Small gas turbine featured in Flight International magazine.
06-12-2004, 11:29 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: London, UNITED KINGDOM
Posts: 478
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Small gas turbine featured in Flight International magazine.
On page 31 of the 8-14th June Flight International magazine there is a feature on a new type of gas turbine engine - A Nested Gas Turbine.
I'm not going to try and give a full description here, but basically the design allows more compact engines to be produced by having the compressor and the turbine surrounding the combustion chamber. The engine also has no shaft!! There is a cut-away drawing in the article that shows how this works.
The reason I'm posting this here is that the prototype engine is 70mm in diameter and only 70mm long - about half the size of an MW44, though it weighs about the same (1lb). The engine hasn't been run yet (Due to be tested in July), but the article says:-
The first engine will produce just 20lb thrust
20lb from an engine that size sounds like a little more than just to me!!
Regards,
=Adrian=
I'm not going to try and give a full description here, but basically the design allows more compact engines to be produced by having the compressor and the turbine surrounding the combustion chamber. The engine also has no shaft!! There is a cut-away drawing in the article that shows how this works.
The reason I'm posting this here is that the prototype engine is 70mm in diameter and only 70mm long - about half the size of an MW44, though it weighs about the same (1lb). The engine hasn't been run yet (Due to be tested in July), but the article says:-
The first engine will produce just 20lb thrust
20lb from an engine that size sounds like a little more than just to me!!
Regards,
=Adrian=
06-12-2004, 11:50 AM
#2
Senior Member
My Feedback: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: San Diego,
CA
Posts: 252
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Small gas turbine featured in Flight International magazine.
20lb from an engine that size sounds like a little more than just to me!!
It's amazing what people can accomplish! [8D] Is there a computer link to this or a way that you can scan it and provide a picture? Thanks for the info, just think of all the planes that a turbine that size could be used in (F-14??).
06-12-2004, 12:07 PM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Nuneaton, UNITED KINGDOM
Posts: 178
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Small gas turbine featured in Flight International magazine.
06-12-2004, 12:21 PM
#5
Senior Member
My Feedback: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: San Diego,
CA
Posts: 252
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Small gas turbine featured in Flight International magazine.
John,
Thanks for the link. Man that turbine sounds interesting. Hope someone can scan an image of it. [8D]
Thanks for the link. Man that turbine sounds interesting.
Hope someone can scan an image of it. [8D]
06-12-2004, 12:36 PM
#6
RE: Small gas turbine featured in Flight International magazine.
Manufacturer claims novel design has weight advantage over conventional powerplants
A US firm claims a 5:1 thrust-to-weight advantage over conventional engines for a novel gas turbine in which the compressor, turbine and combustor are "nested" one inside the other, eliminating heavy shafts and disks. D-Star Engineering plans to run its new engine in July, under the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Small-Scale Propulsion System programme.
The first engine will produce just 20lb thrust (0.09kN), and is aimed at converting 70mm rockets into miniature cruise missiles. D-Star president Paul Dev says the company is already proposing a 200,000lb-thrust geared-fan engine using the same principles to power DARPA's planned Walrus airship.
In Shelton, Connecticut-based D-Star's patented design, the combustor is nested inside the turbine section and the turbine inside the compressor section, the result looking like an axial-flow gas turbine that has been telescoped into itself.
Instead of disks and shafts, the engine has bladed rings attached to filament-wound carbonfibre hoops supported by high-speed foil air bearings in the stationary casing. Compared with a conventional gas turbine of the same thrust, the engine is half the length and five times lighter, while efficiency is about the same, says Dev.
The initial engine is 70mm in diameter and 70mm long, weighs 0.45kg, and is the world's smallest two-spool gas turbine, says Dev. The first compressor and turbine stages are either side of the first rotor, behind which is the contra-rotating second rotor carrying the second compressor and turbine stages. Both rotors spin at 160,000RPM.
Air flows through the outermost compressor stages and is turned 180¡ to enter the combustion chamber, then turned another 180¡ to flow through the turbine stages to exhaust via a free-spinning nozzle. Because of the initial engine's small size, says Dev, fuel is injected at the compressor face and passes through a catalytic pre-burner before entering the central combustor. In larger engines fuel would be injected later.
The nested core design eliminates most, if not all, oil-lubricated bearings, easing assembly and improving reliability, says Dev. Clearance control and thermal matching of the nested rings will be achieved by materials selection and management of cooling airflow, he says.
http://www.dstarengineering.com/news...gine_main.html
A US firm claims a 5:1 thrust-to-weight advantage over conventional engines for a novel gas turbine in which the compressor, turbine and combustor are "nested" one inside the other, eliminating heavy shafts and disks. D-Star Engineering plans to run its new engine in July, under the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Small-Scale Propulsion System programme.
The first engine will produce just 20lb thrust (0.09kN), and is aimed at converting 70mm rockets into miniature cruise missiles. D-Star president Paul Dev says the company is already proposing a 200,000lb-thrust geared-fan engine using the same principles to power DARPA's planned Walrus airship.
In Shelton, Connecticut-based D-Star's patented design, the combustor is nested inside the turbine section and the turbine inside the compressor section, the result looking like an axial-flow gas turbine that has been telescoped into itself.
Instead of disks and shafts, the engine has bladed rings attached to filament-wound carbonfibre hoops supported by high-speed foil air bearings in the stationary casing. Compared with a conventional gas turbine of the same thrust, the engine is half the length and five times lighter, while efficiency is about the same, says Dev.
The initial engine is 70mm in diameter and 70mm long, weighs 0.45kg, and is the world's smallest two-spool gas turbine, says Dev. The first compressor and turbine stages are either side of the first rotor, behind which is the contra-rotating second rotor carrying the second compressor and turbine stages. Both rotors spin at 160,000RPM.
Air flows through the outermost compressor stages and is turned 180¡ to enter the combustion chamber, then turned another 180¡ to flow through the turbine stages to exhaust via a free-spinning nozzle. Because of the initial engine's small size, says Dev, fuel is injected at the compressor face and passes through a catalytic pre-burner before entering the central combustor. In larger engines fuel would be injected later.
The nested core design eliminates most, if not all, oil-lubricated bearings, easing assembly and improving reliability, says Dev. Clearance control and thermal matching of the nested rings will be achieved by materials selection and management of cooling airflow, he says.
http://www.dstarengineering.com/news...gine_main.html
