ZAMBIA AIR SERVICES TRAINING INSTITUTE

ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

AME 24

LECTURE NOTES
WEEKS 1-4

JANUARY-FEBRUARY
2020

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1. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Development of gas turbine engines

Relationship between force, work, power, energy, velocity, and acceleration and their respective
relationship to gas turbine operation

Definition and application to gas turbine operation of the following:

• potential energy 


• kinetic energy 


• Newton’s Laws of Motion 


• Brayton Cycle 


• Bernoulli’s Theorem 


• Thermodynamic laws 
 – Constant pressure gas turbine cycle, open cycle and closed cycle

gas turbines 
 – Basic constructional arrangement and the relative merits of the following engine types:
turbojet, turbofan, turbo shaft, turboprop, prop fan and ducted fan 


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 FUNDAMENTALS PRINCIPLES OF GAS TURBINE ENGINES

DEVELOPMENT OF GAS TURBINE ENGINES

INTRODUCTION TO JET PROPULSION

The first known instance of ‘jet propulsion’ produced by man was when Hero, a Greek
engineer living in Alexandria, made a machine as a toy in the year 120 BC. However, nature
uses ‘jet propulsion’ in squid, octopus and jellyfish, so it can be seen that this means of getting
about is not new.

Nothing more was done about developing the jet principle until 1629 when an Italian, Giovanni
Branca, produced a steam driven impulse turbine (now in the British Museum).

Sir Isaac Newton produced his laws of motion from which an inventor, Gravinade, designed
and produced a steam driven carriage - a 'horseless carriage’, which was hopelessly
underpowered.

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In 1913 a French Engineer, René Lorin, patented a jet propulsion engine. This was what is
known as an athodyd (an aero-thermodynamic-duct), but at that time was impossible to
manufacture or use due to the lack of appropriate materials. However, it was very similar to a
modern Ram-Jet.

In the year 1928, a young flying officer in the RAF named Whittle, (later Sir Frank Whittle) first
suggested using a gas turbine for jet propulsion and was granted his first patent in 1930.
Working in co-operation with Dr A A Griffith of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Whittle
eventually produced a pure jet engine, which was bench-tested in 1937.

In the same year, a similar engine was tested at the Heinkel factory in Germany. The engine,
designed by Pabst Von Ohain, was fitted to a Heinkel 178 and this became the first jet-
propelled aircraft to fly in August 1939.

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The first British jet aircraft was the Gloster/Whittle E28/39, which flew in May 1941.

The demand for better performance, power altitude and speed was handicapped by the lack of
engines of high power/weight ratio and small bulk, also as altitude increased, a series of fall-off
in power output and reduced propeller efficiencies were encountered. Thus, a new type of
power unit was needed and that is where the ‘jet’ engine came to the fore.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORCE, WORK, POWER, ENERGY, VELOCITY, AND

INTRODUCTION TO GAS PHYSICS

In order to attain a fuller understanding of the functioning of gas turbines, it is essential to have
an appreciation of the basic gas laws.

BOYLE’S LAW
 'The volume of a given mass of gas, whose temperature is maintained
constant, is inversely proportional to the gas pressure’.

What this means is that if the pressure of a given mass of gas is doubled, its volume is halved,
or if the pressure is halved, the volume will be doubled, provided that the temperature of the
gas remains constant.

CHARLES’ LAW
 ‘If the pressure of a given mass of a gas is maintained constant, the volume
of gas increases as its temperature is increased’.
 These historical laws are combined in what
is now called the Ideal Gas Law which gives the relationship:
 This relationship is applied to
heat engines in the following manner.

EFFECT OF ADDING HEAT ENERGY AT CONSTANT VOLUME

If we heat a mass of air without allowing its volume to change, its temperature will increase
and as shown from the above equation, there will be an INCREASE IN PRESSURE. This is
the condition that exists in the cylinder of a piston engine.

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EFFECT OF ADDING HEAT ENERGY AT A CONSTANT PRESSURE

If we heat a mass of air which is not confined in volume eg. Not in an enclosed cylinder, its
temperature will rise and there will be a consequent INCREASE IN THE VOLUME of the gas.
The pressure will remain approximately constant. This is what happens in a gas turbine
engine.

