Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Aims
The goals of this text are: to make available to non-specialist engineers and to students
a simple but fundamental approach to the design of turbomachinery, including the choice
of configuration and the determination of close approximations to optimum dimensions
and flow angles; to develop simple methods for finding the performance characteristics of
turbomachinery under various operating conditions and to show how the designs may be
modified to give favorable "off-design" operation; and to show how the interrelationships
among material limitations, fluid-mechanic laws, thermodynamics, heat transfer, and such
considerations as mechanical vibration set boundaries to design choices.
The particular combination of turbomachinery and other components (combustors and
heat exchangers) that forms the power-producing gas turbine is considered in some detail.
This work has been undertaken because of the apparent lack of a modem text dealing
with turbomachinery from the design, or problem-solving, standpoint. The problems arise
when satisfactory answers cannot be obtained from handbooks or from manufacturers'
offerings. If, for instance, the requirement is to compress a given flow of gas from given
inlet conditions to a given discharge pressure, with power available at a given shaft speed,
and given trade-offs for first cost, efficiency, size, and so forth, what type of compressor
represents an optimum choice? Is it radial, mixed flow, axial flow, in a single stage,
or in several stages? What are the outer and inner diameters, blade lengths, flow and
blading angles, and the diffuser size? Or if the reader is handed a certain configuration
of turbomachine, on paper or in hardware, slhe should be able to predict its off-design
performance to at least an approximate extent.
It is one of the aims of this work to answer these and similar questions with sufficient
accuracy for most purposes. The accuracy will be sufficient for many areas of indus-
trial and experimental design, and for systems-engineering studies. In those applications
where the value of fractions of a percentage point in efficiency or in specific power
is very large (as it is for example in aircraft gas turbines and fans) it is necessary to
treat the designs obtained by the methods given here as inputs to detailed analytical and
experimental methods (not treated here) of flow analysis, stress analysis, and vibration
prediction, in particular. Such advanced methods have been developed by or for govern-
ment laboratories, for instance, the Lewis Laboratories of the National Aeronautics and

27
28 Ch . 1. Introduction

Space Administration in the United States and the National Gas-Turbine Establishment
in Britain, as well as in private companies.
The savings to be realized by approaching such sophisticated and extremely expensive
programs with a near-optimum design are very large. The technical literature and the
unwritten histories of virtually all firms involved with turbomachinery manufacture are
full of cases where many millions of dollars have been wasted because development work
was started on designs that were very poor choices for one or more reasons.
In other cases needless expense was incurred and inappropriate machines produced
simply because designers and engineers have become accustomed to thinking only of
a certain range of types of turbomachinery and have neglected other types far better
suited to their needs. A chief engineer lost his company a great deal of money and
perhaps more important, time, because he refused to change his pre-disposition for very-
high-reaction compressors even when faced with performance requirements that plainly
called for lower-reaction machines with variable-setting-angle stator blades. Other exam-
ples could be the overlooking of partial-admission turbines by a generation of engineers
brought up on full-admission machines and the automatic use of radial-flow machinery
even when all the conditions cry out for the use of axial-flow units.
No amounts of refinement by advanced analytical methods or by experiment can
overcome the severe disadvantage of an initially incorrect choice of configuration or
type. A principal aim of this book is to give engineers the information and insight
needed to avoid such errors.

1.2 Definitions
Turbomachine
A turbomachine produces a change in enthalpy' in a stream of fluid passing through
it and transfers work through a rotating shaft: the interaction between the fluid and the
machine is primarily fluid-dynamic lift.
A change in enthalpy can also be brought about by heat transfer. Although there is
often considerable heat transfer in a turbomachine (for instance, in a high-temperature
cooled gas turbine), its contribution to the overall enthalpy change through the engine is
(virtually always) almost negligible.
It is not possible in the real world to have lift forces without at the same time having
drag forces. Much of the skill in achieving good designs is in keeping the drag forces and
associated energy losses small; but they are always far from negligible. By stating in the
definition of a turbomachine that the interaction must be "primarily" lift, we exclude that
class of machines in which the fluid and the rotor interact purely through viscous forces
(so-called "drag" turbines and pump-compressors). This definition may not be universal:
advocates of viscous-action machines may regard them as true turbomachines.

