Information about Turbojet

TurboJET (Chinese: 噴射飛航) is the brand name for the operations of the Hong Kong-based Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management Limited (信德中旅船務管理有限公司), which was established from the joint venture between Shun Tak Holdings Limited (信德集團有限公司) and China Travel International Investment Hong Kong Limited in July 1999. It operates hydrofoil ferry services in southern China.

Routes

TurboJET provides services between Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen, all located around the Pearl River Delta in southern China. The route between Hong Kong and Macau is the busiest and is operating 24 hours a day. It takes approximately one hour to travel the 60-km journey on TurboJET's high speed vessels.

Fleet

TurboJET's fleet includes five types of vessels:

• FoilCat : 560 tonnes, 400 passengers catamaran. Propelled by waterjets powered by twin General Electric LM500 gas turbines. Maximum speed at 50 knots. Built by Norwegian specialists Kvaerner Fjellstrand, Norway.
• FlyingCat : 480 tonnes, 300 passengers catamaran. Propelled by waterjets powered by twin MTU 16V 396 diesel engines, rated at 2000kW each. Cruising speed at 35 knots. Built by Norwegian specialists Kvaerner Fjellstrand, Norway.
• TriCat : 600 tonnes, 300 passengers catamaran. Propelled by waterjets powered by twin Caterpillar Solar Taurus gas turbines. Cruising speed at 45 knots, capable of 50 knots. Built FBM Marine of the United Kingdom.
• JetFoil: 260 tonnes, 260 passengers monohull hydrofoil. Propelled by waterjets powered by twin Rolls Royce Allison 501KF gas turbines. Maximum speed at 45 knots. Built by Boeing.
• PS-30: 300 tonnes, 270 passengers monohull hydrofoil. Propelled by waterjets powered by twin Rolls Royce Allison 501KF gas turbines. Maximum speed at 45 knots. Built by Shanghai Simno marine Limited, under licenses from Boeing.

TurboJET is the world's largest operator of Boeing's Jetfoils.

TurboJET Fleet

Name	Type	Year Built	Seats	Builder	Notes
Acores(恆星,929-100-008)	Jetfoil	1975	262	Constructed by The Boeing Company	Sold to South Korea in 2004
Guia(東星,929-100-009)	Jetfoil	1976	262	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Terceira (錫星,929-115-012)	Jetfoil	1979	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Horta(海皇星,929-115-016)	Jetfoil	1980	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Lilau(帝皇星,929-115-014)	Jetfoil	1979	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Funchal(天皇星,929-115-013)	Jetfoil	1979	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Taipa(帝后星,929-115-021)	Jetfoil	1981	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Cacilhas(幸運星,929-115-018)	Jetfoil	1981	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
São Jorge(銀星,929-100-006)	Jetfoil	1975	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Santa Maria(金星,929-100-005)	Jetfoil	1974	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Corvo(火星,929-100-003)	Jetfoil	1975	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company	Sold to South Korea in 2006
Pico(土星,929-100-004)	Jetfoil	1975	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Madeira(木星,929-100-002)	Jetfoil	1974	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Flores(水星,929-100-001)	Jetfoil	1974	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Urzela(鐵星,929-100-007)	Jetfoil	1976	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company
Ponta Delgada(銅星,929-100-008)	Jetfoil	1977	242	Constructed by The Boeing Company	Sold to South Korea in 2004
Balsa(北星)	Jetfoil	1994	242	Constructed by The Shanghai Simno marine Limited
Praia(南星)	Jetfoil	1994	242	Constructed by The Shanghai Simno marine Limited	Sold to South Korea in 2002
Penha(祥星)	Foilcat	1995	419	Constructed by Kvaerner Fjellstrand Shipyard	Economy only
Barca(日星)	Foilcat	1995	419	Constructed by Kvaerner Fjellstrand Shipyard	Economy only
Universal Mk I (宇航壹號)	Flying Cat	1992	266	Constructed by Kvaerner Fjellstrand Shipyard
Universal Mk II (宇航貳號)	Flying Cat	1993	266	Constructed by Kvaerner Fjellstrand Shipyard
Universal Mk III (宇航參號)	Flying Cat	1993	266	Constructed by Kvaerner Fjellstrand Shipyard
Universal Mk IV (宇航肆號)	Flying Cat	1994	266	Constructed by Kvaerner Fjellstrand Shipyard
Universal Mk 2001 (宇航2001)	TriCat	1994	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2002 (宇航2002)	TriCat	1995	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2003 (宇航2003)	TriCat	1995	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2004 (宇航2004)	TriCat	1995	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2005 (宇航2005)	TriCat	1996	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2006 (宇航2006)	TriCat	1996	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2007 (宇航2007)	TriCat	1996	303	Constructed by FBM Marine Limited
Universal Mk 2008 (宇航2008)	TriCat	1997	303	Constructed by FBM Aboitiz Shipyard, Philippines
Universal Mk 2009 (宇航2009)	TriCat	1997	324	Constructed by Pequot Shipyard	Second Hand
Universal Mk 2010 (宇航2010)	TriCat	1999	324	Constructed by Pequot Shipyard	Second Hand

External link

• The official web site of TurboJET
• OMC TurboJet engine Community & Forum

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Turbojets are the oldest kind of general purpose jet engines. Two different engineers, Frank Whittle in the United Kingdom and Hans von Ohain in Germany, developed the concept independently during the late 1930s.

