INTRODUCTION OF AIRCRAFT

PROPULSION

BY
SRINATH R
ASST.PROFESSOR
DEPT. OF AERONAUTICS
OVER VIEW ON THE SUBJECT
 Power plants of aircrafts
 Classifications
 Gas turbine engines and its characteristics
 Brayton cycles
 Application of brayton cycle on gas turbines
 Comparative merits and demerits
 Principles of thrust augmentation.
AIRCRAFT POWER PLANT
• The airplane engine and propeller, often referred to as a powerplant.
• The powerplant propels the airplane and drives the various systems that
support the operation of an airplane.\
BASIC CLASSIFICATION OF ENGINE
 External combustion engine.
• Steam engine is the best example.
• Fuel burned in boiler heats water &
changes it into steam.
• It forces piston to move & turn a
crankshaft/ spins a turbine.
• They are quite in efficient.
 Internal combustion engine.
• It uses butane, propane, diesel etc..
• It converted into a fuel vapour.
• Then the fuel vapour is mixed with
some amount of air.
• It release the energy when the mixture
burns & it makes the expansion of air.
• It has greater mechanical simplicity &
higher overall efficiency.
AEROSPACE ENGINES
• Comprehend the basic components of gas turbine engines and their basic
operations

• Comprehend the thermodynamic processes occurring in a gas turbine engines

• Comprehend the support systems associated with gas turbine engines

CLASSIFICATION OF AIRCRAFT ENGINES
 Reciprocating (piston) engines
I. In-line engine
II. V-type engine
III. Horizontally opposed engine
IV. Radial engine
V. Rotary engine
 Turbine-powered
I. Turboprop
II. Turbo shaft
 Reaction engines
I. Jets
a) Turbojet
b) Turbofan
I. Pulsejet
II. Rocket
 CLASSIFICATION OF ENGINE
Engine

Air Breathing Engine Non-Air Breathing Engine

(Using atm air to produced Power) (Presents of Fuel and absents of Air
instead of Air + Oxidizer. Hypersonic
vehicles, Operating Mach No : 15 to 20)
Jet Engines Reciprocating Engines
(Propulsive thrust is produced by jet) Rocket Engine
(No moving parts)

Gas Turbine Engine Non-Gas Turbine Engine

(Available moving parts like (No moving parts)
Compressor and Turbine)

Ramjet Scramjet Pulsejet

Turbojet Turboprop Turbofan Turbo-shaft

IN-LINE ENGINE

 "Inline engine" refers only to engines with a single row of cylinders.

 It can be mounted with up-right or inverted.
 Starts numbering @ anti propeller end & increase toward front.
V-TYPE ENGINE
 Two banks of cylinder inclined each other at an angle to each other with one crank shaft.
 Numbering at anti propeller end and increases toward the front
 Numbered according to position as well as bank
RADIAL TYPE ENGINE
• More than 2 cylinder in each row and equally spaced around the crank shaft.
• Piston of all cylinder are coupled to same crank shaft.
• They are numbered with top cylinder and continue around clockwise as viewed from anti
propeller end.
HORIZONTALLY OPPOSED ENGINE
• They have 2 cylinder banks located on same plane and on apposite of crank shaft
• Cylinder at anti propeller end on the right side is numbered one and cylinder on left is
numbered four and increases
• Depends on number of cylinder.
DEFINITION OF A JET ENGINE
• An engine that burns fuel and uses the expanding exhaust
gases to turn a turbine and/or produce thrust

• The concept of thrust is based on the principle of

Newton’s Third Law
NEWTON’S LAWS
• For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
• Newton’s Second Law F=M x A
• Newton’s second law states - The force of an object is
equal to its mass times its acceleration
• The force of the spray nozzle is equal to the mass of the
water multiplied by the acceleration of the water when it
comes through the nozzle
• This is the same principle used in rocket and jet engines
NEWTON IN PRACTICE
WHERE ARE JET ENGINES USED
WHERE ARE JET ENGINES USED?
BASIC JET ENGINE
 PARTS OF TURBOJET
• Housing – The rigid frame that supports and contains the
parts needed for operation as well as the combustion event
• Air inlet and diffuser – The area of the jet where fresh air
comes in, the design of the diffuser straightens and alters the
speed of the incoming airs
• Compressor – Compresses the incoming air at a ratio of
approximately 30:1
• Burner or combustion chamber – The area of the engine
where fuel is ignited
• Exhaust Nozzle – accelerates the engine exhaust to the
most efficient and effective speed for producing thrust
• Turbine – Converts the energy from the heated and
expanding exhaust gasses to a rotating shaft which is used
to turn the compressors, or in the case of a turboshaft
engine, power the vehicle
COMPRESSOR
• Supplies high pressure air for combustion process
• Centrifugal flow and Axial flow

