Project Arka(Aero Club)

Engine Vertical Application

Name: Nickname:

Roll No: Phone No:

CGPA (not for 25B):

Important Contacts:

• Prateek(Engine and Computation Lead): 9353810544

• Satyendu(Project Lead): 7847909390

General Instructions:

• Effort in answers will be valued more than the final answer. We value a few quality
answers over a large number of rushed answers. If you feel overwhelmed, realize that
others probably are as well.

• Include references if you use external sources.

• Write in bullet points (not long paragraphs)

• Submit answers in PDF format as: <roll number> <name> <vertical>.pdf here.

• Submission in LATEX will be preferred. Click here to learn about it.

• Wise use of any AI model is not prohibited.

• Deadline: 21st September.

Link to Resources: Google Drive

WhatsApp Link: Aspiring Engine PMs

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Contents
1 Question 1: 1D 3
1.1 Suggested Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Expectation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Question 2: Compressor 5
2.1 Suggested Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Expectation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3 Question 3: Combustor 6
3.1 Suggested Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Warmup (it shouldn’t though?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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Question 0: What is stagnation and why do we care?
What are stagnation properties of a gas? What is the use of evaluating these quantities in-
stead of using absolute properties (such as normal pressure and temperature)? Provide some
formulae to find the stagnation temperature and pressure given the relevant quantities.

1 Question 1: 1D
NOTE: Question 1 and Question 2 both lay out a process for you to follow, which tests how
you comprehend then follow those steps as well as how you can fill in the gaps for anything that
is not mentioned. Please read the suggested literature for each question but also use external
resources for anything you don’t know or understand. The app is designed to have some things
that you have to figure out in the gaps between steps.

1.1 Suggested Reading

Mattingly (Not the whole book, go over what you feel is important). Go to the instructions
page for a link to the Google Drive with the books.

1.2 Process
Whenever you design a system from scratch, you have to first acquaint yourself with the equa-
tions relating properties between different points (after materials undergo different processes
like compression or expansion). After this, you impose some restrictions on your system that
are decided by you completely based on physical constraints. For example:

• the maximum size you can fit for your use-case

• budget restrictions limiting the mechanical strength or temperature resistance of the

materials used

After you have imposed enough conditions on your system, you can now go back and figure
out the properties of materials required to fit your constraints. Such as

• using cross-sectional area of the system to find mass-flow rate

• maximum temperature allowed in the system, which changes the amount of energy you
can extract from the gas through a turbine

The resources to read for this process will be provided. When we design a gas turbine, we
simplify the system to first extract some key information. This is done because to isolate
different parts of the engine (to begin designing individual parts) we don’t need THAT much
information. This simplification is assuming that the flow is uniform across any cross-section
perpendicular to the flow of the gas. This assumption will be erased as we go deeper into
design, but temporarily solving with this in mind allows you to extract the key information
required without worrying about unnecessary details (details that are unnecessary for THIS
stage but might come in later). This is called One-Dimensional Analysis.
Here is a breakdown of how it goes:

• Define atmospheric pressure and temperature

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 • Assume the efficiency of the compressor, calculate the temperature and pressure of the gas
after compression using the thermodynamic relations (in this case we would use adiabatic
compression using the pressure ratio to find the temperature in an ideal compression and
then use the definition of efficiency to get the temperature in a non-ideal case)

• Continue this until you get the temperature and pressure after the combustor, after the
turbine and after the nozzle

This will now give you the pressure ratios between the components and the temperature at the
points between the components. To simplify the process for you, I will list the constraints you
impose on your system externally (and the values we are going to be using for them):

• Pressure ratio across compressor (3)

• Input temperature to the turbine (1000K)

• Thrust required (800N)

1.3 Expectation
You now know the basics of doing 1-D analysis on the engine. Perform 1-D once by hand
calculation and then by writing code to do it (in any language you want but preferably
something like C++, C, Python or Java and not something purposefully confusing to read).
Make sure to comment the code. Uncommented code will not be evaluated
Use the following efficiency values:

• compressor = 0.82

• burner = 0.9

• shaft = 0.95

• turbine = 0.8

• nozzle = 0.95

• combustor = 0.92

Some random values (you don’t need me to tell you most of these, but I will for completeness,
it satisfies both the clueless and the pedantic ones):