ENERGY

The above laws depend upon the usage of heat energy to a large extent. It must be
remembered that energy can take many forms and that it can be changed from one form to
another but never destroyed or created. The Universe contains a finite amount of energy that,
in flowing from one point to another, does work. Ultimately the level of energy throughout the
Universe will be the same (singular) which means that no flow of energy will take place, no
work is possible and, therefore, everything will cease. This flow into an even level is called
‘entropy’.

Here are some forms of energy:

• Heat - travels by radiation (from the sun, for example), Conduction (through a metal rod)
and Convection (rising air currents). Heat is regarded as ‘disorderly energy’ because of
its random patterns and the difficulty of channelling it efficiently. 


• Fuel - (or ‘chemical’) is ‘orderly energy’ because it is stored neatly and extremely
controllable in most forms. 


• Kinetic- is the energy a body (or mass) possesses by virtue of its motion. This is closely
tied in with ‘momentum’. 


• Potential - energy is caused by the position of a body. If a body is held suspended

• Electrical - is the movement of atoms from a negative charge to a positive charge. Like
heat, it travels from one point to another until it ‘levels out’. 


• Pressure - A fluid under compression will attempt to flow from a high pressure to a low
pressure and, in doing so, will or can do work. 


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 CONSTANT PRESSURE GAS TURBINE CYCLE, OPEN CYCLE AND CLOSED CYCLE

THERMODYNAMIC ENGINE 


The heat engine is a machine in which heat energy Q is changed into work W. This energy
conversion is never complete, ie. Never 100% efficient. 
 The diagram shows a simple heat
engine. A source of heat supplies heat energy Q, some of which is converted into work W. The
heat which is not converted (Q – W) is rejected into a heat sink: 


THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES AND LAWS

The piston engine works on what is called an ‘Otto’ cycle or, more accurately, a ‘Modified Otto’
cycle. The gas turbine engine works on the basis of the ‘Brayton’ cycle formulated by George
Brayton, an American Engineer from Boston who proposed the idea in the late nineteenth
century.

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THE BRAYTON CYCLE

The working cycle upon which the gas turbine engine functions is, in its simplest and most
ideal form, represented by the cycle shown on the pressure volume diagram above. Point ‘A’
represents air at atmospheric pressure that is compressed along the line to ’B’. From ‘B’ to ‘C’
heat is added to the air by introducing and burning fuel at, ideally, constant pressure, thereby
considerable increasing the volume of air. From ‘C’ to ‘D’ the expanding gases from
combustion pass through the turbine and jet pipe nozzle back to atmosphere. During this part
of the cycle, some of the energy in the expanding gases is turned into mechanical power by
the turbine; the remainder, on its discharge to atmosphere, provides a propulsive jet.

Ideally, the compression and exhaust phases are isothermal in that the temperature of the
working fluid should remain constant. In practice the heat in the gas is concentrated which
increases the temperature of the mass flow; furthermore, the compression and exhaust
process is not 100% efficient leading to friction that will add heat and thus raise the
temperature.

Adding energy to the working fluid should be adiabatic. This means that no heat is lost from
the mass flow ensuring that all the heat added remains to do useful work. Unhappily some
heat is lost through transfer to atmosphere. The combustion process is also, ideally, isobaric: it
will take place at a constant pressure. This is not practical as a pressure drop is required to
induce a flow of fresh air into the system during combustion to ensure complete fuel
combustion and also for cooling the gases before they reach the exhaust section.

In both the ‘Otto’ and ‘Brayton’ cycle, the work done on the gas is subject to change through
wear and thermodynamic cycling. The wear is self-evident but the cycles may be adequately
compared to a light bulb. If an electric light bulb is turned ‘ON’ - and left on, it will ‘live’ a long
time but, if it is continually turned ‘OFF’ and ‘ON’ the change from cold to hot to cold
to.............. will wear it out quite rapidly. Gas turbine engines, in particular, refer to ‘cycle’ times
when their serviceability is being examined.

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BERNOULLI’S THEOREM

At any point in a tube (or a gas passage) through which liquid (or gas) is flowing, the sum of
the pressure energy, the potential energy and the kinetic energy is constant. Thus, if one of the
energy factors in a gas flow changes, one or both of the other variables also changes so that
the total energy remains constant.

