Basic Aircraft Maintenance Training Manual

Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Module 11
Gas Turbine Engine
11.3 Inlet

Manual No. : BCT-0125/BM11 For Training Purpose Only Rev. 1 : Mar 05, 2018
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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Knowledge Levels — Category A, B1, B2 and C Aircraft Maintenance Licence

Basic knowledge for categories A, B1 and B2 are indicated by the allocation of knowledge levels indicators (1, 2 or 3) against each applicable
subject. Category C applicants must meet either the category B1 or the category B2 basic knowledge levels.

The knowledge level indicators are defined as follows:

LEVEL 1

 A familiarisation with the principal elements of the subject.

Objectives:

 The applicant should be familiar with the basic elements of the subject.

 The applicant should be able to give a simple description of the whole subject, using common words and examples.

 The applicant should be able to use typical terms.

LEVEL 2

 A general knowledge of the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject.

 An ability to apply that knowledge.

Objectives:

 The applicant should be able to understand the theoretical fundamentals of the subject.

 The applicant should be able to give a general description of the subject using, as appropriate, typical examples.

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

 The applicant should be able to use mathematical formulae in conjunction with physical laws describing the subject.

 The applicant should be able to read and understand sketches, drawings and schematics describing the subject.

 The applicant should be able to apply his knowledge in a practical manner using detailed procedures.

LEVEL 3

 A detailed knowledge of the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject.

 A capacity to combine and apply the separate elements of knowledge in a logical and comprehensive manner.

Objectives:

 The applicant should know the theory of the subject and interrelationships with other subjects.

 The applicant should be able to give a detailed description of the subject using theoretical fundamentals and specific examples.

 The applicant should understand and be able to use mathematical formulae related to the subject.

 The applicant should be able to read, understand and prepare sketches, simple drawings and schematics describing the subject.

 The applicant should be able to apply his knowledge in a practical manner using manufacturer's instructions.

 The applicant should be able to interpret results from various sources and measurements and apply corrective action where
appropriate.

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Table of Contents

Module 11.3 - Inlet..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

General ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Description ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Purpose .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Ram .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Definitions ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Intake Momentum Drag .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8

Intake Design...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8

Pitot Intakes ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9

Divided Entrance Intakes ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 10

Supersonic Intakes ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

The Shock Wave.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Variable Throat Area Inlet ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

External / Internal Intake ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Intake Ice Protection .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Hot Air Anti Icing ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 14

Electrical Intake De-icing 1 Anti-icing systems ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 15

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Module 11.4 Enabling Objectives

Objective Reference Level

Inlet 15.3 2

Compressor inlet ducts

Effects of various inlet configurations

Ice protection

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Module 11.3 - Inlet

General
Description

The main air intake is often part of the airframe structure, delivering the air to the engine air intake casing.

The intake is designed to convert kinetic energy into pressure reduce the velocity at the compressor inlet to no more than between 0.4 and
0.5 Mach. Any inefficiency in the intake results in a pressure loss at the compressor inlet and reduced compressor outlet pressure.

Purpose

To deliver the air to the compressor with the minimum loss of energy

The intake system should meet the following requirements:-

1. Deliver to the engine an adequate mass flow of air under any engine operating condition.

2. The air must be delivered evenly across the face of the compressor, free from turbulenceat approximately M = 0.4.

3. Must make maximum use of RAM pressure.

4. Produce minimum airframe drag.

Ram
Definitions

Total Head Pressure

The pressure of the air when brought to rest in front of the intakes.

Ram Ratio

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

The ratio of the total pressure (Pt) at the compressor entry to static pressure (PS) at the

intake entry i.e. Pt / PS (See Figure 3.1)

Ram Recovery

To convert as much of the intake air velocity as possible to pressure at the face of the engine. If all available ram pressure is converted, it is
known as "TOTAL PRESSURE RECOVERY".

Ram Compression

Ram Compression increases in pressure within the intake at substantial forward speeds. When an aircraft is stationary, the engine intake is
of little interest, in fact, a slight depression

exists within it. Ram compression causes redistribution of the energy existing in the air stream. As the air in the intake slows in endeavouring
to pass into and through the compressor element against the air, increasing pressure and density which exists therein, so the kinetic energy
of the air in the intake decreases.

