Professional Documents
Culture Documents
of pressure, velocity,
temperature changes of air
entering the compressor
By
S.R.Shyam Sundar
Thrust Equation
Net thrust
where
ma (1+f) ue= momentum thrust
(Pe-Pa) = Pressure thrust
Air speed
Engine benefits from a ram effect.
At high speeds (greater than M=0.4) air becomes compressible
producing an area of relatively high pressure in the intake.
Drag also increases with speed but the ram effect dominates.
Engine RPM
Very little thrust is developed at low rpm as compared with the high
thrust at high rpm
Amount of air pumped by compressor is the function of its rpm
Altitude effect
Altitude has a double effect on thrust. As the altitude increases, the air
becomes colder and denser, up to the beginning of stratosphere. This causes
the thrust to increase.
But at the same time, the increase in altitude causes decrease in pressure,
thus a decrease in density and corresponding decrease in thrust. Since the
loss of thrust caused by decreasing pressure is greater than the increase
caused by decreasing temperature.
Thus the thrust decreases as the
aircraft ascends.
Effect of pressure
Air enters the compressor at a pressure less than the ambient
This can be over come by the ram effect as the airplane speed
increases
Hence there will be a considerable increase in total pressure in the
successive stages of compression.
Ratio of fuel flow, exit area of the nozzle determines the pressure ratio
The density increases with increase in pressure.
Effect of temperature
Air enters the compressor at the sea level temperature of 150C
Due to compression temperature gradually climbs to a point
determined by the number of compressor stages.
Increase in temperature decreases the density of the intake air hence
the power needed to compress the increases resulting in the thrust
decrease.