National Aviation Academy

Theory of Aviation Engines

Gas Turbine Engines Air Inlet

Tural Usubaliyev
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The primary purpose of the Inlet is to bring the air required by the engine from
freestream conditions to the conditions required at the entrance of the fan or
compressor with minimum total pressure loss.

The inlet interchanges the organized kinetic and random thermal energies of the
gas in an essentially adiabatic process. The perfect (no-loss) inlet would thus
correspond to an isentropic process.

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AIR INLET Design requirements are as follows:

• The airflow must reach the compressor at a velocity & pressure that
enables the compressor to operate satisfactory;
• It must be able to recover as much of the total pressure of the free
airstream as possible & deliver this pressure to the front of the
compressor with the min loss. This is known as ram or total pressure
recovery;
• It must deliver the air uniformly with as little turbulence and pressure
variation as possible;
• The inlet must hold the drag that it creates to a minimum.

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 A list of the major design variables for the inlet includes the following:

1) Inlet total pressure ratio and drag at cruise

2) Engine location on wing or fuselage (avoidance of foreign-object damage, inlet
flow upwash and downwash, exhaust gas reingestion, ground clearance)
3) Aircraft attitude envelope (angle of attack, yaw angle, cross-wind takeoff)
4) Inlet total pressure ratio and distortion levels required for engine operation
5) Engine-out windmilling airflow and drag (nacelle and engine)
6) Integration of diffuser and fan flow path contour
7) Integration of external nacelle contour with thrust reverser and accessories
8) Flowfield interaction between nacelle, pylon, and wing
9) Noise suppression requirements

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 Inlet nomenclature

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 2 types air inlets are used on the aircrafts.

AIR INLET DUCTS

SUBSONIC SUPERSONIC

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 SUBSONIC SUPERSONIC

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 Typical streamline patterns for subsonic inlet

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SUPERSONIC AIR INLET

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 Air intake view
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 AIR FLOW

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 AIR INLETS ON THE ENGINE
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 Temperature sensor – 1
Balancing screw – 2
Fan blades – 3
Front acoustic panels – 4
Spinner front cone – 5
Spinner rear cone - 6

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 AIR INLETS ANTI-ICING SYSTEM
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ENGINE INLET COWL FAILURES

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ENGINE INLET COWL FAILURES

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 THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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