This is accompanied by a corresponding increase in its pressure and internal energies and consequently compression of the air stream is
achieved within the intake, thus converting the unfavourable intake lip conditions into the compressor inlet requirements.

Although ram compression improves the performance of the engine, it must be realised that during the process there is a drag force on the
engine and hence the aircraft. This drag must be accepted, since it is a penalty inherent in a ram compression process. The added thrust
more than makes up for the increase in drag.

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

The degree of ram compression depends on the following:-

1. The frictional losses at those surfaces ahead of the intake which are "wetted" by the intake airflow.

2. Frictional losses at the intake duct walls

3. Turbulence losses due to accessories or structural members located in the intake.

4. Aircraft speed.

5. In a turbo-prop engine, drag and turbulence losses due to the propeller, blades and spinner.

Intake Momentum Drag

As forward speed increases, thrust decreases, this is due to the momentum of the air passing into the engine in relation to the aircraft's
forward speed.

Intake Design
The following types of intake can be seen on modern aircraft:-

1. Pitot

2. Divided Entrance

3. Variable Geometry

4. External/Internal Compression

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Pitot Intakes

This intake is suitable for subsonic or low supersonic speeds. The intake is usually short and is very efficient because the duct inlet is located
directly ahead of the compressor. The duct is divergent from front to rear with smooth gradual changes in shape

Efficiency will fall rapidly at sonic speeds due to shock wave formation at the lip. With increased speeds above sonic, this shock wave will
move backwards towards the compressor face. If the shock wave enters the compressor, damage may occur and there is a high risk of
compressor surge.

Figure 3.1: A pitot Intake Figure 3.2: A pitot Intake

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Divided Entrance Intakes

This type is used on some single engined aircraft with a fuselage mounted engine and can be either side scoop or wing root mounted. The
side scoop inlet is placed as far forward of the compressor as possible to approach the straight line effect of the single inlet. The wing root
inlet presents problems to the designer in the forming of the curvature necessary to deliver the air to the engine compressor.

One major problem with both of these inlet types is a loss of ram pressure occurs on one side of the intake and as a result separated
turbulent air is fed to the compressor. The intake will be divergent from front to rear.

Figure 3.3: Divided entrance intake configurations

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Supersonic Intakes
It is required that the airflow onto the compressor face is subsonic regardless of the aircraft speed, (Normally mach 0.4) if the rotating
aerofoils are to remain free of shock wave accumulation which would be detrimental to the compression process.

Additional to this, it is often necessary to restrict the amount of airflow entering the compressor at supersonic speeds since the amount of
airflow at this speed is simply not required.

At supersonic speeds, a Convergent-Divergent intake is found to be most effective, but at subsonic speeds this type of intake is inefficient.
The usual method of overcoming this is to use a variable geometry inlet.

The Shock Wave

An inlet shock is very similar to shock waves common to aircraft wings and other aerofoils. A shock wave is defined as an accumulation of
sound energy, or pressure, developed when the wave, trying to move away from an object, is held in a stationary position by the oncoming
flow of air.

One useful aspect of the shock wave is that airflow passing through the high pressure shock region slows down.

Variable Throat Area Inlet

The diagram of the concord inlet (Figure 3.5(a) and (b)) shows firstly an inlet at subsonic speeds. The throat is a maximum size for maximum
air inlet. The last diagram (Figure 3.5 (c)) shows the same inlet at supersonic speeds with the throat area reduced.

The convergent part breaks the airflow in to a series of weak shocks which slow down the air progressively. Any unwanted air thereafter can
be dumped by the spill valve.

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Figure 3.4: A supersonic intake (Concorde) Figure 3.5(a): Variable intake operation (Concorde) – subsonic

Figure 3.5(b): Variable intake operation (Concorde) – subsonic Figure 3.5(c): Variable intake operation (Concorde) – subsonic

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At the supersonic cruse speed of mach 2.0 the ramps have moved over half their amount of available travel, slowing down the air by
producing a supersonic shockwave (yellow lines) at the engine intake lip.

