase the speed of gases.
background and hands on experience for gas turbine engine. The
engine speed, exhaust gas temperature, fuel flow and thrust are
monitored. 2.2. Open gas turbine cycle
There are papers studying part load operations of the gas tur-
bines. These works are generally investigating the effects of certain The gas turbine operates according to the open cycle, in which
parameters on the part load operating situations. It is known that the working medium is taken from the environment and returned
load type affects the temperature and pressure of the fluid streams to it. The schematic demonstration is shown in Fig. 1. In the cycle
and efficiency of the components and the engine itself. the working medium (air) is subject to the following changes of
Some studies [13e15] examined the effects of part load perfor- state:
mance of gas turbines. Fuel control, variable speed, variable inlet
guide vane were parameters to examine the engine. Variable nozzle a) Adiabatic compression of the cold air in the compressor from
areas are used to study the engine performances. High turbine ambient pressure (P1) to pressure (P2) and consequent tem-
exhaust temperature (TET) affects the part load efficiency. The in- perature rise from T1 to T2.
crease in TIT causes higher part load efficiencies. High pressure ratio b) Isobaric heating of air between temperatures T2 and T3 by heat
also exhibits good part load efficiencies. Since two shaft engines input. The heat is supplied by combustion of fuel with the at-
have higher TET, they have higher part load efficiencies. mospheric oxygen in the combustion chamber.
Baheta and Gilani [16] aimed to examine the performance of a c) The turbine is in the vicinity of the combustion chamber and
gas turbine using exergy analysis method to compare different receives a significant amount of heat. The expansion of the hot
loading operations. The gas turbine studied was variable stator air in the turbine results in pressure decrease. Turbine outlet
vane (VSV) type. The components' exergy destruction rates were
evaluated for wide range of part load operations.
In the literature, several studies performed by applying exergy
analysis to examine gas turbine systems or to analyze part load
operations. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first
time that a gas turbine engine's performance at different loads is
investigated by using exergy analysis. Exergy analysis method re-
veals the inefficiencies in a system. Jet engines operate at higher
performance standards when the load is increased. However full
load operation is not the best case according to the calculated
exergy metrics. In this context, the main objectives of this contri-
bution are (i) to examine the performance of a small gas turbine jet
engine using exergy analysis method (ii) to calculate the energy and
exergy flows, as well as the exergy efficiencies and exergy de-
structions of the jet engine components under four different load
types (iii) to assess its performance according to certain parameters
and also (iv) to investigate the effect of load on the exergy effi-
ciencies of jet engine components.
Fig. 1. Jet engine module (adapted from [17]).
 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259 253

expands to ambient pressure. During this process temperature

_ _
decreases from T3 to T4. W GT ¼ W C (9)

In an open circuit process, the residual heat is discharged to the
atmosphere. The mechanical output obtained in the turbine drives
the compressor.
3. Analyses
3.1. Energy analysis
In this study, the components of the jet engine module are
investigated. The process is an open gas turbine cycle. Ideal engine
means that all the processes are assumed to take place without any
irreversibilities. However the operation of an engine is understood
more easily in ideal case, in an actual engine there will always be
irreversibilities. It is important to take into account the factors that
affect the performance of the components. The factors arise in an
actual engine are viscosity, dissipation, heat loss, chemical factors
etc.
According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy balance
equation for a control volume can be constructed as follows,
W_
GT is the work rate of gas turbine. The gas turbine is assumed as
non adiabatic. This may be the case in similar laboratory experi-
ments as in Refs. [11,12]. Heat loss (Qloss) takes place because of the
significant heat release from the combustion chamber. Then the
work obtained is equal to the compressor work.
F ¼ m_ g $ðv5
v0 Þ þ A5 $ðP5
P0 Þ (10)
F denotes the thrust. v5 and v0 are the velocities of combustion gas
at the outlet of the nozzle and at the inlet of the jet engine. A5 is the
cross sectional area of the nozzle outlet. Since the inlet and the
outlet of the nozzle are at ambient pressure and the speed of
exhaust gases is small in magnitude, the exhaust gas temperature
takes approximately the same value with turbine outlet tempera-
ture. This situation results with high energy losses in the nozzle,
thus high exergy destruction. To prevent misunderstandings when
comparing the jet engine components, the energy and exergy re-
sults of nozzle are not taken into consideration.
3.2. Exergy analysis

