AERO 4402 Project Assignment

Optimization of a Turbofan engine for a Business Jet

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Carleton University, Ottawa ON

To:
Professor. H.I.H. Saravanamuttoo

From:
Student Name: Min Youn
Student Number: 100823571
Email: minyoun@cmail.carleton.ca

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2014

1

Abstract
This report studies engine properties of a long range business jet. It is designed to have a long
range and cruise at Mach 0.88 aircraft with a maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.92, both at
15,000 metre. One of the biggest issues of designing a commercial aircraft engine is selecting its
optimum bypass ratio (BPR) and overall pressure ratio (OPR) since both are directly related to
engine efficiency and performance. The optimum BPR and OPR are decided by selecting the
corresponding lowest specific fuel consumption (SFC) and highest thrust values to allow the
engine to operate at maximum cruise speed.
This documents starts off with a detailed introduction to the selecting process and assumptions
that are made for further analysis. This is followed by underlying theory and the basic concept of
designing a turbofan engine. The specific thrust, SFC and cruise thrust are calculated using a
Matlab program with the BPR and OPR. The optimum BPR and OPR are selected with given
condition.
The discussion section follows next which explains problems requested in the assignment. The
report finally ends with a conclusion to the document with the effect of BPR and OPR on a
turbofan engine.

Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
1.0

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5

2.0

Theory .................................................................................................................................. 5

2.1

Bypass Ratio and Overall Pressure Ratio ............................................................................ 6

2.2

Specific Fuel Consumption .................................................................................................. 7

2.3

Rotor Cooling Bleed ............................................................................................................ 7

2.4

Choke Flow .......................................................................................................................... 7

3.0

Procedure ............................................................................................................................. 8

3.1

Determining suitable values of BPR and OPR .................................................................... 8

3.2

Estimate fuel burn for range of 12,000km ........................................................................... 9

3.3

Stating all assumptions made, estimate the range obtainable at Mach 0.92 ........................ 9

3.4

If the LPT polytropic efficiency was 88%, calculate the effect on

4.0

Results ................................................................................................................................ 11

5.0

Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 13

5.1

Determining suitable values of BPR and OPR .................................................................. 13

5.2

Comparing range of aircraft at Mach 0.88 and Mach 0.92 ................................................ 13

5.2.2

thrust and SFC ........ 10

Effect of engine speed on its efficiency ......................................................................... 13

5.3

Comparing selected design with existing designs ............................................................. 14

5.4

How LPT polytropic efficiency affects on thrust and SFC................................................ 14

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 15

Reference ...................................................................................................................................... 15
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 16

List of Figures
Figure 1. ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 2. ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Figure 3. ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 4. ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 5. ...........................................................................................................................Appendix
3

List of Tables
Table 1. ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Table 2. ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Table 3. ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Table 4. ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Table 5. ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Table 6. ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Nomenclature
Air mass flow rate bypasses the engine
Air mass flow rate through core of the engine
Po

Stagnation pressure

Pc

Critical pressure at the nozzle

To

Stagnation temperature

Air density
Specific heat ratio
C

Velocity

Efficiency
A

Area

1.0 Introduction
The objective of this report is to determine optimized BPR and OPR of a business jet engine with
given condition. [Table 1.] The optimum BPR and OPR can be determined by calculating the
lowest SFC and enough thrust. Since the lowest SFC means that the engine requires the lowest
fuel consumption to make a specific amount of thrust, it is directly related with engine efficiency.
There are some underlying assumptions of this report; for example, all the drag forces acting
against the aircraft are neglected, so that there are no losses from aircraft drag forces and the
required thrust of the aircraft is assumed to be at least 1663.58lbf (7400N) in dynamic condition.
BPR and OPR cannot be increased to their maximum value because there is a size limitation on a
business jet aircraft. This report has been studied with BPR and OPR in range of 4 to 6 and 16 to
25 respectively.
Table 1. Initial conditions

Conditions
Ambient temperature
Ambient pressure
Speed of sound at 15,000m
Fan pressure ratio
Turbine inlet temperature
Rotor cooling bleed
Combustion pressure loss
Fan diameter
Polytropic efficiency, all components
Combustion efficiency
Mechanical efficiency
Intake efficiency
Nozzle efficiency

216.7K
0.1211bar
295.1m/s
1.68
1450K
5%
6%
1.25m
90%
99%
99%
91%
100%

2.0 Theory
To move an aircraft through the air, thrust must be generated by a propulsion system. Nowadays,
turbofan engine is one of the most common propulsion systems because of its high thrust and
fuel efficiency. Components of the turbofan engine are mainly a fan, compressors, combustor,
turbine and nozzle. First of all, high velocity of air passes through the fan. Then, the air is
divided by two section; one into a core of the engine and another into bypasses the core. The
ratio of the air that goes around the engine, bypass flow, to the air that goes through the core is
called the bypass ratio (BPR). Temperature and pressure of the air that goes through the core of
engine is highly increased by the compressor section. This air is mixed with fuel and combusts to
produce thrust through the hot nozzle. Therefore, air that goes through the core of engine
produces significantly higher thrust than the thrust produced by bypass.