1Readers unfamiliar with enthalpy may think of it as related to the energy content of a substance. Enthalpy
is defined thermodynamically in chapter 2.
Sec. 1.2. Definitions 29

DRAG

Z (b) POSSOfJe or chonnel

(0) Airfoil (in 0 rodiol- flow rotor)

Figure 1.1. Lift and drag forces of fluids on solids

Figure 1.2. Axial-flow pump or compressor

Lift and drag

Lift and drag forces are normally defined with reference to airfoils (figure l.1a), lift
being normal to the direction of relative motion and drag along this direction. Airfoils
very similar to airplane-wing sections can in fact be used in a particular class of turbo-
machines: axial-flow compressors and pumps (figure 1.2). However, most other classes
of turbomachinery employ shaped channels rather than airfoils (figure 1.1b). Lift and
drag forces must then be defined with reference to the normal and tangential directions
of the channel walls.
Turbomachines can be divided into categories in several different ways. Shown in
figure 1.3 are turbines on the left and pumps, fans, blowers, and/or compressors on the
right. Pumps, fans, blowers, and compressors absorb shaft work from a "driver", and
increase the enthalpy (and the pressure) of a flow of fluid.
The word "turbine" is used for all power-producing turbomachines, whether they
work on liquid or gas, over a low or a high pressure ratio. There is no all-encompassing
word for power-absorption machines. Pumps are pressure-increasing devices that operate
on liquids. Fans work with gases, usually, but not always, giving so Iowan increase
in pressure that the gas can be considered incompressible. In fact most fans merely
consist of a single row of rotating blades which increase the velocity of the throughflow.
The name "fan", however, is also given to the high-speed devices sometimes used on
jet engines ("fan jets") to produce a combined jet of greatly increased size (and mass
flow) and reduced velocity, which gives higher propulsion efficiency and lower noise
than a small, high-velocity jet (see figure 13.17). Compressors work with gases and give
30 Ch. 1. Introduction

AXIAL DIFFUSER

(a) (b)
INLET VOLUTE

-
(d)
WI CKET GATES
(Nozz les, VarlOble I

(e) (f)

(g)

Figure 1.3. Illustrations of full-admission turbomachinery: (a) axial-flow turbine;

(b) axial-flow compressor; (c) radial-inflow "centripetal" turbine; (d) radial-outflow
"centrifugal" compressor; (e) radial-inflow hydraulic (Francis) turbine; (f) mixed-
flow compressor; and (g) multi-stage radial-outflow counter-rotating Ljungstrom
steam turbine
Sec. 1.2. Definitions 31