Q_
W_ ¼ DE_ (1) In the exergy analysis method, second law of thermodynamics is

The difference between the inlet and the outlet energies of a
system is caused by heat and work interactions with the
surrounding.
To model jet engine module; the values of enthalpy rate, heat
energy rate, work rate at the inlet and at the outlet stream of each
component were calculated with the following equations. The
examined gas turbine jet engine components are compressor,
combustion chamber, gas turbine and nozzle.
 Compressor (C)
P2
¼ cr
P1
applied with the conservation of mass and energy principles. The
kinetic and potential portions of energy are equal to those of the
exergy values.
_
E_ k;i ¼ Ex k;i (11)
_
E_ p;i ¼ Exp;i (12)
The enthalpy of a flow in a system can not be converted into
work totally. There are irreversibilities. These are due to some sit-
uations, namely friction, unbalanced expansion, mix of two flows,
heat transfer at finite temperature difference, electrical resistance,
(2) non elastically deformation of solids and chemical reactions. Then
the physical exergy of a flow can be calculated as follows,

m_ 1 ¼ m_ 2 ¼ m_ a (3) _ _ i $½ðhi
h0 Þ
T0 ðsi
s0 Þ

Ex ph;i ¼ m (13)


W_ ¼ m_ a c $T
c $T (4) s denotes the entropy at state i. Kinetic and potential exergy values
C p;2 2 p;1 1
in the compressor, combustion chamber and gas turbine are
_ indicate pressure, compressibility ratio, mass
Here P, cr, m_ a and W neglected and assumed to be zero. Irreversibilities are considered
C
flow rate of air and compressor work rate. The compressor is in the calculations by defining the efficiencies.
assumed to be adiabatic. Each component of the jet engine is analyzed by using the
following equations,
 Combustion chamber (CC)
_ _ _
Ex in;i ¼ Exout;i þ ExD;i (14)
E_ f ¼ m_ f $LHV (5)
P_
j¼ _ (15)
m_ a þ m_ f ¼ m_ g (6) F
 
m_ f , LHV and m_ g stand for mass flow rate of fuel, lower heating value _ ¼ m_ $ c ðT
T Þ
T ðs
s Þ
Ex (16)
i i p;i i 0 0 i 0
of fuel and mass flow rate of gas (combustion product).
 
T P
 Gas turbine (GT) si
s0 ¼ cp;i $ln i þ R$ln i (17)
T0 P0
m_ 3 ¼ m_ 4 ¼ m_ g (7) Exergy equations are constructed by defining exergy destruction
(ExD,i), inlet (Exin,i) and outlet (Exout,i) streams observed at the


_ _ g cp;3 $T3
cp;4 $T4
Qloss examined control volume at state i. j is the exergy efficiency
W GT ¼ m (8)
calculated on a product and fuel basis where P_ and F_ are the
product and fuel rate forms. Since kinetic and potential exergy
254 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259

