CHAPTER-1

In an aircraft gas turbine the output of the

turbine is used to turn the compressor (which
may also have an associated fan or propeller).
The hot air flow leaving the turbine is than
accelerated into the atmosphere through an
exhaust nozzle to provide thrust or propulsion
power.
A portion of the kinetic energy of the expanding
gases is extracted by the turbine section, and
this energy is transformed into shaft horsepower
which is used to drive the compressor and
accessories.

Based on
pressure

High pressure

Low pressure

Based on flow
direction

Axial flow

Radial flow

Based on
function
Impulse
turbine

Reaction
turbine

HP turbine is located next to the

combustion chamber, which
extracts more energy from the
gas to run the high pressure
compressor HP turbine rotates at
higher RPM.
LP turbine is located next to the
HP turbine, which extracts more
energy from the gas to run the
low pressure compressor and
fan. LP turbine rotates at lower
RPM.

Axial flow turbine:

It consists of two main elements
A set of stationary vanes followed
by a turbine rotor.
Axial-flow turbines may be of the singlerotor or multiple-rotor type

Blade shapeDependent on Stress and Cooling but not

as much on aerodynamics
Axial Turbine Stage
Row of stationary blades: Nozzle
Row of rotating blades: Rotor

The radial flow turbine is similar in design and

construction to the centrifugal-flow compressor.
Advantages
-ruggedness and simplicity
-relatively inexpensive and easy to manufacture

when compared to the axial-flow turbine.

Impulse turbine

Reaction turbine

The gas flow through the nozzles and

impinges on the impulse turbine blades

The gas is guided by guide blades/vanes to

flow over the moving rotor blades

In impulse turbine the entire energy is first There is no energy conversion in reaction
converted into kinetic energy
turbine
In impulse turbine the gas impinges on the In reaction turbine the gas glides over the
blades/bucket with kinetic energy
rotor blades with pressure energy

In impulse turbine the work is done by the

change in the kinetic energy of the jet

In reaction turbine the work is done partly

by the change in velocity but almost
entirely by the change in the pressure

In impulse turbine the pressure remains

constant

In reaction turbine the pressure is reduced

after gliding over the vanes

Enthalpy drop in Rotor

Enthalpy drop in stage

h2 h 3 T2 T3 Ca

(tan 3 tan 2 )
h1 h3 T1 T3 2U
Assuming that axial velocity is constant throughout the stage
Ca1 Ca 2 Ca 3 Ca and C1 =C3
C p (T1 T3 ) C p (T01 T03 ) UCa (tan 2 +tan 3 )

W .K .T temperature drop in the rotor blade is equal to the

change in the relative velocity
1 2
C p (T2 T3 ) (V3 V2 2 )
2
2
2

C
C
1
a
a



2 cos 3 cos 2

1
Ca 2 (sec 2 3 sec 2 2 )
2
1
Ca 2 [(tan 2 3 1) (tan 2 2 1)]
2
1
Ca 2 (tan 2 3 tan 2 2 )
2
1
C p (T2 T3 ) Ca 2 [(tan 3 tan 2 )(tan 3 tan 2 )]
2

1 2 [(tan 3 tan 2 )(tan 3 tan 2 )]

Ca
2
UCa (tan 2 tan 3 )
Ca

(tan 3 tan 2 )
2U

The blade-loading coefficient is used to

express work capacity of the stage.
It is defined as the ratio of the specific work
of the stage to the square of the blade velocity
2C p Tos 2Ca
W
1 2

(tan 2 tan 3 )
2
U
U
2U

The flow coefficient is defined as the ratio of

the inlet velocity Ca to the blade speed U

Ca

The gas angles in terms of , , and

2 (tan 2 tan 3 )

(tan 3 tan 2 )

2
adding and sub above eqn we get
1
tan 3
( 4)
4
1
t an 2
( 4 )
4
we know that
U
tan 2 tan 2 tan 3 tan 3
Ca
tan 3 tan 3

and tan 2 tan 2

Let us consider 50% reaction at mean radius

=0.5
1
tan 3 tan 2

3 2 and 2 3
consider C1 C3 1 = 3 = 2

4 tan 3 2 4 tan 2 2
4 tan 2 2 4 tan 3 2

T02= T01 because no work is done in the nozzle

(P01 - P02) represents the pressure drop due to friction
in the nozzle
(T01 T2) represents the ideal expansion in the nozzle
T2 at the nozzle exit is higher than T2

further expansion in the rotor-blade passages reduces the

pressure to P3.
T3 is the final temperature after isentropic expansion in the
whole stage
T3 is the temperature after expansion in the rotor-blade
passages alone.
Temperature T3 represents the temperature due to friction in
the rotor-blade passages.

Assumptions of free vortex theory are as follows

(a) The stagnation enthalpy ho is constant over the annuls(i.e. dho/dr=0)
(b) The axial velocity is constant over the annulus
(c) The whirl velocity is inversely proportional to the radius
The stage designed by satisfying all these three assumptions is known as free
vortex stage.

