The Effect of Water Ingestion on the Operation of the Gas Turbine Engine
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ICAS 2000 CONGRESS THE EFFECT OF WATER INGESTION ON THE OPERATION OF THE GAS TURBINE ENGINE Imre SÁNTA Department of Aircraft and Ships Technical University of Budapest H-1521 Budapest, Hungary Keywords: water ingestion, mathematical modelling, compressor map, operating line, surge, flameout. Abstract 1. Analyses of processes occur in the engine Gas turbine engines often operate in such mete- When the effects of the air water content on the orological circumstances, when the air entered processes taking place in the compressor is ex- the intake of the engine has significant amount amined, here are two fundamental cases to be of water content. The ingestion of water by gas distinguished: turbine engines changes the process which takes - water is present in vapour phase, places in the compressor, turbine, combustion - water is present in liquid and vapour phase in chamber, turbine and nozzle. In unfavourable the air to be ingested by the compressor. conditions an engine flameout is also possible. The two cases induce processes essentially In this paper, the effect of water ingestion different from each other in the compressor, as on the engine operation is analysed. It explores well as in the power-plant elements placed be- the physical content of the processes occurred hind it in the flow. It should be noted that prior in the engine and deals with the mathematical to the inlet duct, the saturated or nearly saturated modelling of them. humid air free of liquid drops nevertheless may The method of examination is based on the contain condensed drops of liquid in the cross- application of the mathematical model of the sectional area prior to compressor. This conden- engine. Finally the results of investigations are sation process is initiated in the case of proper demonstrated. condensation cores (e.g. grains of dust), and due to the release of heat of vaporisation, it will in- Introduction crease the stagnation temperature prior to com- pressor thus reducing (with control rule During training flights, at touch-and-go ma- n = const.) the corrected number of revolution noeuvre performed in heavy rain, one of the of the first stages, since (in case gas constant R engines of a 2-engine aircraft (AN-26) - imme- and specific humidity x are identical) diately after touching - stopped. After a short period of time at the same manoeuvre both en- gine of an another AN-26 aircraft also stopped. = T0 ncorr n * (1) Restart of the engines a few minutes later was T1 successful. It was heavy raining and on the runway where - n - is the relative physical number of water was gathered in puddles within the region revolution, T0 - is the temperature of correction, of touching. The engine stop occurred at the T* - is the stagnation temperature at the inlet of same part of the runway. 1 The paper analyses the processes caused by the compressor or compressor section. the water ingestion. In case water is contained in vapour phase across the inlet cross-sectional area of the com- 524.1 Imre SÁNTA ϕ ≤ * pressor, i.e. the relative humidity is 1, the m T κ κ −1 δ ! 1 = − δ − − λ2 + effect of water content will manifest itself * 0.5 R 2 ln 1 1 p ()κ −1 κ + 1 through the change in the physical parameters of 1 κ + 1 the humid air as mixture of gases [1],[5]. By λ2 −1 κ − 1 applying the method of small deviations, from + 1 δκ []κ + − ()κ − λ2 the change of adiabatic exponent δκ and specific 2 1 1 1 u gas constant δR at λ = 1 = const. (where λ u1 c where 1=c1/c1cr; 1cr the change in pressure-ratio by: u1 and c1cr – peripheral and critical velocities respectively) can be determined the changes in κ 2 the corrected mass flow rate, pressure ratio and δπ * = 4 B − c efficiency [1],[5]. ()()κ − 1 2 κ + 1 2 + B With yielded values can be calculated on κ * κ ()1 + B κ −1 − π the basis of the following relationships, as de- − ln()1 + B − c δκ scribed here: ()κ − ()κ + π * 1 1 c The gas constant of humid air by: where R + x R = a 1 v κ −1 Rh.a (2) 1 1 + x B = π * κ − 1 1 c η* c its adiabatic exponent by: the change in efficiency by: κ −1 1 + * * * c pa x1c pv π κ π κ 4κ 1 −η κ = (3) δη* = c ln c + c − + − − c * κ 2 * c pa x1c pv Ra x1Rv Bη ()κ − 1 ()2 + B η c ()1 + B κ −1 c κ where * κ − 1 ()1 + B κ −1 − π − c δκ Ra , and Rv - is the gas constant of dry κ ()κ + 1 1 η*π * κ air and water vapour, B c c cpa, cpv, cpw - the specific heat at constant pressure of dry air, water vapour and water, The deviations calculated according to the x , x - the