2.1

Bypass Ratio and Overall Pressure Ratio

According to Aircraft Design, A Conceptual Approach, Daniel P. Raymer [1], the bypass ratio is
the mass flow ratio of the bypassed air, to the air that goes into the core of the engine.
Eq (1)
Where

In theory, selecting higher BPR increases overall system efficiency of an engine. Engines create
thrust by increasing the momentum of the air coming into the front to the end. Large amount of
bypass air with lower speed carries away less energy for the same momentum; while jet engine
without bypass ratio has to carries higher energy with higher speed for the same momentum.
However, as the BPR increases, the size of engine also increases. In this report, due to the
ground clearance and easy installation, mid-range of BPR is concerned such as 4 to 6.
The overall pressure ratio indicates the ratio of the stagnation pressure, which is measured at the
inlet of an engine, and rear of the compressor.
Eq (2)
Where Po3 is pressure at the rear of compressor and Po1 is pressure at the inlet of engine. [figure 1]
Since high pressurized air carries higher temperature and that produces higher energy during
combustion. Similar to the BPR, increasing OPR value also increases size of the engine. In this
report, OPR is concerned in range of 16 to 25.

Figure 1. Schematic of bypass turbofan engine [3]

2.2

Specific Fuel Consumption

The specific fuel consumption (SFC) is a main criterion of selecting the BPR and OPR value for
the engine. Since higher SFC engine needs more fuel than lower SFC engine to produce same
amount of thrust, the lower SFC engine would be ideal. By increasing the BPR and OPR, the
lower value of SFC can be determined. Since in this report, the required thrust of the aircraft is
assumed to be 1663.58lbf (7400N), a lower SFC should be selected which can also produce high
enough thrust to 1663.58lbf (7400N).

2.3

Rotor Cooling Bleed

The rotor cooling bleed, is applied to improve the

performance of an aircraft engine by permitting the use
of higher turbine-inlet temperatures.[Figure 2.] It is
important to extract turbine inlet temperature (TIT)
because the direct consequence of cooling the turbine
inlet air is power output augmentation. Research, done
by NASA, shows that when the coolant was bled, the
produced thrust was increased by 3 percent and it also
slightly increased amount of SFC. This increases the
overall efficiency of the aircraft engine performance.[2]

2.4

Figure 2. Schematic of cooling air [3]

Choke Flow

One of the important processes of designing an aircraft engine is to determine its choke flow
condition. With a given pressure and temperature, when a flowing fluid passes through a
restriction such as aircraft nozzle into a lower pressure which can be ambient pressure, the fluid
velocity increases. This can be proven by Bernoullis equation.
Eq (3)
At the same time, conservation of mass principle is applied to this situation, so fluid velocity
through the restriction increases. Within these conditions, if mass flow rate of the fluid does not
increase, then choked flow occurs. In aircraft nozzle condition, the choked condition at the
nozzle of engine can be determined using the following equation.
Eq (4)

Where

and

, then

for the cold nozzle

7

Eq (5)

Where

and

, then

for the hot nozzle

The results of the equations are 1.893 and 1.853, both called critical pressure ratio, rc. The engine
nozzle is choked if
Eq (6)
And engine nozzle is not choked if
Eq (7)
Normally, aircraft engine thrust can be calculated with
Eq (8)
Where

and

However, if the flow is choked at the nozzle, then the engine produces thrust with ram drag.
Eq (9)
Where

and

3.0 Procedure
3.1

Determining suitable values of BPR and OPR

Using Matlab program, the BPR with increase of 0.2 from 4.0 to 6.0 has been made as inputs
with one fixed OPR to get SFC and specific thrust at each data points. After the first iteration,
another test has been done with same BPR increase, but different value of OPR with increase of
1. The BPR ranged from 4 to 6 and the OPR ranged from 16 to 25. However, as the required
thrust assumed to be 1663.58lbf (7400N), any data points that produce less than this required
thrust have been discarded. [Table 3.] The sample calculations of the result are shown in the
appendix.

The optimized values of BPR and OPR are selected based on the Figure 3 in result section 4.0.
The selected BPR and OPR values are 4.4 and 23 respectively. The detail reasons why BPR and
OPR are selected to be 4.4 and 23 will be discussed in discussion section 5.1.