This theorem gives us the relationship between velocity and pressure of a stream of air flowing
through a tube, or duct, such as a gas turbine engine.

CONVERGENT DUCT

A convergent duct is one that has an area at the inlet greater than the area at the outlet. When
air flows through such a duct it incurs a velocity increase at the expense of the static pressure
and temperature.

DIVERGENT DUCT

A divergent duct is one which has an inlet area which is less than the outlet area. This gives a
decrease in velocity with an increase in pressure and temperature.

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NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

Every object continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is
compelled to change that state by an external force acting upon it.

ie. You cannot move, stop or steer anything unless you apply a force to it.

NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF MOTION

The rate of change of momentum of a body is proportional to the total force acting upon it and
occurs in the direction of the force.

ie. the effect of a force depends on its mass, speed and direction

NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION

Of Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, the third is most applicable to the operation of gas
turbine engines. This law states that:

If body ‘A’ exerts a force on body ‘B’, then body ‘B’ exerts a force of the same size on body ‘A’.

ie. ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’.

In the operation of a gas turbine engine, the mass flow of gas is accelerated in a rearward
direction thus, by reaction, thrust is produced.

DEFINITION OF MASS

Mass is a basic property of matter that (with length and time) constitutes one of the
fundamental, undefined, quantities upon which all physical measurements are based, and
which is intuitively associated with the amount of matter a body contains. Generally it is
associated with the force required to overcome the inertia of a body and is called weight when
that inertia is associated with gravity.

DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity of a body. Since velocity is the time taken for a
body to travel a given distance, then acceleration is the time taken to change the velocity.

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DEFINITION OF MOMENTUM

A measure of the quantity of motion. It is defined as product of the mass and the velocity of a
body and is determined by the length of time a constant force must act on that body to bring it
to rest. Momentum is a vector quantity and is parallel to the velocity vector. Loosely speaking,
momentum is the force built up by a moving body.

DEFINITION OF POWER

Power is the rate of changing energy from one form to another or the rate of doing work.

SI UNITS

Power is measured in Watts (W) or Joules per second (J/s).

DAY THREE: 4 HOURS

GAS TURBINES 
 – BASIC CONSTRUCTIONAL ARRANGEMENT AND THE RELATIVE MERITS

JET MECHANICS CLASSIFICATION OF PROPULSION UNITS

Basic Construction and Operation of the Pure Jet

The modern jet engine is basically cylindrical in shape as it is essentially a duct into which the
necessary parts are fitted. The parts from front to rear are the: -

• combustion system 


• turbine assembly 


• exhaust system 
 A shaft connects the turbine to the compressor and fuel burners are
positioned in the combustion system. Initial ignition is provided once the air flow is
produced by rotation of the compressor, the pressure of the mass ensures the
expanding gas travels in a rearward direction. Once ignition is achieved, the flame will
be continuous, providing fuel is supplied and the ignition device can be switched off.

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 The hot gases crossing the turbine produce torque to drive the compressor, therefore
the starter can also be switched off. 


• As the demand for more and more thrust increased in order to lift higher and higher
payloads, the size of the spool to drive the required mass airflow became prohibitive.
The heavier spools were taking to long to accelerate (spool up) and therefore the mass
flow of air was also taking too long to reach the combustion section. In order to make
the spool lighter it was split into two parts. Furthermore, the gas could also be split so
that only a portion of the air would now pass through the combustor, the rest could go
around the ‘core’ engine as by-pass air and mix after the combustion process. This
would give a greater mass of air travelling more slowly to reduce kinetic friction losses,
and improve the pressure thrust at the nozzle by giving a larger area for the cooler
mass to exit from.
• A further advance was to make the spool even lighter by splitting it into three parts.

TWIN SPOOL TURBOJET (LOW BY-PASS)

Add a higher by-pass ratio, the engine shown above is a ‘low by-pass’ of around 1:1, to make
the engine more efficient at lower altitudes and speeds and the turbofan comes into existence.
be ‘high by-pass’ engines.
Note that the British term is a ‘twin spool’ engine but the Americans use the phrase ‘dual axial’.
On some high by-pass engines the ‘cold’ air and the ‘hot’ air emerge as separate streams; on
others, the streams are combined in what is called a ‘common nozzle’.

