Study of Gas turbine engines

Rohit Gupta
Mechanical and Automation Engineering
I.P. University

Gas turbine engines are of two types:

1. Open Gas Turbine Engines

2. Closed Gas Turbine Engines

The basic components of Gas turbine engines are:

1. compressors
2. Combustion chamber
3. Output Turbine
4. Heat exchanger (in case of closed gas turbine)

(All other components, but are not always specific and may vary according to the requirement)

Compressors:

Compressors are used for the suction of fluid and traverse that compressed fluid to the
combustion chamber.

Combustion chamber:

Combustion chamber is a chamber where fluid mixes with fuel and burns. The products of
combustion are then made to pass over the turbine.

Turbine:

With the help of turbine, we get our work output. In case of large stable plants, the work
output is generally to obtain the shaft work at the output. For Airplanes, the output is to provide the
thrust.

Heat exchanger:

The heat exchanges are employed in the closed gas turbine, so to remove the heat into the
surroundings. The heated gas gets cooled and this is made to again pass over the compressors.

Open Gas turbine:

The open Gas turbines are the turbines which suck in the Atmospheric fluid (air) through the
compressors and combustion takes place inside. The air is mixed with the fuel vapors, and is allowed
to burn or combust and the product of combustion (though having very high velocity) is made to
pass over the turbine an thus the turbine rotates and thus thrust created. The products are then
allowed to escape into the atmosphere. Thus, every time the fresh air is coming in and exiting again
into the atmosphere.

Some of the work produced by the cycle is utilized to run compressors at higher speeds, so to
increase some efficiency in practice.

The combustion takes place inside, means the products of combustion are directly coming in
contact with the turbine blades. Therefore the fuel must be rich so not to affect the blades of the
turbine.

The efficiency of open Gas turbines is very low(Practically hard to achieve more than 28%). The
efficiency could be increase by implementing reheaters or regenerators, or making it close, But in
case of Airplanes, we cannot use reheaters, regenerators or even make it close Gas turbine cycle due
to:

1. The extra components of reheaters/regenerators/heat exchangers are very much bulkier,

and thus it would be difficult to balance the airplanes or wings.
 2. Also the heat removing capacity of air in heat exchanger would me much less as compared
to any other fluid. Therefore it would be unnecessary to increase the weight of the engine
setup without the much increase in efficiency or work output.

Applications: Airplanes

Closed Gas turbine:

With the advancement of Precoolers, the open gas turbine can be viewed as CGT.

The process of CGT is similar to the OGT, that is the fluid gets into the compresses, attains high
pressure, then combustion occurs, and the products of combustion are then passed over to the the
turbine to attain work.

The difference is that in OGT, after passing through the turbine, the expanded combusted gas then
not left for the surrounding, rather it is then made to pass into precooler, where it is cooled, and
then made to pass through the compressor, and then again the cycle repeats. One difference is also
that in this, the combustion chamber is not enclosed inside, rather combustion takes place outside
and thus the direct combusted gas doesn’t comes in contact with the turbine blades. Thus the low
quality of fuel can be employed in CGT. The efficiency of the CGT is higher than OGT, though the
work output is same.

(For similar work output and better efficiency we can understand by that for getting same value of
money from father but needed less effort to get as compared to our brother. Means, in GGT, the
input is small as compared to OGT, but the same work output.

Applications: Ships.

Difference between OGT and CGT:

The primary differences between OGT and CGT are:

1. The CGT comes with bulky precoolers. The setup of CGT is also large as compared to OGT.
Thus it can’t be employed in the areas, where weight or size is limited.
2. The combustion in the OGT takes place inside, whereas combustion in the CGT takes place
outside CGT. That is why we can employ cheap or low quality fuel in CGT, as combustion
takes place outside, therefore the combusted product doesn’t possesses any effect on the
turbine blades. But in case of OGT, as the combusted products directly interacts with the
turbine blades.

*That is why the journey of the plane costs you higher as compared to journey of a ship*

4. In OGT the air is used but whereas in CGT, the fluid other than air can be employed. Also the
pressure of the working fluid can be a variable quantity as compared to OGT, because in
OGT, the air pressure is dependent on the atmospheric source from where being getting
sucked.

Now some of the questions arise from the student’s point of view:

1. What is a constant volume heat addition :

Ans: The heat added are said to be in a constant volume if they are instantaneous process.
Means if the heat added is to be a constant process, it has to be a instantaneous process,
 because obviously theoretically, if heat is added, then volume will obviously rise, but if the
heat is added instantaneously like explosion or some, then there comes the change in
volume, but before the volume change, the heat has been added completely and no heat is
added after the piston starts the move to change the volume.