values are neglected for the control volumes of the compressor, the depletion, relative exergy consumption and exergetic improvement
combustion chamber and the gas turbine, exergy rate of the flow is potential rate are calculated.
_ is the exergy rate at
equal to the physical exergy rate of the flow. Ex Specific fuel consumption is used to determine the amount of
i
state i and R is the ideal gas constant of air. The equations for the fuel, in kilograms, used by an engine while producing one kilo-
components are going to be presented as follows, Newton of thrust during 1 h of operation. It is essential to mini-
mize this value when the fuel costs are of importance.
 Compressor (C)
m_ f
_ ¼0 SFC ¼ (27)
Ex 1 (18) F
Fuel exergy depletion can be defined as the ratio of the exergy
W _ ¼ Ex
_ þ Ex _ þ Ex
_ (19) destruction of component j to the exergy rate of fuel. This param-
C 1 2 D;C
eter examines the magnitude of component's irreversibility ac-
Since the inlet of compressor is at the ambient conditions, there
cording to the main exergy input to the jet engine, exergy rate of
is no work potential and exergy rate at state 1 is zero.
fuel. It is formulated as,

 Combustion chamber (CC) _

Ex
aj ¼ _ D;j (28)
εf ¼ f$LHV (20) Exf

To compare the effect of each component on the exergy con-

_ ¼ m_ $ε
Ex (21) sumption of the jet engine, Relative exergy consumption is defined.
f f f

_
Ex
Ex _ ¼ Ex
_ þ Ex _ þ Ex
_ (22) dj ¼ _ D;j (29)
2 f 3 D;CC
ExD;JE
_ denote specific exergy, chemical exergy factor,
εf, f, LHV and Ex f The sum of all components' exergy destruction values is equal to
lower heating value and exergy rate of fuel. The exergy of com-
the exergy destruction of the jet engine.
bustion gases is the required exergy for the jet engine to obtain the
X
work to operate compressor and then the thrust to move on air. _ D;JE ¼
Ex _
Ex (30)
D;j
j
 Gas Turbine (GT)
Exergetic improvement potential rate is the exergy rate that can
_ þW
_ ¼ Ex _ _
Ex 3 4 GT þ ExD;GT (23) be obtained by making any improvement in the exergy efficiency of
a component.
The gases with high temperature and high pressure operate gas
 
turbine and expand to drive the compressor. The exhaust gases _ _
IPRj ¼ 1
jj $ Ex in;j
Exout;j (31)
leaving the gas turbine are at high temperature and cause high
exergy loss. The exergy rate of heat loss in the non adiabatic turbine
is expressed in the exergy destruction term.
Nozzle is the component which the speed of gases are increased
to a noticeable value. The momentum of the combustion gases 4. An application for the jet engine module
result in thrust. The exergy efficiencies of the jet engine compo-
nents are calculated according to the following formula. The jet engine module is a small turbojet engine. It is a test cell
for experiments. It is studied for thermodynamic analysis. The jet
_
Ex engine module experiments reveal the theory behind the ther-
jj ¼ _ out;j (24) modynamic processes involved; determine the actual efficiencies
Exin;j
of the compressor, the combustion chamber and the gas turbine.
The exergy efficiency of the jth component is calculated by the These experiments also give researcher the chance to investigate
ratio between the sum of the outlet flows and the sum of the inlet the effect of load type on the thrust force, energy and exergy effi-
flows. Exergy efficiency of the jet engine can be determined as ciencies of jet engine components etc. The following assumptions
follows, are made in this study.

T_  The jet engine module operated in a steady-state and steady

jJE ¼ _ (25) flow.
Exf
 Ideal gas laws were applied to the air and the combustion gas.
 The fuel injected to combustion chamber was kerosene.
where T_ expresses the thrust power. It is calculated by the
 The lower heating value was assumed to be 42,580 kJ/kg.
following equation.
 The compressor and the gas turbine were considered adiabatic
T_ ¼ F$v5 (26) and non adiabatic respectively.
 The kinetic and the potential energy and exergy rates within gas
F indicates thrust and v5 stands for the velocity of exhaust gases generator were assumed to be negligible.
exiting from the nozzle.  The velocity of air flow entering the jet engine was taken zero,
since test was performed in a static condition during
experiment.
3.3. Performance parameters  The temperature and the pressure of the dead state (ambient)
were measured to be 16  C (289.15 K) and 1.02 bar (102 kPa)
The parameters such as specific fuel consumption, fuel exergy respectively.
 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259 255

Table 1
Experimental data according to four load types.

