General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, Sri Lanka

Faculty of Engineering

Department of Aeronautical Engineering

AIR BREATHING PROPULSION II

HISTORY AND MODERN

DEVELOPMENT IN GAS TURBINE
ENGINES

Instructed By : Mrs. Jeewani Abeygoonewardene

Name of Student : DMBD Dissanayake
Reg.No : D/ENG/18/0047
Stream : Aeronautical Engineering
Date of Submission : 27/07/2021
 History and Modern Development in Gas Turbine Engines
History

Today gas turbine engines have become a significant part in aviation. Gas turbines are used as a
propulsion system for modern aircrafts to move it through the air. This mechanism was used since the
earliest time for many purposes in history. The following inventions show how the evaluation of
modern gas turbines occur throughout the history.

The Aeolipile

This is the start of gas turbine history, around 150 BC. An Egyptian scientist lived in Alexandia built the
first jet engine which was known as aeolipile. It was supposed to be a toy which was included a boiler
and sphere. The sphere is supported with two hollow tubes. When the steam is coming from bent
tubes, the sphere is spinning.

Chimney Jack

Leonardo Da Vinci crated the chimney jack trying gas turbines. This was created for turning a roaster
skewer. The fire heat will rise and go through the blades of fan that was in chimney with the help of
these blades the skewer will turn up by gears.

Branca’s Stamping Mill

An impulse turbine was invented in 1629 by Branca who an engineer was lived in Italy. Branca used a
steam powered turbine to generate power to this machine. Steam will be passed to a turbine wheel
by a nozzle and the gears will turn, to operate the mill.

Steam Wagon

In 1687 A steam wagon was invented by Newton, according to his laws of motion. There is a boiler on
a wagon and the boiler generates steam through nozzle. But this vehicle did not work well there was
not enough power from steam.

John Barber who lived in England had the first patient for a gas turbine in 1791.There were separate
compressors which direct the air through a combustion chamber, fired with fuel. The produced power
was to be adequate to drive the compressor and because of low efficiency of the components at that
period a working model was not built, but those components are used for present gas turbine engines.

In 1872, most significant device was invented to Germany. The patent for that was achieved to the gas
turbine engine that’s called as the inaugural one invented by F.Stolze. There was a turbine section that
was multi stage and it had a flow compressor as well. The air coming from compressor is heated by
before passing through the combustion chamber and that will be ducted to the turbine. Almost every
component of a modern engine was expected to be stole’s device. But there was not enough efficiency
to maintain at the limited temperature for compressor and turbine.

In 1903, Agidius Elling from Norway built a successful gas turbine for the first time. There were three
cylinders, a combustion chamber, an impulse turbine and a multistage reciprocating compressor.

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Modern development of gas turbine engines

In 1905, Hans Holzworth developed the explosion turbine, and it was a great turning point in modern
aviation. Air and fuel will direct into a combustion chamber. Then the high-pressure gas which is very
hot will go through the valves and this gas will be directed against the turbine blades. After this
innovation, many people contributed to develop the explosion turbine for many years and the modern
turbine engine was developed.

In 1930, Frank Whittle introduced a gas turbine engine for jet propulsion which was included a single
stage centrifugal compressor. The Air Ministry had a contract with a company that, Whittle has been
associated to design a flight engine. In 1941 he built the Whittle W1 engine.

Meanwhile, Max Hahn and Germans Hans had a patent for their jet propulsion engine. After that, this
engine was developed by Heinkel Aircraft Company, and it was used in the first true jet-propelled
aircraft named as HE-178. The HE-178 was propelled to speed of more than 400mph by developing
the Heinkel engine 1,100 pounds of thrust, which used a centrifugal flow compressor.

Then an axial flow compressor was used for turbine engines, which was used in ME-262 jet fighter
that had 500mph. The modern turbine engines with blade cooling, ice prevention and variable area
exhaust nozzle were developed and those were used in ME-262 engine before end of World War II. In
1942, another German invention was introduced by a German Scientist, Dr. Franz Anslem. He invented
an axial flow turbojet named as Junkers Jumbo 004. It was the first operational jet fighter.

At the same time there were some American development and in September 1941 America entered
into the field of jet propulsion. British helped for this. They flew the Wright WIX engine and a complete
set of plans for the W2B engine from Britain to USA. An American version of the WIX were supposed
to develop by General Electric Corp and after a year, the Bell XP-59A was built which was their first
propulsion flight. It included two General Electric 1-A engines which was rated at 1300 pounds of
thrust for each one. Also, Westinghouse Corp introduced its own gas turbine engine to America. This
turbine engine consisted of an axial compressor and an annular combustion chamber, and the
important thing is those are being used nowadays also.

Having a high power to weight ratio is one of main advantage of modern gas turbine engines which is
very helpful in high performance crafts such as hovercraft and hydrofoil. The modern gas turbine
engines work with a vibration free operation and it reduces the strain on airframe. When considering
horsepower of the engine modern production techniques have been used. But their most of the parts
are in high stress. In modern gas turbine engines as improved materials and designs are used, the
operation is easier in higher temperatures and pressures. Also, now main propulsion plants of modern
gas turbine engines use fuel efficiently and the cost for installation is less than the diesel engines.

The separate part of the engine has different function, and they perform simultaneously without any
interruption. A typical gas turbine engine consists of,
 An air inlet
 Compressor section
 Combustion section
 Turbine section
 Exhaust section
 Accessory section

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Compressor

During early stages centrifugal compressors were used which were limited to low pressure ratios. But
they were simple and inexpensive than modern compressors. In modern era, axial flow compressors
which having a reverse performance procedure compared to the reaction turbine are used. The
twisted blade passages should exert a tangential force on fluid with the pressure on one side higher
than the other side of the blade[1]. For having a subsonic flow, there should be a high pressure. In
order to that the flow area will be increased and therefore, the flow velocity between the blade
passages is reduced. The compressor row should be in curved airfoil shaped that interacted strongly.

