INTRODUCTION
1. The gas turbine engine is essentially a heat engine using air as a working fluid to provide thrust. To achieve this, the air passing through the engine has to be accelerated; this means that the velocity or kinetic energy of the air is increased. To obtain this increase, the pressure energy is first of all increased, followed by the addition of heat energy, before final conversion back to kinetic Energy in the form of a high velocity jet efflux.
WORKING CYCLE
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| Fig. 2-1 A comparison between the working cycle of a turbo-jet engine and a piston engine. |
2. The working cycle of the gas turbine engine is similar to that of the four-stroke piston engine. However, in the gas turbine engine, combustion occurs at a constant pressure, whereas in the piston engine it occurs at a constant volume. Both engine cycles (fig. 2-1) show that in each instance there is induction, compression, combustion and exhaust.
These processes are intermittent in the case of the piston engine whilst they occur continuously in the gas turbine. In the piston engine only one stroke is utilized in the production of power, the others being involved in the charging, compressing and exhausting of the working fluid. In contrast, the turbine engine eliminates the three ’idle’ strokes, thus enabling more fuel to be burnt in a shorter time;hence it produces a greater power output for a given size of engine.