Turbojets consist of an air inlet, an air compressor, a combustion chamber, a gas turbine (that drives the air compressor) and a nozzle. The air is compressed into the chamber, heated and expanded by the fuel combustion and then allowed to expand out through the turbine into the nozzle where it is accelerated to high speed to provide propulsion.

Turbojets are quite inefficient (if flown below about Mach 2) and very noisy. Most modern aircraft use turbofans instead.

History

On 27 August, 1939 the Heinkel He 178 became the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, thus becoming the first practical jet plane. The first operational turbojet aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me 262 and the Gloster Meteor entered service towards the end of World War II in 1944.

A turbojet engine is used primarily to propel aircraft. Air is drawn into the rotating compressor via the intake and is compressed to a higher pressure before entering the combustion chamber. Fuel is mixed with the compressed air and ignited by flame in the eddy of a flame holder. This combustion process significantly raises the temperature of the gas. Hot combustion products leaving the combustor expand through the turbine, where power is extracted to drive the compressor. Although this expansion process reduces the turbine exit gas temperature and pressure, both parameters are usually still well above ambient conditions. The gas stream exiting the turbine expands to ambient pressure via the propelling nozzle, producing a high velocity jet in the exhaust plume. If the momentum of the exhaust stream exceeds the momentum of the intake stream, the impulse is positive, thus, there is a net forward thrust upon the airframe.

Early generation jet engines were pure turbojets with either an axial or centrifugal compressor. Modern jet engines are mainly turbofans, where a proportion of the air entering the intake bypasses the combustor; this proportion depends on the engine's bypass ratio.

Although ramjet engines are simpler in design, as they have virtually no moving parts, they are incapable of operating at low flight speeds.

Air intake

Preceding the compressor is the air intake (or inlet), which is designed to recover, as efficiently as possible, the ram pressure of the streamtube approaching the intake. Downstream of the intake, air enters the compressor.

Compressor

The compressor, which rotates at very high speed, adds energy to the airflow, at the same time squeezing it into a smaller space, thereby increasing its pressure and temperature.

In most turbojet-powered aircraft, bleed air is extracted from the compressor section at various stages to perform a variety of jobs including air conditioning/pressurization, engine inlet anti-icing and turbine cooling.

Several types of compressor are used in turbojets and gas turbines in general: axial, centrifugal, axial-centrifugal, double-centrifugal, etc.

Early turbojet compressors had overall pressure ratios as low as 5:1 (as do a lot of simple auxiliary power units and small propulsion turbojets today). Aerodynamic improvements, plus splitting the compression system into two separate units and/or incorporating variable compressor geometry, enabled later turbojets to have overall pressure ratios of 15:1 or more. In comparison, modern civil turbofan engines have overall pressure ratios as high as 44:1 or more.

After leaving the compressor section, the compressed air enters the combustion chamber.

Combustion chamber

The burning process in the combustor is significantly different from that in a piston engine. In a piston engine the burning gases are confined to a small volume and, as the fuel burns, the pressure increases dramatically. In a turbojet the air and fuel mixture passes, unconfined, through the combustion chamber. As the mixture burns its temperature increases dramatically, the pressure actually decreasing a few percent.

In detail, the fuel-air mixture must be brought almost to a stop so that a stable flame can be maintained; this occurs just after the start of the combustion chamber. The aft part of this flame front is allowed to progress rearward in the engine. This ensures that the rest of the fuel is burned as the flame becomes hotter when it leans out, and because of the shape of the combustion chamber the flow is accelerated rearwards. Some pressure drop is unavoidable, as it is the reason why the expanding gases travel out the rear of the engine rather than out the front. Less than 25% of the air is involved in combustion, in some engines as little as 12%, the rest acting as a reservoir to absorb the heating effects of the fuel burning.

Another difference between piston engines and jet engines is that the peak flame temperature in a piston engine is experienced only momentarily, and for a small portion of the full cycle. The combustor in a jet engine is exposed to the peak flame temperature continuously and operates at a pressure high enough that a stoichiometric fuel-air ratio would melt the can and everything downstream. Instead, jet engines run a very lean mixture, so lean that it would not normally support combustion. A central core of the flow (primary airflow) is mixed with enough fuel to burn readily. The cans are carefully shaped to maintain a layer of fresh unburned air between the metal surfaces and the central core. This unburned air (secondary airflow) mixes into the burned gases to bring the temperature down to something a turbine can tolerate.

Turbine

Hot gases leaving the combustor are allowed to expand through the turbine. In the first stage the turbine is largely an impulse turbine (similar to a pelton wheel) and rotates because of the impact of the hot gas stream. Later stages are convergent ducts that accelerate the gas rearward and gain energy from that process. Pressure drops, and energy is transferred into the shaft. The turbine's rotational energy is used primarily to drive the compressor. Some shaft power is extracted to drive accessories, like fuel, oil, and hydraulic pumps. Because of its significantly higher entry temperature, the turbine pressure ratio is much lower than that of the compressor. In a turbojet almost two thirds of all the power generated by burning fuel is used by the compressor to compress the air for the engine.