3.2

Estimate fuel burn for range of 12,000km

Amount of fuel burn for range of 12,000 km can be calculated using SFC and thrust value.
Eq (10)
To get the time,
Eq (11)
Where the velocity is given as Mach 0.88 at 15,000m height and range is given to be 12000km.
Therefore time can be determined. Using this time, fuel weight can be calculated.
Fuel weight=Thrust

Eq (12)

A detail calculation for estimating fuel burn is shown at appendix.

3.3

Stating all assumptions made, estimate the range obtainable at

Mach 0.92

At the previous section 3.2, the amount of fuel burn is determined for assumptions tabulated in
Table 2.
Table 2. Assumptions for section 3.3

Speed
BPR
OPR
Thrust

Assumptions
Mach 0.92 Range
4.4
Altitude
23
Fuel weight
7540N
SFC

12,000km
15,000m
8190.05kg
24.046(g/s)/N

Using the same conditions with section 3.2, range of the aircraft can be obtained at Mach 0.92.
Eq (13)
Where the velocity can be calculated with Mach 0.92 and speed of sound at 15,000m altitude and
time can be obtained using SFC.

Eq (14)
Where the fuel weight, thrust and SFC is given. Thus, time can be determined.

3.4

If the LPT polytropic efficiency was 88%, calculate the effect on

thrust and SFC

If the low pressure turbine polytropic efficiency decreased to 88%, from 0.9, then work of low
pressure turbine would be decreased. This can be calculated from the following equation.

Eq (15)
Where
for fuel and air mixture, then polytropic expansion can be obtained. Using this
polytropic expansion, the SFC and thrust of the engine can be obtained and compared with the
original SFC and thrust.

10

4.0 Results
The design point is highlighted in the table 3.
Table 3. key values of an engine by Matlab iteration

OPR
16
16
16
16
17
17
17
17
18
18
18
18
19
19
19
19
20
20
20
20
21
21
21
22
22
22
23
23
23
24
24
24
25
25
25

BPR
4
4.2
4.4
4.6
4
4.2
4.4
4.6
4
4.2
4.4
4.6
4
4.2
4.4
4.6
4
4.2
4.4
4.6
4
4.2
4.4
4
4.2
4.4
4
4.2
4.4
4
4.2
4.4
4
4.2
4.4

Thrust[N] SFC[g/s/KN] SpThrust[N/(kg/s)]

8087.108
7878.816
7683.754
7500.402
8067.3
7859.8
7665.454
7482.747
8045.202
7838.491
7644.854
7462.783
8021.217
7815.288
7622.35
7440.903
7995.662
7790.505
7598.255
7417.418
7968.791
7764.394
7572.819
7940.807
7737.157
7546.241
7911.874
7708.956
7518.684
7882.127
7679.925
7490.28
7851.675
7650.173
7461.138

25.926
25.588
25.266
24.959
25.63
25.295
24.975
24.671
25.353
25.021
24.705
24.404
25.094
24.765
24.451
24.153
24.851
24.524
24.213
23.918
24.62
24.296
23.988
24.402
24.081
23.775
24.194
23.876
23.573
23.996
23.68
23.381
23.806
23.494
23.197

200.603
195.436
190.597
186.049
200.111
194.964
190.143
185.611
199.563
194.436
189.632
185.116
198.968
193.86
189.074
184.573
198.334
193.245
188.477
183.991
197.668
192.598
187.846
196.974
191.922
187.186
196.256
191.223
186.503
195.518
190.502
185.798
194.763
189.764
185.075

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SpThrust v.s. SFC at TIT=1450K

26.5
26
OPR: 16

SFC [g/s/KN]

25.5

OPR: 17
OPR: 18

25

OPR: 19
24.5

OPR: 20

24

OPR: 21
OPR: 22

23.5

OPR: 23
23

OPR: 24

22.5

OPR: 25
180

185

190

195

SpThrust [N/(Kg/s)]

Figure 3. Specific thrust v.s. SFC at TIT = 1450 K

Table 4. Final design point data

Design point
BPR
OPR
SFC [(g/s)/N)]
Specific Thrust[N/(kg/s)]
Cruise Thrust at Mach 0.88 [N]
Required Thrust [N]
Static Thrust [N]

4.4
23
23.573
186.503
7518.684
7400
33888.396

Table 5. Fuel Estimation

Fuel Estimation
SFC [g/s/N]
Thrust [N]

23.6512
7493.9

Time [sec]
Velocity
Range [m]
Fuel weight [kg]

46209.3
Mach 0.88
120000
8190.05
12

200

205

Table 6. Range Estimation

Range Estimation
SFC [g/s/N]
Thrust [N]
Velocity
Time [sec]
Fuel weight [kg]
Range [m]

