Jet Engine Experiment

Experiment duration: Around 30 minutes. All students should leave with data input as required in
Table 1. ---- See virtual lab arrangements for this year.
Purpose of the experiment:
This experiment is designed to provide a general indication of a gas turbine engines performance,
and involves the incremental acceleration of the engine to specific angular velocities where the
engine will be allowed to stabilise and readings observed for the key engine parameters (thrust,
exhaust gas temperature, temperature at compressor exit, the maximum temperature within the
combustor, combustion gauge pressure, fuel flow rate and air mass flow rate), from the indicators
mounted on the control console.
The laboratory session is to incorporate:
1) The practical acquisition of gas turbine engine parameters by undertaking dynamic
measurements.
2) The second part of the exercise is to analyse the collected data and the subsequent
comparison of the observed readings with equivalent theoretically derived values from the
ideal jet cycle.
It is projected that this progression of activity would provide the ideal basis for the students to
develop and understanding of the differences between the ideal and actual cycle properties.
Assessment: 25 Marks for the experimental studies module.
• Canvas subject test on jet engines: – It is designed to the ability to use sample experimental
results for thermodynamic calculations. Sample calculations are given in ‘Jet Engine
Experiment - Canvas Test - Report.pdf’ file and also solved in a how-to-e-lecture capture.
• Test will be become available in Canvas in the experimental studies module section on 14th
October 2020, 9am and remain available until 23rd October 2020, 5pm. You will have five
attempts to take the exam in one seating and best of five scores will be considered. The test
is worth 15 marks for Mech students.
• Conduct jet engine experiment – pass/fail
• A report mainly to undertake thermodynamic calculations and answer one or two
conceptual questions. Remember that the answers to conceptual questions must be written
in your own words and represent your understanding rather than copying relevant text from
my notes. Handwritten solutions and the report need to be uploaded on TurnitIn within the
time frame given by the EG-268 module co-ordinator of completing your experiment. It is
worth 10 marks as described below. Individual feedback and marks given on TurnitIn. You
Created in Master PDF Editor
2 | P a g e
may need to refer to Tutorial - Jet Engine Experiment with reversible adiabatic compressorturbine-nozzle.pdf document and the how-to-e-lecture to answer some questions.
• When you are finished your report, you can upload it to Canvas either as a text-based pdf or
as a word document. Remember to include your coversheet in the main document.
Requirements for Experimental Report assignment (10 marks)
Make sure that all sections below are covered. Some sections require you to copy and paste content
from the Excel spreadsheet but remember to introduce figures and tables in the text. Most of the
information is provided but you will need to do some independent research.
Section 1. (1 Mark) Complete coversheet with name, student id, group no, date of experiment.
During experiment, enter experimental data in Table 1– indicate units and enter
data as written directly from the console during experiment, and do not forget to
include the ambient conditions (temperature, pressure and humidity). Add the
complete raw data table to your report.
Section 2. Choose the reading with maximum RPM for undertaking following calculations.
i. Plot the ideal cycle that describes this jet engine on a TS diagram. (1 mark)
ii. Under ideal conditions, using measured ambient pressure and temperature
values, the maximum temperature within the combustor value, the combustion
gauge pressure and air mass flow rate values, estimate the total turbine exit
temperature value (3 marks) and use it to calculate the thrust produced (1
mark) for this jet engine. Estimate the minimum fuel consumption in L/h for this
reading (1 mark). Assume Cp value for air as 1.005 kJ/kgK and Heating Value for
fuel as 42,580 kJ/kg and Density of fuel as 0.8 kg/L.
Section 3.
We have learnt in thermodynamics that the total temperature value at turbine exit
remains constant through nozzle should be approximately equal to the measured
exhaust gas temperature value. Using a schematic diagram for combustion chamber
and turbine, explain why the air is likely to get cooled in the compressor (1 mark),
combustion chamber (1 mark) and combustor exit/turbine (1mark). Assume that the
heat loss to the ambience is due to the poor combustion efficiency and is not cooling
the air.
When you are finished your report, you can upload it to Canvas either as a text-based pdf or as a
word document. Remember to include your coversheet in the main document.
Created in Master PDF Editor
3 | P a g e
Table 1 – Input of raw data
Input data sheet for Jet Engine Experiment (please bring this to the experiment with
you)
Date of experiment
Ambient
temperature
°C Ambient
pressure
bar Humidity %
T1 T2 T3 Thrus
t
Air
Flow Fuel Flow Combustion
pressure
Reading Target
RPM
Actual
RPM °C °C °C N l/s l/h Bar
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Created in Mast