Load type Idle Part load one Part load two Full load

Compressor outlet temperature (K) 303.15 339.15 362.15 389.15

Combustion chamber temperature (K) 1029.15 963.15 987.15 1041.15
Turbine outlet temperature (K) 856.15 839.15 834.15 851.15
Combustion chamber pressure (kPa) 110 149 183 211
Mass flow rate of air (kg/s) 0.055 0.263 0.358 0.400
Mass flow rate of fuel (kg/s) 0.0013 0.0030 0.0040 0.0050
Turbine speed (1/min) 35,426 80,000 101,000 116,000
Thrust (N) 0.07 21 41 58.5

4.1. Experimental data experience a reduced efficiency at part load. The change of the
exergy efficiency of jet engine according to the load is demon-
The measured data are listed below: strated in Fig. 2. As the load increased, the performance of the jet
engine is improved. Air to fuel ratio closely yields different part load
 Ambient pressure and temperature, behaviour [18]. To operate the jet engine at part load, the fuel flow
 Compressor outlet temperature, is adjusted. As a result, air to fuel ratio decreases at part loads.
 Combustion chamber pressure, Combustion chamber outlet temperature drops from full load to
 Combustion chamber temperature, part load. Gas turbine speed was measured to be 35,426 1/min. for
 Gas turbine outlet temperature, idle, 80,000 1/min. for part load one, 101,000 1/min. for part load
 Mass flow rate of air at the inlet of jet engine module, two and 116,000 1/min. for full load case. As percentages load types
 Mass flow rate of fuel at the inlet of combustion chamber, can be expressed like 0% for idle, 55% for part load one, 81% for part
 Gas turbine speed, load two and 100% for full load. Load increases are achieved by
 Thrust. increasing the fuel flow, which in turn increases the firing tem-
perature. The turbine inlet temperature varied between 963.15 K
The instruments used in the experiments to take data are: and 1041.15 K from part load to full load. Thrust was measured to be
0.07 N for idle and it reached to 58.5 N for full load.
 Thermocouples to display temperatures,
 Pressure sensors to display pressure,
 Measuring nozzle at the inlet with root extracting pressure
sensor to display mass flow rate, 4.3. Determination of air to fuel ratio and specific heat capacity
 Fuel from fuel pump actuator to display fuel mass flow rate,
 Tachometer to display gas turbine speed. Air to fuel ratio should be enough for complete combustion. To
have stable combustion, the amount of air used is generally more
The measured data are shown in Table 1. According to four than it is required ideally (stoichiometric ratio). The minimum
different throttle settings, four different loads are obtained. As the amount of air needed to combust kerosene is
level of throttle increased, the properties like temperature and
pressure become higher as it is expected. kgair
Lmin ¼ 14:2 (32)
kgfuel
4.2. Load types Then the air to fuel ratio can be calculated as

A small turbojet engine was investigated in this study. The en- 1 m_ a

gine is a single shaft jet turbine. Four experiments were carried out, l¼ $ (33)
Lmin m_ f
under idle, part load and full load. Aircraft engines run at off design
situation due to the change of load type or ambient conditions. The high air ratio results from the secondary air.
When evaluating the overall engine performance, it is important to The specific heat capacity of the combustion gases is calculated
take all operating conditions into account. A gas turbine will as follows [7],

Fig. 2. Exergy efficiency of Jet Engine as a Function of Load.

256 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259

Table 2 increase because of the increase in gas turbine speed.

Calculated specific heat values, compressibility and air to fuel ratios.

