Overview

In chapters 2 and 3, engine performance was related to the performance of the several major components of the engine (inlet, compressor, burner, turbine, and nozzle); each component was described by the parameters through which it influences the thermodynamic cycle. Chapters 4-8 show how the behavior of each of the components is determined by its shape and other mechanical characteristics and what factors limit the performance of the components, and hence that of the engine.

Some of these limiting factors stem from fluid-mechanical phenomena, some from thermal effects, and some from mechanical or structural limitations. Even if they could all be quantified, a complete, quantitative treatment of all of them would require many volumes, and no such treatment will be attempted here. Consistent with the overall objective of this text, which is to convey an understanding of the behavior of aircraft engines, the phenomena will be discussed in physical terms, with as much analysis as is required to illustrate the important compromises controlling the design of any engine.

This chapter begins the process with a discussion of those components in which there is no dynamic energy exchange such as occurs between flowing gas and moving blades in the compressor and the turbine. Understanding the behavior of these components requires some background in gas dynamics and solid mechanics. Particularly essential is an understanding of compressible channel flow, shock waves, and the rudiments of boundary layer flows. Since these phenomena will play a central role in much of the discussion to...