Nozzle

After the turbine, the gases are allowed to expand through the exhaust nozzle to atmospheric pressure, producing a high velocity jet in the exhaust plume. In a convergent nozzle, the ducting narrows progressively to a throat. The nozzle pressure ratio on a turbojet is usually high enough for the expanding gases to reach Mach 1.0 and choke the throat. Normally, the flow will go supersonic in the exhaust plume outside the engine.

If, however, a convergent-divergent "de Laval" nozzle is fitted, the divergent (increasing flow area) section allows the gases to reach supersonic velocity within the nozzle itself. This is slightly more efficient on thrust than using a convergent nozzle. There is, however, the added weight and complexity, since the con-di nozzle must be fully variable to cope basically with engine throttling.

Net thrust

An equation for calculating the approximate net thrust of a turbojet is given by:

where:

is the intake mass flow rate

is the fully-expanded jet velocity (in the exhaust plume)

represents the nozzle gross thrust

represents the ram drag of the intake.

Obviously, the jet velocity must exceed that of the flight velocity if there is to be a net forward thrust on the airframe.

Thrust to power ratio

A simple turbojet engine will produce thrust of approximately: 2.5 pounds force per horsepower (15 mN/W).

Afterburner

An afterburner or "reheat jetpipe" is a device added to the rear of the jet engine. It provides a means of spraying fuel directly into the hot exhaust, where it ignites and boosts available thrust significantly; a drawback is its very high fuel consumption rate. Afterburners are used mostly on military aircraft, but the two supersonic civilian transports, the Concorde and the TU-144, also utilized afterburners.

Thrust Reverser

A Thrust reverser is, essentially, a pair of clamshell doors mounted at the rear of the engine which, when deployed, divert thrust normal to the jet engine flow to help slow an aircraft upon landing. They are often used in conjunction with spoilers. The accidental deployment of a thrust reverser during flight is a dangerous event that can lead to loss of control and destruction of the aircraft. Thrust reversers are more convenient than drogue parachutes.

Cycle improvements

Thermodynamics of a Jet Engine is modelled approximately by a Brayton Cycle.

Increasing the overall pressure ratio of the compression system raises the combustor entry temperature. Therefore, at a fixed fuel flow and airflow, there is an increase in turbine inlet temperature. Although the higher temperature rise across the compression system, implies a larger temperature drop over the turbine system, the nozzle temperature is unaffected, because the same amount of heat is being added to the system. There is, however, a rise in nozzle pressure, because overall pressure ratio increases faster than the turbine expansion ratio. Consequently, net thrust increases, while specific fuel consumption (fuel flow/net thrust) decreases.

Thus turbojets can be made more fuel efficient by raising overall pressure ratio and turbine inlet temperature in union. However, better turbine materials and/or improved vane/blade cooling are required to cope with increases in both turbine inlet temperature and compressor delivery temperature. Increasing the latter requires better compressor materials.

By Increasing the useful work to system , by minimizing the heat losses by conduction etc and minimizing the inlet temperature ratio up to a certain level will increase the themal efficiency of the turbo jet engine.

Early designs

Early German engines had serious problems controlling the turbine inlet temperature. A lack of suitable alloys due to war shortages meant the turbine rotor and stator blades would sometimes disintegrate on first operation and never lasted long. Their early engines averaged 10-25 hours of operation before failing—often with chunks of metal flying out the back of the engine when the turbine overheated. British engines tended to fare better, running for 150 hours between overhauls. A few of the original fighters still exist with their original engines, but many have been re-engined with more modern engines with greater fuel efficiency and a longer TBO (such as the reproduction Me-262 powered by General Electric J85s).

The Americans had the best materials because of their reliance on turbosupercharging in high altitude bombers of World War II. For a time some US jet engines included the ability to inject water into the engine to cool the compressed flow before combustion, usually during takeoff. The water would tend to prevent complete combustion and as a result the engine ran cooler again, but the planes would takeoff leaving a huge plume of smoke.

Today these problems are much better handled, but temperature still limits turbojet airspeeds in supersonic flight. At the very highest speeds, the compression of the intake air raises the temperatures throughout the engine to the point that the turbine blades would melt, forcing a reduction in fuel flow to lower temperatures, but giving a reduced thrust and thus limiting the top speed. Ramjets and Scramjets don't have turbine blades, therefore they are able to fly faster.

At lower speeds, better materials have increased the critical temperature, and automatic fuel management controls have made it nearly impossible to overheat the engine.

Sources

Constructing A Turbocharger Turbojet Engine. Edwin H. Springer. Turbojet Technologies 2001.

See also

• turbofan
• turboprop
• jet engine
• ramjet
• propfan
• Variable Cycle Engine
• Axial compressor
• Brayton Cycle
• Concorde

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