State cp,a (kJ/kg.K) cp,g (kJ/kg.K) cr l 5. Results and discussion

1 2 3 4

Load type Idle 1.0038 1.0043 1.1245 1.0854 1.08 2.979

5.1. Energetic and exergetic analyses results
Part load one 1.0038 1.0066 1.1099 1.0815 1.46 6.174
Part load two 1.0038 1.0087 1.1153 1.0803 1.79 6.303 The results of the energy and exergy analyses show that the
Full load 1.0038 1.0117 1.1272 1.0842 2.07 5.634 increase of fuel flow, results in increase for efficiency and the work
obtained at gas turbine because of the turbine inlet temperature
change.
1:48 2 6:57 3 The mass flow rates, pressures, temperatures, energy rates and
cp;g ðTÞ ¼ 0:9874 þ 0:0000544T þ T
11 T (34) exergy rates of the turbojet engine components at four different
107 10
load types are obtained to investigate turbojet engine's perfor-
The specific heat capacity of air can be expressed as, mance. Energy analysis aims to determine thermodynamic prop-
erties of the states to calculate work rates and energy rates.
9:45378 2 5:49031 3 The energy rates at idle case for compressor outlet, turbine inlet
cp;a ðTÞ ¼ 1:04841
0:000383719T þ T
T
107 1010 and turbine outlet were found to be 16.75 kW, 65.16 kW and
7:92981 4 52.32 kW. The findings increase as the load reaches to full load.
þ T
1014 Likewise the work rates at gas turbine increase from idle to full load
(35) operation of the jet engine. The work rate was very low at idle
operation as 0.78 kW, since the air and combustion gas were at low
where the unit of temperature is K. The calculated air to fuel ratios temperatures. By increasing the fuel flow rate, the heat release from
and specific heat capacity values are presented in Table 2. the combustion chamber increases. This situation is reflected to the
The pressure ratios in Badami et al. [8] follow an increasing work rates positively and is reached to 41.39 kW at full load.
trend as the gas turbine speed increased from 45,000 rpm to The air entering to the compressor is in the dead state, thus the
80,000 rpm. In the experimental study, the pressure ratio changes exergy rates are equal to zero for all loads. The energy rate of the air
between 1.5 and 2.5. The outlet temperature from the turbine increases, because of the increase in temperature and pressure
slightly increases as the speed of the turbine increases. values through compressor and combustion chamber. A part of the
In this study the pressure ratios take values between 1.08 and energy rate of the exhaust gases exiting from the turbine is trans-
2.07. The thrust and the temperatures at the exit of the components ferred to the shaft to drive the compressor. The rest is emitted to the

Fig. 3. Exergy efficiency of compressor versus gas turbine speed.

Fig. 4. Exergy efficiency of combustion chamber versus gas turbine speed.

 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259 257

Fig. 5. Exergy efficiency of gas turbine versus gas turbine speed.

atmosphere. It can be noticed that the rate of exergies are obviously

much more less than the rate of energies for the components. This
situation indicates that the quality of the energies obtained were
very low. In other words, the irreversibilities in components during
energy conversion were too high.
The exergy efficiencies of jet engine components increase from
idle to full load case. The compressor efficiency values have an
increasing trend as the load increases. The combustion chamber
and the gas turbine have similar results. The exergy efficiency
values of the compressor, combustion chamber and gas turbine
according to the gas turbine speed are demonstrated in Figs. 3e5.
The resulted thrust power increases as the gas turbine speed in-
creases. It can be stated that exergy efficiencies of the gas turbine
were lower than expected. Generally this is not the case. But
Fig. 7. Exergy efficiencies of jet engine components at part load one.
starting from part load two, the heat loss reaches higher amounts
and exergy efficiency of the gas turbine decreases.
When exergy efficiencies of the jet engine are studied, the
maximum exergy efficiency of the jet engine took place in the full
load type as 3.9%. The other calculated values were 0.0001% under
idle, 1.2% under part load one and 2.7% under part load two. Exergy
efficiencies of jet engine components are demonstrated in
Figs. 6e9.
In this study it is aimed to determine the magnitudes of the
exergy destructions and their exact locations within the compo-
nents. In this paper, it is observed that the maximum exergy
destruction values belong to the combustion chamber. In the paper
of Baheta and Gilani [16] at full load, the exergy destruction per-
centages are found to be 48.9% for combustion chamber, 35.8% for
stack gas, 10.8% for the gas turbine and 4.3% for the compressor. In
this study under full load operation, the related exergy destruction
Fig. 8. Exergy efficiencies of jet engine components at part load two.
percentages are calculated as 44.8.5%, 44.4% and 10.8%, combustion
chamber, gas turbine and compressor respectively.
To analyze the jet engine more deeply and to find the efficient
loading cases for the jet engine, four load types are selected. By