When the throttles are brought back to start the decent the spill door is opened to dump out excess air that is no longer needed by the
engine, this allows the ramp to go down to their maximum level of travel. As the speed is lowered the spill doors are closed and the ramps
begin to move back so by Ml .3 are again fully retracted.

The ramps can continue in operation till Mach 0.7, should an engine have had to have been shut down. During the Supersonic cruse only
8% of the power is derived by the engine with the other 29% being from Nozzles and an impressive 63% from the intakes.

External / Internal Intake

At higher supersonic speeds, a more suitable type of intake is the one shown below. This type of intake produces a series of mild shock
waves without excessively reducing the intake efficiency.

Figure 3.6: External / Internal intake

This intake is sometimes known as a plug intake. In some applications the plug position is variable dependent upon Mach number.

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

Intake Ice Protection

Hot Air Anti Icing

Large commercial passenger aircraft use podded engines with pitot intake nacelles. It is normal for this configuration to ensure no ice
accretion can occur at the leading edge of the intake.

Normally in this configuration the intake lip is prevented from icing by blowing hot air, normally from the HP compressor, through a TAI
Manifold also known as a piccolo tube that runs inside the leading edge of the duct.

The air exits the duct, either from a dedicated exit port on the side of the intake (GE CF6-80) or into the intake itself through a joggled lip on
the inside of the intake. The example shown below is a Rolls Royce 535-E4 as fitted to a Boeing 757.

The air supply is usually taken immediately at the HP air outlet. In this way air for anti icing is always available if the engine is running.

On some engines this air is also routed through inlet guide vanes and into the LP fan spinner.

The system is activated manually from within the cockpit. An anti-ice pressurisation and.control valve is activated and allows HP air to pass
to the anti-ice manifold. The valve regulates the pressure, to a figure of about 40 psi or below.

Anti icing conditions are deemed to exist at below +10 °C with visible moisture, that is rain hail snow or fog.

In the event of valve failure it may be manually locked in the open position prior to take off.

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Figure 3.7: Inlet anti ice system

Electrical Intake De-icing 1 Anti-icing systems

A disadvantage of ducted air anti ice systems is that a slight power loss occurs when anti icing is used. One way that some manufacturers
avoid this power loss is to fix electrical heating elements on the leading edge of the intake.

These elements are embedded in a rubber boot. This type of system is more commonly found on turbo-prop intakes. The electrical system
of ice protection is generally used for turbo-propeller engine installations, as this form of protection is necessary for the propellers.

The surfaces that require electrical heating are the air intake cowling of the engine, the propeller blades and spinner and, when applicable,
the oil cooler air intake cowling. Electrical heating pads are bonded to the outer skin of the cowlings.

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Module 11 – Gas Turbine Engine

They consist of strip conductors sandwiched between layers of neoprene, or glass cloth impregnated with epoxyresin.

To protect the pads against rain erosion, they are coated with a special, polyurethane-based paint. When the de-icing system is operating,
some of the areas are continuously heated to prevent an ice cap forming on the leading edges and also to limit the size of the ice that forms
on the areas that are intermittently heated

Figure 3.8: Electrically heated intakes

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Electrical power is supplied by a generator and, to keep the size and weight of the generator to a minimum, the de-icing electrical loads are
cycled between the engine, propeller and, sometimes, the airframe.

When the ice protection system is in operation, the continuously heated areas prevent any ice forming, but the intermittently heated areas
allow ice to form, during their `heat-off period. During the 'heat-on' period, adhesion of the ice is broken and aerodynamic forces then
remove it.

The cycling time of the intermittently heated elements is arranged to ensure that the engine can accept the amount of ice that collects
during the `heat-off period and yet ensure that the 'heaton' period is long enough to give adequate shedding without causing any run-back
icing to occur behind the heated areas.

A two-speed cycling system is often used to accommodate the propeller and spinner require- ments; a 'fast' cycle at the high air
temperatures when the water concentration is usually greater and a slow' cycle in the lower temperature range .

Figure 3.9: Inlet heat cycling

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