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AE-422
Flight Propulsion I
Dr. Abdullah M. Al-Garni
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Gas Turbine Inlets
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Subsonic Inlets
An jet engine must be provided with an air intake and a ducting system.
For a turbojet engine, the airflow entering the compressor should have a Mach
# between 0.4 to 0.7.
This means that if the turbojet installed in an aircraft flying at Mach # of 2, the
air intake should be designed in such away that you get a Mach # of 0.4 to 0.7
at the inlet of the compressor.
In this case the inlet of the engine will act like a diffuser.
When designing the inlet of a jet engine, it is important that the stagnation
pressure loss is small.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Subsonic Inlets
Flow pattern: the flow pattern at the
inlet of an engine depends on
flight velocity: high speed flight
and low speed flight.
1. High speed flight (Example:
Cruise):
The intake mass flow rate
required by the engine is low.
This is accompanied by
external flow deceleration at
the inlet.
This requires less internal
pressure rise (p
2
-p
1
) and
hence less severe loading of
boundary layer.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Subsonic Inlets
2. Low speed flight (Example: take-
off):
The intake mass flow rate
required by the engine is
high.
This is accompanied by
external flow acceleration at
the inlet.
The internal pressure rise
(p
2
-p
1
) can be very large
which will cause boundary
layer separation and hence
a diffuser stall.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Subsonic Inlets
This figure shows the locations in the
engine intake where separation is most
likely to take place.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Subsonic Inlets
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Supersonic Inlet
In supersonic flow, it is important to design the inlet so that the Mach #
entering the compressor is subsonic.
Therefore, the flow should be decelerated from supersonic to subsonic.
This can be don by either a normal shock wave or a couple of oblique shock
waves.
However, the loss across a normal shock wave is very large.
A couple of oblique shock waves would be better. The loss across oblique
shock wave is less than normal shock.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Supersonic Inlet
When designing a
supersonic inlet, we need to
consider different operation
conditions.
Lets consider the
acceleration of a fixed
geometry convergent-
divergent nozzle (CDN)
a. A
a
is determined by the flow
downstream the inlet.
b. A
a
is determined by the flow
at the throat of the CDN.
in this case, A
t
= A*
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Supersonic Inlet
c. M =1, a weak shock appear in
front of the CDN
d. Increasing the Mach number will
yield a bow wave.
once the shock wave is
established, the flow entering
the inlet is no longer isentropic.
Therefore, the geometry of the
Inlet of the CDN should be
changed to prevent the
formation of shock wave.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Supersonic Inlet
Shock-Boundary layer Interaction
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Supersonic Inlet
External Deceleration
02
2
01
03
3
02
04
4
03
2.26; 0.895
1.65; 0.945
0.67; 0.870
p
M
p
p
M
p
p
M
p
= =
= =
= =
Normal
shock
wave
oblique
shock
waves
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Supersonic Inlet
External Deceleration
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
Recall that the
fuel-to-air ratio
The stoichiometric
fuel-to-air ratio
(f
stoich
) can be
higher than actual
fuel-to-air ratio (f).
f
stoich
can be
calculation from
reaction of fuel
and air.
04 03
04 03
04 03
04 03
( )
( )
for
1500K, 600K, 45,000kJ/kg, 0.02
a f a f R
p
f a
R R
R
m m h m h m Q
c h h
h h
m m f
Q Q
T T Q f
+ = +

= =
= = = =


9.525 kmole of air, =28.96 kg/kmol 275.844 kg.
1 kmole of fuel, =16.04 kg/kmol 16.04 kg.
16.04
0.0581
551.69
a
f
f
stoich
a
m
m
m
f
m
=
=
= = =

M
M
4 2 2 2 2 2
air
CH +9.525*(0.21O +0.79N ) CO +2H O+7.52N

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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
The equivalence ratio is then
If the fuel-to-air ratio is similar to the stoichiometric fuel-to-air ratio the turbine
inlet temperature will be very high.
So we need to keep the fuel-to-air ratio as small as possible to prevent
excessive temperature in the turbine.
0.02
0.34
0.0582
stoich
f
f
= = =
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
20% is fed into the
primary zone of
which 12% passes
through swirling
vanes
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
Afterburner and Ramjet combustors
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Gas Turbine Combustors
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Exhaust Nozzle
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Exhaust Nozzle
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Exhaust Nozzle
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Sample Problems
1. A ramjet engine is being designed for flight Mach number 4.5 at an altitude
where the ambient pressure ant temperature is 9 kPa and 220 K. The Mach
number of the flow at the entrance of the burner is 0.3 and the burner has a
constant cross-sectional area. The combustion may be represented
approximately as heating of a perfect gas with constant specific heat ratio. The
stagnation temperature at the burner exit is 2600 K. Neglecting frictional effects
in the burner and considering the flow to be one-dimensional throughout,
estimate the Mach number of the gas leaving the burner. Determine also the
static and stagnation pressure loss in the burner due to heating (the ratio of
outlet and inlet pressure). Assume =1.4.
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Flight Propulsion I: Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustor and Nozzles
Sample Problems
2. Consider a convergent circular nozzle with an inlet area of 0.45 m2 and an inlet
stagnation pressure and temperature of p0 = 300 kPa and T0 = 1400 K. The
mass flow rate throughout the nozzle is 100 kg/s and the stagnation pressure
at the exit of the nozzle is 2% lower than at the entrance of the nozzle. If the
nozzle flow is convergent and chocked and the specific heat ratio is 1.36, find
the following at the exit of the nozzle:
(a) The exit velocity
(b) The exit pressure.
(c) The exit area and diameter.
(d) The Mach number at the entrance of the nozzle