• Centrifugal Compressor
• Adv: simple design, good for low compression ratios (5:1), strong
• Disadvantage: Difficult to stage, less efficient, high frontal area
AXIAL COMPRESSOR
• Radial flow engines use a centrifugal compressor – they
push the air out radially rather than along the axis of the
engine
• Axial flow compressors – the air travels along the axis
of the engine
AXIAL COMPRESSOR
 They may have more than one spool
 Spool is group of compressor stages
 Mean a shaft and one or two turbine stages rotating at
the same speed.
 Low pressure turbine is attached to forward low
pressure compressor.
 Flow will be in axial direction.
CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR
 Flow will be radial
 Radial flow engines use a centrifugal compressor –
they push the air out radially rather than along the axis
of the engine
 Lower efficiency than the axial flow compressor
 It is used in early jet engines.
TURBINE
• Convert the kinetic energy into expansion work
• It is used to drive the compressor as well as propeller shaft
ABOUT TURBOJET
 Chemical energy is converted into mechanical energy
 100% Thrust produced by Nozzle
 Operating Mach No: 1 to 2
 Supersonic Aircraft (1 to 5)
ADVANTAGES
• High power to weight ratio
• No reciprocating parts
• Less parasitic power loss – no need to constantly
accelerate and decelerate pistons
• Less required maintenance
DISADVANTAGES
• The high speeds and high operating temperatures make
designing and manufacturing gas turbines complex from
both the engineering and materials standpoint
• These complexities lead to a higher price.
 TURBOFAN
• It has a large fan in the front which sucks the air in, most of
the air flows around the outside core of the engine.
• Fan’s rotational speed is same as low pressure compressor’s
rotational speed.
• Only a portion of air from the inlet will be sent to the
compressor
• The secondary air leaves separately from primary air and
ducted back to mix with the air from engine core at the back.
• This fan air will account for 80% of total engines thrust.
• If one wanted to increase thrust you would either have to
increase the speed of the air being moved or increase the
mass of the air being moved (Thrust = Mass x
Acceleration) ... However…
• It is more efficient to accelerate a larger mass of air to a
lower velocity
• Due to this principle the turbofan is more efficient than the
turbojet
• Due to the lower velocity the turbofan is also significantly
quieter than a turbojet
• Almost all modern commercial aircraft use turbofan
engines.
• This separation is called bypass
• Cool bypass air flow
• Hot turbine discharge gases
ABOUT TURBOFAN
 They are again subdivided into
1. High by pass ratio
2. Low by pass ratio
 It depends on the amount of engine it bypasses the core of engine
 This bypassing will be given as ratio and called as bypass ratio
 20 to 40% of Thrust produced by Nozzle
 60 to 80% of Thrust produced by Fan
 Operating Mach No: 0.4 to 0.8
 High Subsonic Aircraft (0.3 to 0.8)
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
• Because the large inlet fan moves a larger volume of air at
a lower velocity, the turbofan is more efficient than the
turbojet
• Because of the lower exhaust speeds the noise level is
greatly reduced
• The large inlet fan creates a large frontal area which
negatively affects drag at high speeds (especially
supersonic)
• Most effective at speeds below supersonic
(Mach .5 – Mach .9)
TURBOPROP
TURBO PROPELLER
 It has an additional gear box attached in front to drive the
propeller.
 This engine uses almost all the exhaust gas to run the
propeller and very less thrust will be produced.
 Means thrust from the exhaust is only 10%
 The other 90% of energy is extracted by turbines that
drives the compressor and second turbine which drives the
propeller.
 Modern engines have propeller with smaller diameter but large number
of blades.
 20 to 25% of Thrust produced by Nozzle
 75 to 80% of Thrust produced by Propeller
 Operating Mach No: 0.4 to 0.65
 Subsonic Aircraft (0.1 to 0.8)
TURBO SHAFT
 High pressure turbine is used to rotate HP & LP Compressor
 Low pressure turbine is used to rotate output Shaft
 No Thrust produced in the exit turbine gas
 Kinetic energy is converted to Shaft power
 100% Thrust produced by Shaft
 Operating Mach No: 0.4 to 0.8
 High speed Subsonic helicopter (0.3 to 0.8)
PASSENGER AIRPLANES