pressure ratios that result in a significant increase in density. A machine with a pressure
ratio of 1.2 : 1 or above would be called a compressor. The word "blower" is, like
"fan", used sometimes to mean a fan of negligible pressure ratio and sometimes (as in a
blast-furnace blower) to mean a compressor of considerable pressure ratio.
"Full-admission" turbomachines in which the fluid flow through the blading is axisym-
metric are shown in figure 1.3, while in figure 1.4 there are so-called "partial-admission"
turbomachines. There is often a considerable advantage in designing a rotor that, if it
"ran full", would be much too large for the flow available, and in ducting the flow to
only a portion of the rotor blading. In gas-turbine engines the output power is often
produced in a separate, or "free", power turbine, and occasionally it may be justifiable
to use partial admission in order to produce a lower shaft speed.
A partial-admission turbine in the final drive of a ship-propulsion power plant, for
instance, gives a lower shaft speed than would a full-admission design (because the
same rotor-blade speed occurs at a larger radius). Another advantage is that the high-
pressure fluid (usually steam for this application) may be ducted to several "nozzle boxes"
covering different arcs of admission, and these may be connected, by valves, to the supply
separately or in combination, giving a wide range of power outputs.
A special case of partial admission turbine is the Pelton wheel, used with water under
high heads (pressures). The water leaves the nozzle as a jet with a so-called "free-surface"
in air. In most turbomachinery the fluid stream is confined in ducts.
The Pelton jet can exist with a free surface because the entire pressure drop to
atmospheric pressure takes place in the nozzle.
In partial-admission turbines all the pressure drop takes place in the nozzles, and the
rotor converts only kinetic energy to shaft power. This type of arrangement, which can be
used also in axisymmetric or full-admission machines, is called an "impulse" turbine. If,
in a full-admission turbine, there is any pressure drop in the rotor, the fluid is accelerated
in the rotor passages, and the acceleration results in a reaction force on the rotor blades.
Even if the reaction force is small compared with the "impulse" force from turning (from
the change of momentum of the fluid), a machine with flow that accelerates relative to
the rotor is called a "reaction" turbine. Later in chapter 5 we shall introduce the concept
of "degree of reaction", which can be used to quantify the extent to which a turbine, or
a compressor, or fan, differs from "pure" impulse conditions.
The direction of flow forms another category that can be used to characterize turbo-
machines. The flow in the Pelton-wheel turbine is tangential to the rotor. In most cases
the flow is either axial, that is, in an annulus whose axis coincides with that of the rotor
and whose flow direction is approximately parallel to the axis, or radial. In radial-flow
turbomachines the flow may travel radially inward or radially outward. Near the axis
the flow in a radial-flow machine must tum to or from the axial direction. Radial-flow
steam turbines usually have radially outward flow because of the rapidly increasing spe-
cific volume of steam during expansion. Radial-flow gas-turbine expanders use radially
inward flow because the increase in volume flow is relatively small and can easily be ac-
commodated in the flow path near the axis, and because there are advantages in locating
the interaction of the nozzle exit flow in a region of high rotor-blade velocity.
32 Ch. 1. Introduction

(a) (b)

forU quids

(c) (d)

SQUIRREL CAGE (BIANCHOTUR8IN E

SOUIRREL- CAGE CROSS - FLOW FAN

(e) (f)

Figure 1.4. Illustrations of partial-admission turbomachinery: (a) axial-flow impulse

turbine; (b) Pelton hydraulic (impulse) turbine; (c) Pitot pump (impulse) for liquids;
(d) "pure" (100-percent) reaction turbine for liquids; (e) squirrel-cage (Bianchi)
turbine; and (f) squirrel-cage crossflow fan

In some machines the flow at entrance to and/or exit from the rotor blades is close
neither to the axial nor the radial direction. These are called "mixed-flow" turbomachines.
Another category concerns the number of separate rows or rings of blades. The "pure-
reaction" machines have simply a rotor containing nozzles in the case of the rotating-pipe
liquid distributor (frequently used over gravel filters in waste-water-treatment plants, or
to water crops, as shown in figure lAd). Most turbomachines have a stator as well as a
rotor. The stator may be as simple as the "snail-shell" volute of a centrifugal blower,
or it may have the somewhat greater complexity of the volute, blade ring, casing, and
ducting of the radial-flow turbine and compressor. The combination of rotor and stator
(in either sequence) is called a "stage". Machines can therefore be categorized as being
just rotors, or single stages, or having multiple stages.
Sec. 1.2. Definitions 33

The methods developed in this book apply to all these different machines, although
we have the space to treat only a few particular classes with any degree of thoroughness.

Gas turbine
The term "gas turbine" is most often used as an abbreviation for a gas-turbine engine,
which is a heat engine that accepts and rejects heat and produces work. The input heat is
usually in the form of fuel that is burned (giving rise to the term "combustion turbine"),
but may also come from another process via a heat exchanger. The rejected heat is
usually in the form of hot engine-exhaust flow released to atmosphere, but may also be
rejected to another process via a heat exchanger. The work may be given as output torque
in a turning shaft or as the velocity and pressure energy in a jet, which would produce
thrust on a moving airplane. Occasionally the output is in the form of compressed air
from an oversized compressor. The term "gas turbine" can also be used more narrowly
for just the turbine expander in a gas-turbine engine.
A gas-turbine engine (figure 1.5) consists of: a compressor, which continuously com-
presses gas from a low pressure to a higher pressure; a heater or heaters, in which the
temperature of the compressed gas is raised; an expander, which continuously expands
the hot gas to a lower pressure; and a cooler or cooling system, in which the tempera-
ture of the gas is reduced to that established for the compressor inlet. Figure 1.5 shows
a closed-cycle engine, in which the same working fluid recirculates through the com-
ponents without mixing with other working fluids from the surroundings. Two heaters
and two coolers are shown in figure 1.5 because sometimes the first heater receives
heat from the first cooler. (This combination of heater plus cooler is known as a heat
exchanger.) It is defined more fully later in this section, but its design is treated in
chapter 10.