Fig. 6. Exergy efficiencies of jet engine components at idle. Fig. 9. Exergy efficiencies of jet engine components at full load.
258 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259

Table 3
Energy and exergy flows of four different load types.

State Idle Part load one Part load two Full load

Energy rate (kW) Exergy rate (kW) Energy rate (kW) Exergy rate (kW) Energy rate (kW) Exergy rate (kW) Energy rate (kW) Exergy rate (kW)

1 15.963 0 76.334 0 103.907 0 116.097 0

2 16.746 0.363 89.789 9.299 130.780 20.221 157.484 29.841
3 65.157 23.962 284.347 104.632 398.534 156.020 475.286 198.612
4 52.318 15.468 241.397 69.595 326.210 93.330 373.756 109.701

Table 4
Exergy destruction rates (kW) of the components at four load types.

Compressor Combustion chamber Gas turbine

Idle 0.4 35.1 7.7

Part load one 4.2 40.3 21.6
Part load two 6.7 36.6 35.8
Full load 11.5 47.9 47.5

using the values given in Table 1, the energy and exergy flows were
derived for each state of the jet engine cycle and the findings at
each state are summarized in Table 3.
By calculating exergy destruction rates from Table 3, the ineffi-
cient components are determined. In Table 4 it can be seen that, the
largest exergy destructions took place in the combustion chamber.
The findings are given according to increasing loadings. The
calculated results for four load types are as 35.1 kW, 40.3 kW,
36.6 kW and 47.9 kW, respectively. Except the decrease at part load
two, the exergy destruction rates of combustion chamber increased
as the fuel flow and turbine inlet temperature increased. This is the
same for the compressor. As the temperature of the air entering the
compressor increases, the exergy destruction rate for the
compressor increases. Their rates are found as 0.4 kW, 4.2 kW, Fig. 10. Specific Fuel Consumption at each Load Type.