2. What is constant pressure heat additions :

Ans: The heat added are said to be in a constant process if the volume is simultaneously
changing with the heat additioning. Lets us a say constant pressure heat addition is taking
place. First of all the impulsive heat additions can’t be constant pressure process. So,
continuing with our example, let us take a constt. pressure process. The heat is being adding
on a chamber fitted with a piston at a top freely. Now, as the heat is being adding on, the
piston keeps on moving upwards due to heat addition. Now, as the piston is moving,
therefore the volume is increasing and thus maintains the pressure at a constant value. If
the piston is not allowed to move then, pressure inside the chamber increases, and thus it
will not be a constant pressure process (Though it will be a constant pressure process).

3. Why the compressors are required in the OGT, because the air do already comes inside
with very high velocity when an airplane moves?

Ans: Though the air is already being at very high velocity but again compressed with
prominent value of pressure ratio, because when combusted, these highly pressurized gas
expands at much significant level then the normal gas. And also with the expansion the gas,
which has been combusted attains very high velocity and produces required thrust.

4. The work is consumed to move the compressor, and also the work is obtained from the
turbine, doesn’t it nullifies both the works.

Ans: The answer is no. May be that’s why we employ the compressors. The process is
simple. The work which we input for running the compressor is much lower than the work
we obtain from the turbine. This is because, when we pressurize the air at a prominent
compression ratio, and when it is combusted, it expands significantly. That is its volume
increases and thus producing the higher work as compared to the inputted work. Therefore
the difference between these works is not zero, and is very much greater if we won’t employ
the compressor.

5. How the turbine runs at initial stage in an airplane because of no air speed.

Ans: initially when the plane starts, there is not enough air velocity, so the Fan doesn’t
rotate and thus the compressor doesn’t. It is not possible to make the turbine run at
prominent speed and thus to produce the thrust. What happens is we give the power to the
turbine from the power source inside the airplane, and thus the turbine runs. Also as already
said that some work from turbine is passed to the compressor thus, when the compressor
started to attain the enough power to suck and compress the enough air, we likewise shift
our power source to the compressor, because now the compressor and working fluid (air)
both are in condition to make the turbine run at significant speed.
6. How are the turbine blades being casted?

Ans: There are numerous methods of casting till now available for the casting. Every casting
procedure is having its own significant advantage and limitation. Example: Metal die casting
is advantageous for finishing, but having the limitations for High melting point working
metals, as they would melt the metal dies. Gravity or pressure sand die casting is employed
for final ductile products, but finishing is limitation in this. Also very thin parts cannot be
casted with this. So there are many Casting procedures which have been reviewed for
turbine blades casting. Let us first discuss the result we want for the turbine blades:

1. The grains should not be randomly aligned, as the blade would propagate the crack
joining these randomly grains and thus would break.
2. The finishing is very much fine and intricate; because a minute error in an engine’s
rotating part would lead to some vibrations or other problems in the airplane.
3. The blades generally of Ti-Al alloy and are of very high melting point temperature so to
sustain the combustion from the engine. Therefore die must be sound enough to bear
such high temperature during manufacturing.

By Reviewing such problems, or better say aim, the best suited casting method comes out
the Investment Casting, in which the wax is made like a pattern of a blade. The wax is then
poured into the slag and remains there in tin for further solidification of the slag over the
wax pattern. After solidification the solidified slag (which is containing the wax pattern
inside it) is heated up and the wax inside the solidified slag melts and escapes through the
opening made somewhere. Now, the solidified slag acts as a pattern and thus the molten
metal is poured and brings out as a final turbine blade. This is the procedure for turbine
casting.

The investment casting is very much costlier as compared to other, but the cost was not the
problem domain as with the turbine blades, the human safety and comfort inside the
airplane is concerned.

7. Why can’t we use rotary engines in vehicles or reciprocating engines in airplanes?

Ans:
I: Why reciprocating engines can’t be employed in airplanes:
If we know, then the reciprocating engines have 4 strokes and 6 processes. 4 of
compression, combustion, expansion, exhaust (at constant volume). Rest 2 can’t be called
as strokes namely suction and exhaust (at constant pressure), they are only processes. If we
notice, the Power strokes are only in the combustion strokes. The rest are going through
with the help of flywheel only. Thus if in the 4 strokes we are getting in the power in one
stroke only, then it is not continuous and also thus produces very much higher vibrations.
The engines required in airplane is continuous and with minimum vibration. Though talking
about the very much important parameter of power output, The power output of
reciprocating engines are much less than the OGT engines. This is because the mechanical
losses in the reciprocating engines are much higher, due to friction, and thus the mechanical
efficiency of reciprocating engines are much less than OGT engines.
 II: Why OGT engines can’t be employed in the vehicles:
If we employ the OGT engines in the vehicles then first of all, the air or working fluid is hard
to achieve the parameters on the normal conditions to initiate with the turbine. Second, if
anyhow if we are able to achieve those parameters practically, then it would be hard to
control the thrust produced by the turbine. We would be requiring up to 18-20 gears for
reducing the speeds in actual. Thus the turbine engines are impractical to employ over the
normal vehicles.

Thank you.

Rohit Gupta
gupta.rohit951@gmail.com
Mechanical and Automation Engineering – I.P University
Delhi