• Energy per unit mass of fuel (J/kg) = 42.6 ∗ 106

• Cp = 1005

• γ = 1.4

• Pressure ratio across the combustor (due to losses) is roughly 0.92 (I’m giving it because
it’s slightly painful to approximate, however if you can solve for your own value you will
get extra points (even if its equal to 0.92 itself))

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2 Question 2: Compressor
2.1 Suggested Reading
Farokhi (Mostly Chapter 9 on centrifual compressors but feel free to read more if you want).
Go to the instructions page for a link to the Google Drive with the books.

2.2 Process
NOTE: For any question use the values from previous questions (the ones given to you or the
ones you calculated yourself, for example mass flow rate of air from the Question 1).

Imagine you are a designer on the team. The team discusses the task and comes up with
the following process for creating the pre-CFD model of the impeller for a centrifugal compres-
sor:
1. Decide a material for the impeller and the shaft (If you see the stress exceeds strength
values of the material at any point, change the material. Generally the loading due to
centrifugal force is a big thing to keep in mind. If you don’t do this, its alright, just
mention that you have chosen to neglect the stress calculations)

2. Read research papers and books to give starting points (considering your scale and appli-
cations) for values such as (you might not need a lot of these values, but after reviewing
the literature the hypothetical team thinks some of them could be useful):

• 12 blades in the compressor

• backsweep of 45 degrees
• inclination of blades of 30 degrees
• power input factor of 1.04
• Flow coefficient (inlet velocity/blade tip velocity U) = 0.12
• hub to tip radius ratio should be between 0.2 and 0.4
• Mach number at impeller exit = 0.8 (it shouldn’t cross mach 1 so 0.8 seems reason-
able)
• slip factor of 0.815 (it’s a slight pain to approximate this so use 0.815, but again if
you solve for it yourself you will get extra points)

3. Calculate blade tip speed using:

h/ṁ = Cp ∆T
and Enthalpy per mass flow rate = σU 2
where U is the tip speed of the impeller and σ is the slip factor (ratio of whirl component
of velocity at the tip of the compressor to the velocity of the blade at the tip)

4. Find the inlet velocity to the compressor

5. Use the following equation to find radius of the impeller (this is for the shroud diameter)

ṁ = ρAvinlet

6. Calculate the angular velocity (you have the radius and the linear velocity)

7. Find the radius of the hub (you have the radius of the tip)

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 8. Download Ansys Student and open up the BladeGen software (it’s at the very bottom of
the scroll bar at the side)

9. Input the necessary values from what you have calculated and generate a model of the
impeller of the compressor

2.3 Expectation
In your submission, include the following for this question:

1. Screenshots of the BladeGen model generated

2. Calculations you made as you followed the process described above (explain your working,
your method of solving should be clear

3. Your review of how the app is so far (this one is optional)

3 Question 3: Combustor
3.1 Suggested Reading
Lefebvre and Ballal (Not the whole book, read what you think is important). Go to the
instructions page for a link to the Google Drive with the books.

3.2 Warmup (it shouldn’t though?)

1. What are cooling liners (in the combustors of a turbojet engine) and why do we need
them? Give some examples of them and the temperatures that they operate in.

2. Can’t we just make the wall thicker instead of using a different material as a liner?
Explain.

3. Mention and explain different processes of applying liners.

4. Why can’t we use a material that uses ablative cooling to maintain temperature in our
case?

3.3 Prompt
For both of the above questions, the pathway/process of has been laid out for you. This question
is different, it’s more of a prompt. This sees how you interpret the information provided and
then form the process by yourself. Go through the suggested literature and come up with a
process for how to design the combustor for the engine. Describe the calculations to perform
while providing formulae (you don’t need to calculate anything), state the assumptions the
team as engineers is going to make and explain the reasoning behind each step. The answer
for question this isn’t the design of the combustor, but series of steps I can follow to design it.
Please give the answer in bullet point form and not as a long paragraph.

BONUS
If you made it this far, I think you would like this video. There are no bonus points for this
but it will give you knowledge (might help for interviews?)