COMPRESSOR~ ______________________ ~

HEATERS
r-----~ r----~

COOLERS

Figure 1.5. General gas-turbine engine

34 Ch. 1. Introduction

COMPRESSOR 1--------------1

Air

Exhaust

Figure 1.6. Open-cycle gas-turbine engine

An open-cycle gas turbine (figure 1.6) is one in which there is no engine cooling
system; the atmosphere performs this function. The gas entering the compressor is
atmospheric air, and the hot gas leaving the expander or the heat exchanger is discharged
to the atmosphere. The earth's flora regenerate the oxygen from the carbon dioxide
produced.
An internal-combustion gas turbine (figure 1.7) is one in which at least one of the cool-
ers is dispensed with, and the gas is heated by combustion of fuel in the gas stream. For
the fuel to bum, the gas must be either atmospheric air or oxygen. Internal-combustion
gas turbines are invariably open cycle, working with air.

COMPRESSOR ~ ___________________- ;

Air

COMBUSTOR
HEAT EXCHANGER
Exhaust

OPTIONAL HEAT EXCHANGER

Figure 1.6. Principle of regenerative gas turbine

Sec. 1.3. Comparison of gas turbines with other engines 35

A regenerative gas turbine (illustrated in figure 1.7) supplies heat to the compressed
gases in the first heater (after the compressor) from heat given by the hot expanded gases
(in the first cooler). The heat exchanger so required is usually called a "regenerator"
if it involves submerging a matrix alternately in the hot and then in the cold streams,
and a "recuperator" if the heat is transferred through tube or duct walls (these definitions
are accepted in Britain and are gaining ground in the United States, but they are not
universal). A regenerative cycle may be open or closed.
Although only one shaft, one compressor and one expander are shown in figures 1.5-
1.7, there may be several of each. In shaft-power engines, a commonly used arrangement
is to split the turbine expansion. The high-pressure turbine produces just enough power
to drive the compressor. The combination of compressor, combustor, and high-pressure
turbine that drives the compressor is often called the "gasifer", and it often is identical to
the components of a jet engine. The low-pressure turbine is called the "power" turbine
because it supplies the output power. When the gas turbine drives an alternator, it is
desirable to keep the power turbine integral with the high-pressure turbine and on the
same shaft because it is easier to maintain constant speed and because this arrangement
is lower in cost.
In engines of high pressure ratio it is necessary or desirable to divide the com-
pressor into low-pressure and high-pressure units, separately driven on separate shafts
by high-pressure and intermediate-pressure turbines, to give better starting and part-load
characteristics (chapter 9). In aircraft engines these separate shafts are usually concentric,
and the combination of a compressor, shaft and turbine is known as a "spool".

1.3 Comparison of gas turbines with other engines

The gas-turbine engine cycle has some resemblance to both other internal-combustion-
engine cycles and to steam-turbine engines.
In a spark-ignition (Otto) or in a compression-ignition (Diesel) engine, air goes
through a sequence of processes that is similar to that in an open-cycle internal-combustion
gas turbine. Atmospheric air is compressed, heated, expanded, and discharged to the at-
mosphere for cooling and regeneration. There are two vital differences, however. First,
in the Otto and Diesel engines the processes occur in the same place (the engine cylinder)
at different times (the different strokes). In the gas-turbine engine the processes occur
in different places (in the various components) at the same time (figure 1.8). The piston
engine uses a "batch" process, while the gas-turbine engine works on a continuous pro-
cess. The second difference is that much of the combustion in an engine cylinder takes
place at constant (or nearly constant) volume. In a gas turbine combustion is carried out
at constant (or nearly constant) pressure. (Constant-volume combustors for gas turbines
are, however, possible. The Holzwarth gas turbine mentioned in the brief history had a
constant-volume combustion.)
The result of the continuous nature of the processes in a gas turbine is that it can
pass very much larger volume flows of gas than can a piston engine of the same engine
volume. The turbine is very compact and has a high power-weight ratio. On the other
hand, although it is easier to design the component efficiencies of the gas turbine to
36 Ch. 1. Introduction