Ws U (Cw 2 Cw3 )
Ws (Cw 2 r Cw3r ) constant

m 2 2 rCa 2
rt

m 2 Ca 2 2 rdr
rr

(Ca 2 Cw 2 )
C2
h0 h
h
2
2
the variation of enthalpy with radius is given as
dh0 dh
dCa
dCw

Ca
Cw
dr dr
dr
dr

from the thermodynamics relation

Tds dh dp /
dh
ds
dT 1 dp 1 d
T
ds

2
dp
dr
dr
dr dr dr
neglecting the second order terms from the equation we get
dh
ds 1 dp
T

dr
dr dr
dh
substituting for
we get
dr
dh0
dCa
dCw
ds 1 dp

Ca
Cw
dr
dr dr
dr
dr

1 dp Cw 2
we know that

dr
r
dh0
dCa
dCw
ds Cw 2

Ca
Cw
dr
dr
r
dr
dr
the above equation is reffered as vortex energy equation

dh0
since the enthalpy is constant
0
dr
Cw 2
dCa
dCw
Ca
Cw
0
r
dr
dr
dCa
since the Ca is constant
0
dr
Cw 2
dCw
Cw
0
r
dr
Cw 2
dCw
Cw
r
dr
dCw
dr

r
Cw
integrating the above equation we get
Cw r constant
from the velocity triangle
Cw r rCa tan 2 constant

now 2 at any radius r isrelated to 2 m at the mean radius rm by

rm
tan 2 tan 2 m
r 2
rm
tan 3 tan 3m
r 3
simillarly the blade angles can be derived by
U
tan 2 tan 2
Ca 2
r Um
rm
tan 2 tan 2 m
r 2
rm 2 Ca 2 m
r Um
rm
tan 3 tan 3m
r 3
rm 3 Ca 3m

We are going to Choose the stator and rotor blade angles which
will accept the gas incidence upon L.E and deflect the gas
through the required angle with the minimum loss.
Overall blade
loss coefficient

Profile loss

Annulus loss

Measured
in cascade

Secondary
flow loss

Tip clearance
loss

Grouped into one term

secondary loss s

Total Profile Annulus Secondary Tip clearance

flow loss

Loss

Profile loss

boundary layer growth over the blade profile including

separation loss under adverse condition of extreme
angle of incidence or high inlet Mach number.

Annulus loss

Boundary layer growth on the inner and outer walls of

the annulus

Secondary flow
loss
Tip clearance
loss

Secondary flows which are always present when a wall

boundary layer is turned through an angle by an adjacent
curved surface
Near the rotor blade tip the gas does not follow the
intended path, fails to contribute its work output and
interacts with the wall boundary layer

Low values of (h/c)increase of secondary

flow and tip clearance effect by large h.
Ysnozzle row
Ys+Ykrotor row
high value of (h/c)vibration
optimum value of h/c3and 4
U mh
N
AN N
h

A
Um Um
A 2 rm h

Centrifugal
stresses

Directly proportional to square of rotational speed

N and the annulus area.
When N is fixed they place an upper limit on the
annulus area

Gas bending
stresses

Inversely proportional to number of blades and

blade section modulus
Directly proportional to blade height and specific
work output

Optimizing
the design

It falls within the limit set by all these conflicting

mechanical and aerodynamic requirements for
efficient turbine of minimum weight.
If not possible the work output must be split
between two stages

Degree of
reaction

Average degree of reaction of 50% to obtain low

blade loss coefficient and zero swirl
An aerodynamic limit on the minimum value of
reaction at mean diameter is set by the need to ensure
some positive reaction at the blade root radius

Number of blades

Cannot be increased beyond a certain point due to the blade pitch

and circumference of the blade

Section modulus

Proportional to the cube of blade chord which can be increased to

reduce the gas bending stress

Pitch to chord ratio

There is an aerodynamic limit on S/C

If it is too small it will incur a high loss coefficient because
reduction in s/c increases the blade surface area swept by the gas

Blade height

Reducing h by maintaining same annulus area gives same axial

velocity for given mass flow rate but increases the mean diameter of
the annulus
The blade height can be reduced by reducing the annulus area but
increasing the axial velocity which reduces the blade centrifugal
stress.

Addition of stage performance gives the

overall turbine performance
The overall efficiency is the ratio of actual to
isentropic overall temperature drop

Compressor Work m a C p T03 T02

Turbine Work m a m f C p T04 T05

W.K.T specific work of compressor

is equal to specific work of turbine

Compressor Work Turbine Work

mass flow rate

mass flow rate

m
a
f C pg T04 T05

m a C pa T03 T02

ma
ma m f

C pa T03 T02 C pg T04 T05

For actual condition

1
P g 1 g
C paT02 P03 a a

1 mt C pg T04 1 05

c P02
P04

wherem mechanical efficiency

Turbine Pressure Ratio

1
C paT02 P03 a a
P05

TPR
1
1

P04 ct C pg T04 P02

Compressor Pressure Ratio

T
C paT02 03 1 C pgT04 1 05
T02
T04
1
P g 1 g
C paT02 P03 a a

1 t C pg T04 1 05
C T

P
c t pg 04
c P02
P

03

04
CPR
P02
C paT02
the above equation is for ideal condition

P g 1 g
1 05

P04

g 1

a a 1

STEP Select operating speed

1
STEP Assume turbine inlet temperature
2
STEP Assume compressor pressure ratio
3
STEP Calculate compressor work per unit mass
4
STEP Calculate turbine pressure ratio required to produce this work
5
STEP Check to see if compressor mass flow plus fuel flow equals turbine mass flow
6
repeat

STEP
7
STEP
8
repeat

if not, assume a new value of compressor pressure ratio and repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 until continuity
is satisfied.
Now calculate the pressure ratio across the jet nozzle from the pressure ratios across the diffuser,
compressor, combustor, and turbine.
Calculate the area of jet nozzle outlet necessary to pass the turbine mass flow calculated in step 6
with pressure ratio calculated in step 7 and the stagnation temperature calculated.
If the calculated area does not equal the actual exit area, assume a new value of turbine inlet
temperature (step-2) and repeat the entire procedure.

Turbine Blade Cooling

Air
Cooling

External

Transpiration

Internal

Film

Liquid
Cooling

External

spray

Internal

Forced
convection

Free
convection

Open

closed