specific humidity and water 1 above relationships, in the case of compressor content at the inlet, respectively, the formula of map having the form: π * η* = []()λ which are: c , c f q ,ncorr ϕ p m should be interpreted with the corrected number x = v x = ! w (4) − 1 of revolution: p1 pv m! air Here, κ pv - the partial pressure of water vapour, p1 - T R a ϕ 0 a κ + 1 pressure at the inlet of the compressor, - the = a (5) ncorr n κ * h.a relative humidity, m! w - the water mass flow rate, T R 1 h.a κ + h.a 1 m! a - air mass flow rate. The change in the corrected mass-flow rate on the basis of relationship: taking into consideration the variation of the new gas characteristics, too. (Here subscripts of a and h.a. symbolise parameters according to dry air and humid air respectively). 524.2 THE EFFECT OF WATER INGESTION ON THE OPERATION OF THE GAS TURBINE ENGINE At low temperatures, pv and x are small, so The evaporation process itself, due to its that according to our calculations, the effect of complex character, cannot be exactly calculated. vapour-content on the compressor characteris- Calculations can be carried out only on the basis tics will be negligibly small [2],[5]. of appropriate measurement results. However, At higher temperatures ( T > 300 K) and on the basis of steam tables it can be determined also with a relative humidity of about ϕ =1 , in a simple way that - in our case - with a corre- only the change of the gas constant will be con- sponding pressure of p2 ≈ 8 bar, the volume of siderable, the change of κ will be negligible due the superheated steam will increase to the 280- to the adjacent values of the adiabatic exponents 290-fold value of water-volume, depending on of water vapour and dry air. temperature [2]. With all this taken into consideration, the Due to the increase in volume involved by corrected number of revolution will be reduced the phase-change of water, ever smaller amount due to the increase in the humidity of inlet air. of air can get into the burner with a constant fuel As a consequence of those said above, and tak- mass-flow rate. This increase of volume results ing into consideration relationship (5), both the in the increase in the volume flow-rate of the mass of inlet air and the pressure ratio of com- vapour-air mixture, and as a consequence, in the pression decreases (downward motion on the increase of axial velocity ca in the final stages of operating-line can be observed). the compressor. The change of the axial veloc- In case water is contained in the air also in ity, in this way, will modify the velocity trian- the form of water drops (e.g. preliminary con- gles of the final stages so that the angle of attack densation in the inlet duct, or take-off and will decrease, then the permeability of these landing in the rain, or flight at law altitude, re- stages will also decrease, which will result in the spectively), it will evaporate partially in the reduction of the volume of ingested air, the compressor. Consequently, in the downstream increase in the angle of attack of the first stages stages of compressor, the partial pressure of and the reduction in the pressure ratio of the vapour will increase relative to that of dry air, compressor. As a consequence of this, the oper- π * ating-point will move towards the surge line on which involves additional reduction c and the compressor map. m (due to the change in composition). At the ! 1 With the gas-turbine aircraft engines, a same time, due to the amount of the heat ab- considerable part of the ingested water in liquid sorbed by evaporation, the temperature of air phase can be transferred into the burner, as our will also reduce. experiences show, and there it will be evapo- This, in turn, results in the increase of the rated. This means that at the outlet cross- corrected number of revolutions of the compres- sectional area of the burner, the gas-steam mix- sor stages concerned (controlling rule is n = ture will contain more steam than at the inlet π * const.), which involves the increase of c . As a area, i.e. the outlet mass flow-rate of the gas- result of this double effect, according to our steam mixture will be higher than the inlet one. examinations, if a small amount of water is In case the temperature of the burner is evaporated in the compressor, its pressure ratio kept constant, the mass-flow rate of the gas- will generally decrease, while in case of the steam mixture to pass through the turbine will evaporation of a large amount of water, its pres- decrease due to the considerable increase of the sure ratio may increase.