c
COMPRESSION COMBUSTION EXPANSION

Figure 1.8. Comparison between gas-turbine and piston engines

be above the efficiencies of the individual processes of a piston engine, it is easier to

use a higher peak cycle temperature in a piston engine because this peak temperature
occurs momentarily in a cylinder rather than continuously in a combustor. In the past the
thermodynamic benefit of higher peak temperatures in Diesel engines has outweighed the
benefits of better component efficiencies in gas turbines. The use of turbine-blade cooling
and higher-temperature materials is enabling the gas turbine to overtake the Diesel engine
in maximum thermal efficiency in some cases.
The similarity of a gas turbine to a steam-turbine engine is perhaps more obvious.
Both employ continuous processes taking place simultaneously in separate components.
In some cases the components bear a strong resemblance. Both types of engines have
turbine expanders which to the uninitiated eye may seem virtually identical. The steam-
turbine engine has a pressurizer in the form of a feed pump paralleling the gas turbine's
compressor. Feed pumps in large electrical-generating stations may absorb tens of thou-
sands of kilowatts and look a little like multistage centrifugal compressors. And the steam
generator or boiler of a steam-turbine engine can look rather similar to a gas heater of a
closed-cycle gas-turbine engine.
The principal difference of course is that the steam-turbine engine works with a fluid
that changes phase during the cycle, whereas the gas turbine, as its name implies (its name
has nothing to do with the fuel it uses) works on fluids that remain in the gaseous phase.
Sec. 1.3. Comparison of gas turbines with other engines 37

The feed pump of a steam-turbine plant delivers pressurized liquid, which means that
the work required is relatively small (less than two or three percent of the steam turbine
output). A great deal of heat must then be added per unit mass of fluid in the steam-turbine
engine to provide sensible and latent heat. In contrast, the compressor in a gas-turbine
engine absorbs a large proportion of the power produced by the turbine expander. The
gas-turbine combustor, being required to add a proportionally small amount of heat and
working with high inlet-air density, shrinks to an almost negligible size in comparison
with that of a steam generator in a steam-turbine cycle of similar net output.

The gas turbine as a Micawber engine

Mr. Micawber of Dickens' David Copperfield used to say (in very rough translation)
"Income twenty shillings, expenditure twenty-one shillings; result, misery. Income twenty
shillings, expenditure nineteen shillings: result, happiness". The gas-turbine engine, with
its large compressor work input, has this kind of energy economics (figure 1.9).
Early gas turbines produced misery because their lossy compressors wanted to absorb
more power than their lossy turbines would deliver. Successful, "happy", gas-turbine
engines were made only when the compressor efficiencies had been improved to the
point where the power required was less than the turbine power.
Such an engine, where the net power produced is the difference between two large
quantities, is obviously very much affected by component efficiencies. When the com-
pressor power almost equals the turbine power, a small change in the performance of any
component can have a delightful or a disastrous effect on the net output of the machine.
In early gas-turbine engines a 1 percent improvement in compressor efficiency could
yield a 5 percent increase in engine thermal efficiency. And the turbine output could
be increased either by improvement in its efficiency or by increasing the turbine-inlet
temperature. Accordingly, there was an enormous effort made in many countries, in
many engine companies, and in governmental and academic laboratories, to understand

NET WORK
~
a:::
o
~
NET WORK
w
Q..~ z
~~ iD
lr3: a:::
:J
f-

(a) Steam engine (b) Inefficient gas- (c) High-temperature-ratio,

turbine engine efficient, gas-turbine engine

Figure 1.9. Energy accounting for different engines

38 Ch. 1. Introduction

T'