6.7 kW and 11.5 kW, respectively. The gas turbine is under the effect
of high heat losses and the regarding exergy destruction rates are
turbine and compressor. As the load is increased, the calculated
high. The results for the four load types are found to be 7.7 kW,
values for the compressor and the gas turbine increase. These are
21.6 kW, 35.8 kW and 47.5 kW, respectively.
0.009, 0.063, 0.084 and 0.108 for the compressor and 0.179, 0.327,
0.453 and 0.444 for the gas turbine. But the related findings for the
5.2. Performance parameter results combustion chamber decrease, since it works more efficiently at
high loads. The relative exergy consumptions are 0.812, 0.610, 0.463
The specific fuel consumption is the ratio for mass of fuel fired to and 0.448 respectively. Higher loads lead gas turbine to have higher
thrust obtained per unit time. SFC decreases with increasing power exergy consumptions and for every increase it takes closer values
of the gas turbine and thrust of the jet engine. The maximum SFC with the combustion chamber.
was calculated as 66.50 kg/N.h at idle case. Minimum SFC value was Exergetic improvement potential is a parameter that deals with
found to be 0.29 kg/N.h at full load. As the load increases, the SFC the minimization of exergy destructions to have higher exergy ef-
value decreases. This relation is shown in Fig. 10. ficiencies. Mostly, the highest potentials are observed for the
The other exergetic performance parameters: fuel exergy combustion chamber. As the loading increased, the rates are found
depletion, relative exergy consumption and exergetic improvement to be 20.83 kW, 11.19 kW, 6.94 kW and 9.31 kW, respectively. Only at
potential rate values were calculated and listed in Tables 5e7. full load case, the gas turbine has the highest potential to be
Fuel exergy depletion values express the ratio of the exergy improved. This is because of the high heat transfer losses during
consumption at a component from the source of energy, fuel. Most expansion. The findings are 2.48 kW, 4.45 kW, 8.22 kW and
of the exergy input from fuel was consumed in the combustion 11.37 kW from idle to full load. Similarly, the exergetic improve-
chamber for all load types. But, it has a decreasing trend as the ment potential rates have increasing trend for the compressor. They
loading increases. The ratios for four load types are 0.598, 0.297, are calculated to be 0.23 kW, 1.28 kW, 1.65 kW and 3.22 kW,
0.212 and 0.221 respectively. As the loading increased, other com- respectively.
ponents consume more exergy. For the compressor, the exergy
depletion values have an increasing trend from idle to full load, as
0.007, 0.031, 0.039 and 0.053, respectively. Likewise in the gas
Table 5
turbine, the fuel exergy depletion values are in an increasing trend.
Fuel exergy depletion values of components at four load types.
They are found to be 0.131, 0.159, 0.208 and 0.219, respectively.
If the exergy consumption for the overall jet engine is consid- Compressor Combustion chamber Gas turbine
ered, the situation is the same. Relative exergy consumption de- Idle 0.007 0.598 0.131
scribes the ratio of component's exergy consumption to the total Part load one 0.031 0.297 0.159
exergy consumption. When relative exergy consumption ratios are Part load two 0.039 0.212 0.208
Full load 0.053 0.221 0.219
put in a descending order, the result is combustion chamber, gas
 C.T. Yucer / Energy 111 (2016) 251e259 259

Table 6 (g) In this study, a gas turbine jet engine at four different loading
Relative exergy consumption values of components at four load types. operations was analyzed. For a future work, exergetic opti-
Compressor Combustion chamber Gas turbine mization of a jet engine is planned to be studied to investi-
Idle 0.009 0.812 0.179
gate the effects of certain parameters to the performance of
Part load one 0.063 0.610 0.327 the engine.
Part load two 0.084 0.463 0.453
Full load 0.108 0.448 0.444
Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable
Table 7
comments, which have been utilized in improving the quality of the
Exergetic improvement potential rates (kW) of components at four load types.
paper.
Compressor Combustion chamber Gas turbine

Idle 0.23 20.83 2.48 References

Part load one 1.28 11.19
Part load two 1.65 6.94
Full load 3.22 9.31
6. Conclusions
In this study, energetic and exergetic analyses were applied to a
small scale jet engine. The energy and exergy flows were calculated
for the gas generator components. The energy rates, exergy rates
and certain parameters were obtained according to four load types
of the jet engine.
Some concluding remarks drawn from the results of the present
study were as follows:
(a) The maximum exergy destructions occurred in combustion
chamber. These are 35.1 kW, 40.3 kW, 36.6 kW and 47.9 kW,
respectively.
(b) The maximum exergy efficiencies at idle and part load one
operations are observed in the gas turbine, as 68% and 79%.
At part load two and full load operations, the maximum
exergy efficiencies are observed in combustion chamber as
80.6% and 81%, respectively.
(c) The maximum exergy efficiency of the jet engine was
calculated to be 3.9% at full load.
(d) The minimum SFC value is calculated as 0.29 kg/N.h at full
load.
(e) The maximum fuel exergy depletion and relative exergy
consumption values are obtained in the combustion cham-
ber. The maximum fuel exergy depletion and relative exergy
consumption were calculated at idle operation as 0.598 and
0.812, respectively.
(f) The maximum exergetic improvement potential rate took
place in combustion chamber at idle case as 20.83 kW.
4.45
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