This book focuses on fundamental concepts in propulsion—particularly gas dynamics, turbomachinery and combustion—and theoretical and practical design aspects of aircraft engines and thermodynamic aspects and analysis. Its pedagogical format enables readers to learn concepts and problem solving and analysis techniques and then use worked examples to understand their application to practical situations in propulsion. Some exercises use thrust calculations based exclusively on military and commercial aircraft engines. The book also introduces advanced concepts on ramjets and scramjets to facilitate advanced studies in propulsion. Written for undergraduate and first-year postgraduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering, this book is also useful for scientists and engineers working in aerospace propulsion and gas dynamics.
Introduction
Thrust
Modes of thrust generation
Types of aircraft engines
Basics of Compressible One Dimensional Flows
Compressibility of Fluids
Compressible and Incompressible Flows
Perfect Gas Equation of State
Calorically Perfect Gas
Governing Equations
Acoustic Wave Propagation Speed
Reference States
T-s Diagrams in Compressible Flows
Exercises
Basics of Turbomachinery
Euler’s turbomachinery equation
Relationship between the fluid mechanics and thermodynamics of turbomachinery process
Blade design parameters
Multi stage turbomachines
Exercises
Basics of Combustion Thermodynamics
Enthalpy of formation and sensible enthalpy
Properties of ideal gas mixtures
Combustion stoichiometry
Enthalpy of combustion and calorific value
Adiabatic flame temperature
Fuels and their properties
Exercises
The Turbojet Engine
Operation of a Turbojet Engine
Afterburning Turbojet Engine
The Turbofan Engine
Concept of Bypass Engine
Transonic Fan Stage
Operation of a turbofan engine
Thrust Calculations
Derivation of expression for thrust and TSFC
Thermodynamics of an ideal turbojet engine
Thermodynamics of an ideal turbojet engine with afterburning
Component efficiencies
Calculation of thrust and TSFC for a turbojet engine
Thermodynamics of an ideal turbofan engine
Component efficiency – turbofan engine
Calculation of thrust and TSFC for a twin spool turbofan engine
Exercises
Ramjet and Scramjet Engine
Supersonic intakes
Ramjet engine
Scramjet engine
Biography
Dr. V. Babu is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras. He received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from REC Trichy in 1985 and Ph. D from the Ohio State University in 1991. He worked as a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Ohio State University from 1991 to 1995. He was a Technical Specialist at the Ford Scientific research Lab, Dearborn, Michigan from 1995 to 1998. He joined IIT Madras at the end of 1998. He received the Henry Ford Technology Award in 1998 for the development and deployment of a virtual wind tunnel. He has four U.S. patents to his credit. He has published technical papers on simulations of fluid flows including plasmas and non-equilibrium flows, computational aerodynamics and aero acoustics, scientific computing and ramjet, scramjet engines. His primary research specialization is CFD and he is currently involved in the simulation of high-speed reacting flows, prediction of jet noise, simulation of fluid flows using the lattice Boltzmann method and high performance computing.