The high bypass turbofan engine is essentially a fixed pitch, multi-bladed, ducted propeller. It
shifts a very large mass of air faster than a conventional propeller but much more slowly than a
pure jet. It is able to move this large mass of air quite quickly because, unlike a propeller blade,
the fan blade can cut through the air at supersonic velocities – the tip is usually quoted as
moving at around Mach 1.3.

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 TRIPLE SPOOL FRONT FAN TURBOJET (HIGH BY-PASS RATION)

It is for this reason that some turbofans have mid-span shrouds (snubbers or clappers) at
some stage along their length to support them and stop them ‘whipping’ or ‘flapping’ in the
airflow. Wide chord fan blades do not require these supports.

As stated above, the air mass flow is cooler leaving a by-pass engine so that the thrust is
achieved by moving the air through a larger area of nozzle. By making a comparison between
pure jet engines and by-pass engines more differences can be found.

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BASIC CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF THE TURBOPROP ENGINE

The turbo-prop (turbo-propeller engine) is a combination of a gas turbine and a propeller.

However, the difference is that the turbine in the turbo-prop engine usually has more stages
than that in the turbo-jet engine. In addition to operating the compressor and accessories the
turbo-prop turbine transmits increased power forward, through a shaft and a gear train, to drive
the propeller. The increased power is generated by the exhaust gases passing additional
stages of the turbine.

The exhaust gases and reaction within the engine also contribute to engine power output
through jet reaction; the amount of energy available for jet thrust is roughly 10% on most
modern engines at ISA (SL).

SINGLE ENTRY TWO STAGE CENTRIFUGAL FLOW TURBOPROPELLER

The turbopropeller pictured above is known as a ‘fixed turbine’ unit. This is because the turbine
drives the compressor, accessory gearbox and reduction gearbox (propeller) as one
mechanically coupled unit. This is a very simple system. It is light for the power output
obtained and relatively simple to maintain.

Most turbopropeller engines are now ‘free turbine’ units. This is a design where there is one
turbine to drive the compressor and the accessory gearbox and another turbine to drive the
reduction gear and propeller. The only link between the ‘core’ engine (the turbine, compressor
and accessory gearbox) and the propeller drive is energy rich gas.

Free power turbines are connected to the gas generator solely by a stream of energy enriched
gas, there is no mechanical coupling.

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TWIN SPOOL TURBO-SHAFT (WITH FREE-POWER TURBINE)

TWIN SPOOL AXIAL FLOW TURBOPROPELLER

The turbopropeller engine shown above is a combination of the two because it has a free
turbine that also drives a LP compressor and a HP compressor driven by its own turbine. The
accessories are driven from the gas generator (‘core’) – the HP section.

The typical turbo-prop engine can be broken down into assemblies as follows:

• The power section assembly which contains the usual major components of gas turbine
engines (compressor, combustion chamber, turbine and exhaust system). 


• The reduction gear or gear-box assembly which contains those sections peculiar to
turbo-prop configurations. 


• The torque meter assembly which transmits the torque from the engine to the gear box
to the reduction section. 


• The accessory drive housing assembly.
 The turbo-prop engine can be used in many
different configurations. It is often used 
 in transport aircraft, but can be adapted for use
in single-engined aircraft. 

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 •
• BASIC CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF THE TURBO-SHAFT ENGINE
• A gas turbine engine that delivers power through a shaft to operate something other
than a propeller is referred to as a turbo shaft engine. Turbo-shaft engines are similar to
turbo-prop engines. The power take-off may be coupled directly to the engine turbine or
the shaft may be driven by a turbine. The free turbine is located downstream of the
engine turbine. The free turbine independently, being connected to the main engine only
by the hot stream of gases. This principle is used in the majority of turbo-shaft engines
currently produced and is being used extensively in helicopters and hovercraft.
•

• FREE TURBINE TURBOSHAFT

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• TWIN SPOOL TURBOSHAFT WITH FREE TURBINE

• FIXED TURBINE TURBOSHAFT

THE END
JANUARY FEBRUARY 2020

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