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Power Turbine

Most modern aircraft are powered by gas turbine engines that contain a power turbine. The power turbine is located downstream of the burner and extracts energy from the hot exhaust to power the compressor. It contains rows of rotating and stationary airfoil blades. Depending on the engine type, there may be multiple turbine stages with separate turbines and shafts powering different engine components like the fan. Turbine blades must withstand high temperatures and are often actively cooled with compressed air bled from the compressor.

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Mark Baguia Dandoy
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65 views3 pages

Power Turbine

Most modern aircraft are powered by gas turbine engines that contain a power turbine. The power turbine is located downstream of the burner and extracts energy from the hot exhaust to power the compressor. It contains rows of rotating and stationary airfoil blades. Depending on the engine type, there may be multiple turbine stages with separate turbines and shafts powering different engine components like the fan. Turbine blades must withstand high temperatures and are often actively cooled with compressed air bled from the compressor.

Uploaded by

Mark Baguia Dandoy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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2/15/13 Power Turbine

+ Te x t O nly Site
+ Non-Flash Ve rsion
+ C ontact Gle nn

This page is intended for college, high school, or middle school students. For younger
students, a simpler explanation of the information on this page is available on the Kids
Page.

Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas turbine engines, which are also called jet engines. There
are several different types of gas turbine engines, but all turbine engines have some parts in common. All gas turbine
engines have a power turbine located downstream of the burner to extract energy from the hot flow and turn the
compressor. Work is done on the power turbine by the hot exhaust flow from the burner.

Description of Images

The bottom of the figure shows:

computer drawings of a turbojet with the location of the turbine relative to the other engine components, on the right
the turbine section alone with the central shaft attached to the turbine, on the left.

In both drawings, the turbine is magenta in color and the shaft is colored blue. The left end of the shaft would be attached to
the compressor, which is colored cyan in the drawing on the right. Here is an animated version of the turbine section:

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2/15/13 Power Turbine

The upper left of the figure shows an actual power turbine. The turbine, like the compressor, is composed of several rows of
airfoil cascades. Some of the rows, called rotors, are connected to the central shaft and rotate at high speed. Other rows,
called stators, are fixed and do not rotate. The job of the stators is to keep the flow from spiraling around the axis by
bringing the flow back parallel to the axis.

Depending on the engine type, there may be multiple turbine stages present in the engine. Turbofan and turboprop engines
usually employ a separate turbine and shaft to power the fan and gear box respectively. Such an arrangement is termed a
two spool engine. For some high performance engines, an additional turbine and shaft is present to power separate parts of
the compressor. This arrangement produces a three spool engine. The power turbine shown on the upper left of the figure
is for a two spool, turbofan engine.

Design Details

There are several interesting turbine design details present on this slide. Since the turbine extracts energy from the flow, the
pressure decreases across the turbine. The pressure gradient helps keep the boundary layer flow attached to the surface of
the turbine blades. Since the boundary layer is less likely to separate on a turbine blade than on a compressor blade, the
pressure drop across a single turbine stage can be much greater than the pressure increase across a corresponding
compressor stage. A single turbine stage can be used to drive multiple compressor stages. Because of the high
pressure change across the turbine, the flow tends to leak around the tips of the blades. The tips of turbine blades are often
connected by a thin metal band to keep the flow from leaking, as shown in the picture at the upper left.

Turbine blades exist in a much more hostile environment than compressor blades. Sitting just downstream of the burner, the
blades experience flow temperatures of more than a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Turbine blades must be made of special
materials that can withstand the heat, or they must be actively cooled. At the upper right of the figure, we show a picture of
a single, actively cooled turbine blade. The blade is hollow and cool air, which is bled off the compressor, is pumped through
the blade and out through the small holes on the surface to keep the surface cool.

Activities:

Guided Tours

Parts of a Jet Engine:


Power Turbine:
Turbojets:
Afterburning Turbojets:
Turbofans:

Navigation ..

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2/15/13 Power Turbine

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