T'= Turbine - inlet temperature, T0,4 B.O

- compressor - inlet temperature, To, L Coated
carbon-
OF For T O,L = 300K =27°C =540 0 R = BO°F
carbon
3500 Coated
K zirconia
2200

7.0

High-temperature
2000 demonstrator engines
3000
JT9 single crystal

1800 6.0
In-service trend
(Rolls-Royce)

2500
1600 Ceramics

5.0

1400
2000

1200 4.0

Upper temperature limit

1500 for closed-cycle
gas-turbine engines

1950 1960 1970 19BO 1990 2000

Year

Figure 1.10. Increase of turbine-inlet temperature

the fluid mechanics of turbines and compressors, to produce higher-temperature mate-

rials, and to improve cooling of surfaces scrubbed by hot gases (figure 1.10), The gas
turbine quickly became the most highly researched engine in history. The resulting de-
sign methods have become classics of the scientific method. In contrast, piston engines,
which have received a much longer period of continuous, worldwide development, are
still designed to a considerable extent by rule of thumb.
Sec. 1.3. Comparison of gas turbines with other engines 39

The "swallowing" capacity of turbomachinery

We mentioned earlier that the gas turbine can process much larger volume flows of gas
than can piston engines of similar size because of the steady, rather than discontinuous,
nature of the flow. In addition, the flow area used by a gas turbine is a larger proportion
of the cross section than that of a piston engine.
As a simplification to compare the mass flows of air that could be used by gas turbines
and piston engines, consider two engines that are contained in an envelope of square cross
section of side b and of length 2b, figure 1.11. The gas turbine draws in air through an
annulus of outside diameter a little less than b, say 0.9b, and inner diameter typically
one-half of this, OA5b, with a Mach number, the ratio of the relative flow velocity to
the speed of sound at the stream evaluated at "static" conditions ast (see chapter 2 for an
explanation of "static" and "stagnation" conditions), in the range of 0.3 to 0.5, say, 0.4.
The volume flow handled by the gas turbine is, then:
.
Vgt = "4Jr (0 .9b) 2 (1 - 2
0.5 )OAast = 0.191as b2
t (1.1)

If the unit of static temperatureTst is in kelvin, K (SI name and symbol, respectively,
for degrees Kelvin), then the speed of sound in air in m/s is given approximately by

If we use a temperature of Tst = 300 K, then ast = 34604 mis, and the corresponding
inlet velocity is about 139 mls. Therefore

(1.2)

Figure 1.11. Gas-turbine and piston engine envelopes

40 Ch. 1. Introduction

In the same envelope the piston engine might be a V-8 arrangement. The cylinder
bores, in a typical engine, are about 0.2b (and the stroke is similar).
The carburetor venturi throat has an area which, for standard automobiles, is about
one seventy-fifth of the piston cross-sectional area. At maximum power the flow through
the venturi throat is a fraction, say, seven-eighths, of sonic velocity.
Then the volume flow of air handled by the piston engine is given by

. Jr 217 2
Vpe = 84'(0.2b) 75 gape = 0.003apeb (1.3)

where ape is the sonic velocity. Then the ratio

(1.4)

Obviously the gas turbine engine can handle a vastly higher flow of air, and thus
produces a far higher power output than can a piston engine of the same volume. We
can refine this result by evaluating the acoustic velocities for the two engines. The speed
of sound at the gas-turbine inlet will be higher than that at the piston-engine carburetor
venturi because the temperature will not have been lowered to the same extent. From
equation (2.57) in the next chapter,

1 + M;e/{2[(C p /R) - In
(~)
a gr
= gt
( T )
To Tpe
= ---'::-------
1 + Mir/{2[(Cp /R) - I]}
~ 1.06 (l.5)

Then VgrlVpe ~ 68. The power output of an engine is a direct function of mass flow,
rather than volume flow, but the densities of the intake air flows to the two engines are
identical within the accuracy of this estimate.
This result is biased in favor of the gas-turbine engine in one respect. It has been
arrived at by considering an engine without a heat exchanger. While most gas turbines
run on the "simple cycle" (i.e. , without a heat exchanger), to achieve Diesel-engine
levels of efficiency a heat-exchanger cycle, perhaps with an intercooler, is required. Heat
exchangers increase engine volume greatly, but the volume and weight of the resulting
engines are still well below those of Diesel engines.