SI.No Description Less Moderate High

1 Specific fuel Turbofan Turboprop Turbojet
consumption

2 Noise Level Turbofan Turboprop Turbojet

3 Operating Mach No Turboprop Turbofan Turbojet

4 Take off Thrust Turbojet Turbofan Turboprop

5 Altitude Turboprop Turbofan Turbojet

6 Load Carrying capacity Turbojet Turboprop Turbofan

7 Specific Impulse Turbojet Turboprop Turbofan

BRAYTON CYCLE APPLICATION
• A Brayton-type engine consists of three components:
I. a compressor
II. a mixing chamber
III. an expander

• The term Brayton cycle has more recently been given to the gas turbine engine. This also
has three components:
I. A gas compressor
II. A burner (or combustion chamber)
III. An expansion turbine
IDEAL BRAYTON CYCLE:
 Isentropic process – ambient air is drawn into the compressor, where it
is pressurized.
 Isobaric process – the compressed air then runs through a combustion
chamber, where fuel is burned, heating that air—a constant-pressure
process, since the chamber is open to flow in and out.
 Isentropic process – the heated, pressurized air then gives up its
energy, expanding through a turbine (or series of turbines). Some of
the work extracted by the turbine is used to drive the compressor.
 Isobaric process – heat rejection (in the atmosphere).
ACTUAL BRAYTON CYCLE:

 adiabatic process – compression

 isobaric process – heat addition
 adiabatic process – expansion
 isobaric process – heat rejection

 A closed Brayton cycle recirculates the working fluid.

 The air expelled from the turbine is reintroduced into the compressor
 This cycle uses a heat exchanger to heat the working fluid instead of an internal
combustion chamber.
 The closed Brayton cycle is used for example in closed-cycle gas turbine and space
power generation.
BRAYTON CYCLE EFFICIENCY
THRUST AUGMENTATION
 Is a method of extracting more power from Internal Combustion
Engines.
 It’s a form of ‘Power Boosting’

 We shall examine two main types of augmentation systems,

 Water Injection
and

 Reheat or Afterburning
WATER INJECTION METHOD
 Operation of either Water or Water Methanol systems cools the
turbine, and allows water to be injected into the fuel spray nozzles
 Which cools the air flow in the combustor allowing more fuel to be
added.
 Water Injection allows water to be injected via additional nozzles
built into the fuel spray nozzles.

 The water injection system automatically resets the fuel control unit
to allow more fuel to flow.

 Water cools the turbine,

 and a cooler turbine means more fuel can be added.
 Increases the exhaust jet velocity, and provides extra thrust without
increasing the engine's frontal area.

 System is heavy and not used in most of the aircrafts

METHODS OF THRUST AUGMENTATION

 After burning
 High thrust for short duration
 It is used only in take-off (or) for high climbing rates
 Additional fuel is burning in the tail pipe between the turbine and exhaust
nozzle
 It is increased the jet velocity

 Oxidizer-Fuel Mixture
 Increase the mass flow rate
 Evaporative cooling which produces higher pressure and higher mass flow
rate
 Increase the compressor pressure ratio due to reduced compressor air flow

 Water and menthol or alcohol Mixture

ADVANTAGES OF GAS TURBINE ENGINES
 Weight reduction of 70%
 Simplicity
 Reduced manning requirements
 Quicker response time
 Faster Acceleration/deceleration
 Modular replacement
 Less vibrations
 More economical
DISADVANTAGES OF GAS TURBINE ENGINES
 Many parts under high stress
 High pitched noise
 Needs large quantities of air
 Large quantities of hot exhaust (target)
 Cannot be repaired in place
RAM JET ENGINES
ROCKET ENGINES
 A rocket is a machine that develops thrust by the rapid expulsion of matter
 A rocket is called a launch vehicle when it is used to launch a satellite or
other payload into space
 Rocket engines are reaction engines
 The highest exhaust velocities
 It is used in missile