23.046
7540.8
Mach 0.92
45167.55
8190.05
12262

5.0 Discussion
5.1

Determining suitable values of BPR and OPR

First of all, as discussed in theory, higher values of BPR and OPR increase efficiency of engine.
Moreover, data analysis by Matlab program shows that the engine tends to have higher
efficiency at higher BPR and OPR.[Table 3.] For example, At OPR = 16 and BPR = 4, the SFC
value is 25.926 (g/s)/N, while at OPR = 25 and BPR 4.4, the SFC value is 23.573. As the SFC
has been discussed in section 2.2, higher SFC engine produces more thrust, but also consume
more fuel. However, the OPR and BPR cannot be chosen as highest as they can be because
higher OPR and BPR engines are heavy and large. In this report, as required thrust is assumed to
be 7400N, the engine needs to have higher than the required thrust but lowest SFC.

5.2

Comparing range of aircraft at Mach 0.88 and Mach 0.92

With underlying assumptions made in section 3.2 (Teble 2.), range of the selected engine can be
obtained at speed of Mach 0.92. The result shows that the aircraft can fly more distance in Mach
0.92 than Mach 0.88 with same amount of fuel. This represent that turbofan, itself is more
efficient at high speed of engine RPM. (Assuming that there is no aerodynamic drag force during
the test.)

5.2.2 Effect of engine speed on its efficiency

By comparing both conditions which is the aircraft speed at Mach 0.88 and 0.92, the percentage
of increase in velocity is 4.5%, but SFC is 2.3% with the same amount of fuel consumption. This
is because the power of the engine produces is P = F*V. Even though the SFC is also increased
at high speed, the percentage of increase in velocity is twice much higher, so that the engine
power output is more efficient at higher engine rotational speed, RPM. However, this assumption
is only applied to the engine because when the aircraft drag effect are accounted for, the engine
13

will not be efficient at supersonic speed. At the supersonic speed, the aircraft will have large drag
forces. Therefore, in real case, just higher speed of aircraft will not make it as efficient. Figure 4
shows that the engine efficiency versus free stream velocity to the engine inlet.

Figure 4. Propulsive efficiency v.s.Free stream velocity [4]

5.3

Comparing selected design with existing designs

Compare to the selected design which has BPR 4.4 and OPR 23, most of business jet aircraft
have higher BPR and OPR. For example, E-190 (Embraer) has GE CF34-10E engine has BPR =
5.2 and OPR 29 and ACJ318 (Airbus) has CFM56-5B9 engine also has BPR = 5.9 and OPR =
32.6. This is mainly because they need more efficient engines, but do not need high speed. Since
this report is requested to design a high speed business jet, BPR = 4.4 is suitable. The OPR is
directly related with engine efficiency but also its size. As you increase OPR, the engine gets
heavier, so not suitable for a long range jet aircraft. Therefore, OPR = 23 is selected.

5.4

How LPT polytropic efficiency affects on thrust and SFC

If the low pressure turbine has a lower efficiency, it would decrease thrust and increase SFC.
With 90% LPT polytropic efficiency, To6 and Po6 are calculated to be 784.272 K and 0.4515
Bar respectively. If the LPT polytropic efficiency is decreased by 2%, then To6 remains at the
same value, but the Po6 decreased to 0.4288 Bar. The corresponding SFCs with 90% and 88% of
efficiencies are calculated to be 23.573 (g/s)/N and 23.818 (g/s)/N. Thrust is decreased from
7518.684 N to 7441.3 N. It is expected because if the turbine is decreased, then it would have
worse SFC and output.
14

6 Conclusion
In conclusion, this report studied the design of a turbofan engine for a business jet. The engine is
requested to have suitable bypass ratio and overall pressure ratio. Result of calculations show
that it is suitable to have BPR with 4.4 and OPR with 23 because the engine has the highest
efficiency at lower BPR and higher OPR. However, the engine needs to produce high enough
thrust to meet the aircrafts required thrust.

Reference
1. Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, 5th edition, Daniel P. Raymer, AIAA Education series,
2012
2. NACA RESEARCH MEMORANDUM, CALCULATED EFFECTS OF TURBINE ROTORBLADE COOLING-AIR FLOW, L. Arne and Alfred J. Nachtigall, Lewis Flight Propulsion
Laborator, Cleveland, Ohio, August 13, 1951 [Online]
http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1951/naca-rm-e51e24.pdf
3. Gas Turbine Theory, 4ed, H Cohen, GFC Rogers, HIH Saravanamuttoo, Longman, 1996
4. Performance Flight Testing Phase, Volume I, Chapter 7 Aero Propulsion, USAF TEST PILOT
SCHOOL, EDWARDS AFB, CA, February 1991

15

Appendix

16