Relative cost of gas turbines and other engines

A comparison of the cost (in 1981 dollars) of Diesel and gas-turbine engines is
shown in figure l.12 by Woodhouse (1981). He demonstrates the correlation of both
engines' specific cost with unit size and production rate. We believe that this chart,
corrected for inflation, is still valid. The automobile industry shows repeatedly that the
manufacturing cost of any hardware assembly that is produced at a rate of a million a
year is about 25 percent greater than the material cost. This is a principal reason why
future non-metallic gas-turbine engines should have a considerable cost advantage over
Diesel engines. However, at the time of writing the cost per kilogram of ceramics and
References 41

a:

w
..~
It:
0
200

..
l:
100
It:
W

It:
5
8

HORSEPOWER GAS TURBINE VS OIESEl

COST VS HP
CROSSOVER AREA

Figure 1.12. Specific cost of gas-turbine engines and competitors. From Wood-
house (1981)

carbon-graphite materials, two alternative non-metallics, is higher than that of the alloy
metals they might replace.
The power output for a unit mass flow of air, termed the specific power W' and given
nondimensionally as
w
W'=---- (1.6)
mCpTo,l
where W is the power output, m is the air mass-flow rate, Cp is the air specific heat
capacity at constant pressure, and To, 1 is the absolute temperature of the inlet air. Specific
power can vary widely. In Brayton cycles it is generally in the range of 0.4 to 1.5 (see
performance figures in chapter 3). A value of W' ~ 1.0 is representative for current
(1996) high-performance gas turbines. A typical value for Diesel engines is 3.0, and for
spark-ignition engines, 2.5.
If we use representative specific-power values of 1.0 for the Brayton-cycle engines
and 2.8 for the piston engines, we arrive at a ratio of 69/2.8 (or about 25), for the power
output of a gas turbine relative to the power output of a piston engine of similar size.
This ratio would apply reasonably well to the larger, axial-flow aircraft-engine-driven gas
turbines but not to simple, small radial-flow gas turbines, whose volume tends to become
dominated by ducts. Therefore, to ease manufacturing difficulties, they are purposely
designed to be larger than the minimum possible size.

References
(This list includes some general references on turbomachinery and on comparative performance
of engines, in addition to the specific references cited in the text of chapter 1).
42 Ch. 1. Introduction

Anderson, Richard H. (1979). Material properties and their relationship to critical jet-engine
components. In Proc. Workshop in High-Temperature Materials for Advanced Military Engines.
Institute for Defense Analyses, Arlington, VA.
Balje, O.E. (1981). Turbomachinery, Wiley, NY.
Bathie, William W. (1996). Fundamentals of Gas Turbines, 2nd ed., Wiley, NY.
Cohen, H., Rogers, G.F.C., and Saravanamuttoo, H.I.H. (1996). Gas-Turbine Theory, fourth
edition, Longman Group Ltd, Essex, England.
Csanady, G.T. (1964). Theory of Turbomachines. McGraw-Hill, NY.
Dixon, S.L. (1975). Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics of Turbomachinery. Pergamon, NY.
Harman, Richard T.C. (1981). Gas-Turbine Engineering. Wiley, NY.
Hill, Philip G., and Carl R. Peterson (1992). Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, 2nd
ed. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
Jennings, Burgess H., and Willard L. Rogers. (1969). Gas-Turbine Analysis and Practice. Dover,
NY.
Karassik, Igor J., Krutzsch, William c., Fraser, Warren H. and Messina, Joseph P. (1986). Pump
Handbook, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hili, NY.
Kerrebrock, Jack L. (1992). Aircraft Engines and Gas Turbines, 2nd ed. The MIT Press, Cam-
bridge, MA.
Logan, Earl, Jr. (1995). Handbook of Turbomachinery. Marcel Dekker, NY.
Pfleiderer, c., and Petermann, H. (1964) . Stromungsmaschinen, 4th ed. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Shepherd, D.G. (1969). Introduction to the Gas Turbine. Van Nostrand, NY.
Shepherd, D.G. (1956). Principles of Turbomachinery. Macmillan, NY.
Shepherd, Dennis G. (1972) . Aerospace Propulsion. American Elsevier, NY.
Stepanoff, AJ. (1957). Centrifugal and Axial-Flow Pumps. Wiley, NY.
Vavra, M.H. (1960). Aero-Thermodynamics and Flow in Turbomachines. Wiley, NY.
Wilson, David Gordon (1978). Alternative automobile engines. Scientific American 239 (July),
p. 39-49, NY.
Woodhouse, GoO. (1981). A new approach to vehicular-gas-turbine power-unit design. Paper
81 -GT-152. ASME, NY.

