Aircraft Propulsion

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.

IntroductionThrustModes of thrust generationTypes of aircraft enginesBasics of Compressible One Dimensional FlowsCompressibility of FluidsCompressible and Incompressible FlowsPerfect Gas Equation of StateCalorically Perfect GasGoverning EquationsAcoustic Wave Propagation SpeedReference StatesT-s Diagrams in Compressible FlowsExercisesBasics of TurbomachineryEuler’s turbomachinery equationRelationship between the fluid mechanics and thermodynamics of turbomachinery processBlade design parametersMulti stage turbomachinesExercisesBasics of Combustion ThermodynamicsEnthalpy of formation and sensible enthalpyProperties of ideal gas mixturesCombustion stoichiometryEnthalpy of combustion and calorific valueAdiabatic flame temperatureFuels and their propertiesExercisesThe Turbojet EngineOperation of a Turbojet EngineAfterburning Turbojet EngineThe Turbofan EngineConcept of Bypass EngineTransonic Fan StageOperation of a turbofan engineThrust CalculationsDerivation of expression for thrust and TSFCThermodynamics of an ideal turbojet engineThermodynamics of an ideal turbojet engine with afterburningComponent efficienciesCalculation of thrust and TSFC for a turbojet engineThermodynamics of an ideal turbofan engineComponent efficiency – turbofan engineCalculation of thrust and TSFC for a twin spool turbofan engineExercisesRamjet and Scramjet EngineSupersonic intakesRamjet engineScramjet engine

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.