There is a variation of pressure between the blades. The previous sets of blades produce flow friction
as well as leakage and wakes. The blades are created in a aerodynamic shape and prone to vibrations.
Some modern compressor blades are computer aided. Large expansion pressure ratios are achieved
in a stage of reaction turbine and small pressure increase are controlled by a compressor stage.
Because of that, compressor need several stages. If there is a high stage pressure the flow will be
separated from blades. This will cause to turbulence and compressor will be stalled. This situation is
called a surge condition. So, the designer should concern about maintaining without stalling the
compression.

Combustion Chamber

First, compressor should be slowed down. After that air leaving will be split into two streams. The
atomized fuel will be inserted and burned in small stream. The large stream which is a cooler, will be
fed into chamber through combustion liner; therefore, the overall temperature will be reduced for a
sufficient level. Combustion is going on in cylindrical elements which are spaced around the engine
known as cans. Sometimes, in a single angular passage with nozzles at different circumferential
positions.

Turbine

The hot gases will be expanding through eight stages. The machine of turbine is based on the reaction
principal with hot gasses. When considering the turbine of external load bearing, quota of the
expansion phenomena happens in the turbine which has a high pressure. Compressor can only be
driven by that particular high pressure turbine and the rest of expansion will happen in a different
turbine in which that load is attached called as free turbine[2].

Air crafts with high performance usually employ multiple spools. On the outer spool, two high pressure
turbine stages to drive 11 stages of high pressure compressor is driven by 2 stages of turbine which
has the high pressure. That is rotating at a rate of 9,860rpm, while the fan is driven by 4 low-pressure
turbine stages which having low pressure to the bypass air as well as through inner spool four
additional low-pressure compressor stages are turning at 3,600 rpm which are operated with overall
ratio of pressure as 30.5:1[3]. Generally three or five turbine stages are used for stationary units[4].

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Specially constructed metallic alloys are normally used in the blades of turbine due to the higher
temperature inlets of the turbine and also larger blade stresses that are centrifugal may cause while
the phenomena is done[1]. Also the heated blades must be cooled down by direct colder air dawn
from the compressor and directed through internal passages. The two processes which are used
currently are,

1. Forming a cool blanket over the outside of the blades by allowing air to flow through tiny holes
2. Jet impingement on the inside of hollow blades.

Types of Gas Turbine Engines

Gas turbine engines are classified based on their compressors. The various compressor used in turbine
engines are, centrifugal flow, axial flow and centrifugal axial flow. In other hand, turbine engines can
be classified according to the path the air takes through the engine and the way of power is
introduced. These types are,

 Turbojet
 Turbofan
 Turboprop and
 Turboshaft

Turbojet

This is the common gas turbine engine. With the development of the gas turbine technology, other
engines were developed instead of pure turbojet engine. This was the simplest jet engine which was
developed in German and England, before World War II. There are some problems in this such as,
noise and heavy fuel consumption. Today, these engines are mostly used in military aviation.

Compressor, combustion chamber, turbine section and exhaust are the sections of a turbojet. The air
coming through compressor has a high speed and will enter to the chamber. There are furl inlet and
igniter in the combustion chamber. Thrust is provided by the accelerated exhaust gases.

Turbofan

Turbofan was developed combining both turbojet and turboprop. It creates additional thrust because
the air flow is diverting around the combustion chamber. This is quiet and fuel is consumed in a better
way. But these are heavier. There are two or more shafts in the engine, which are using spools. There
are high pressure spool and low-pressure spool in two – spool engine. There are fans in the low-
pressure spool, and it takes to drive them in turbine stage. The core of the engine is made by high
pressure spool which is located in combustion section. It is also a gas generator. Mostly these engines
are used in transport aircrafts.

Turboprop

The first turboprop is invented between 1939 and 1942. This is also made with combining a gas turbine
engine a propeller and a reduction gear box. In order to extract energy to drive the propeller. There
are several extra stages. The propeller of the turboprop engine is driven through a reduction gear, the

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mostly used turboprop types are fixed turbine and free turbine which the fixed one is connected
mechanically to gas generator in order to reduce gear box and propeller. The free turbine has only an
air link from has generator to the power turbine.

Turboshaft

Turboshaft is used to deliver power to shaft. The significant thing is the turbine is driven with the
energy produced by expanding gases rather than producing thrust. These can be used as auxiliary
power units which are used in large air crafts. In helicopters, turboshaft engine is used to transfer
horsepower to a shaft. There are various styles, shapes, and horsepower ranges of turboshafts. The
turboshafts are generally smaller than piston engines, but these are loud.

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 References

[1] F. Landis, “Gas-turbine engine - Major components of gas-turbine engines,” Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/gas-turbine-engine/Major-components-of-gas-
turbine-engines (accessed Jul. 26, 2021).
[2] “Things you need to know about gas turbine,” studentlesson, May 28, 2021.
http://web.archive.org/web/20210528181011/https://studentlesson.com/gas-turbine-
definition-applications-function-components-diagram-types-working-principles-advantages-
and-disadvantages/ (accessed Jul. 27, 2021).
[3] L. Illingworth, “Lifting platform with energy recovery,” Google Patents, Accessed: Jul. 27,
2021. [Online]. Available:
http://web.archive.org/web/20210509110000/https://patents.google.com/patent/US64644
59B2/en.
[4] “Aircraft Gas Turbine Engines Types and Construction,” Aeronautics Guide.
https://www.aircraftsystemstech.com/p/gas-turbine-engines-types-and.html?m=0 (accessed
Jul. 27, 2021).