Problems
This first chapter has dealt principally with definitions, and with some discussion of the char-
acteristics and capabilities of turbomachinery and gas turbines. Answering questions on definitions
does not engender a love for the subject matter. Accordingly, the following questions probe back-
ground knowledge. Few readers will have more than a few of the data asked for in the first
question . Its purpose is to stimulate a survey of the engineering-society papers in the library, and
perhaps the advertisements in some of the engineering magazines. Some of the other questions
ask for opinions. Again, the purpose is to stimulate thought and perhaps some reading. There are
not necessarily "correct" answers to these questions. August committees of eminent scientists and
engineers have been frequently totally wrong when they have tried to forecast the future.
Problems 43

1. Complete as much of table PLI as possible, from your own knowledge or from library study.
In general, every entry will be for a different machine, although in some cases there will
be relationships between two figures. For instance, the highest-power steam turbine may
not operate at the highest pressure used for steam turbines but may well have the largest
low-pressure flow volume. Use numbered references to footnotes to identify your sources.

Table Pl.l.
Axial
Steam Boiler-feed compressor,
turbine in pump in Gas expander Compressor any duty
Give the maximum generating generating in gas-turbine in gas-turbine per single
known value of station station engine engine casing

Power
(MW)
Pressure
(MPa)
Temperature
(deg C)
Pressure ratio
(maximin)
Temperature ratio
(maximin)
Number of stages
Low-pressure flow volume
(m3/s)
Mass flow
(kg/s)
Efficiency
(percent, which?)

Centrifugal Water pump Pelton water Francis water Kaplan water

compressor for pumped- turbine turbine turbine
Give the maximum for any duty, storage (high-head (medium-head (low-head
known value of per casing system impulse) inflow) axial-flow)

Power
(MW)
Pressure
(MPa)
Temperature
(deg C)
Pressure ratio
(maximin)
Temperature ratio
(maximin)
Number of stages
Low-pressure flow volume
(m3/s)
Mass flow
(kg/s)
Efficiency
(percent, which?)
44 Ch. 1. Introduction

2. Gas-turbine engines have not reached the power-output levels of the largest stearn turbines.
Why?

3. Estimate the design power output of the smallest gas-turbine engine produced in the last
decade. Why aren' t smaller engines made?

4. Give your opinion of the two most promising new applications for gas-turbine engines in the
next twenty years, and give reasons for your opinion.

5. Why is the maximum temperature of steam turbines so much lower than the current turbine-
inlet temperature of gas-turbine engines?

6. What do you think are the two principal problems preventing gas-turbine engines from having
a much wider application?

7. Do you think that gas-turbine engines will be used in outboard-motor boats by 201O? Why
or why not?

8. For which of the applications in the list below do you think that the gas-turbine engine, as a
prime mover, would be: (a) Suitable now, and, if so, how would it be used, or in what form?
(b) Suitable after certain developments have been successfully completed, and if so, which?
(c) Unsuitable, and if so, why?

As engines for To exploit the heat output in

automobiles geothermal energy

highway trucks solar energy
city buses nuclear energy
long-distance interurban buses seawater thermal gradient with depth
motor cycles
snowmobiles
lawn mowers

9. Discuss any present applications of, and future prospects for, vapor-cycle engines using fluids
other than water.