Thermodynamic Analysis on Optimum Pressure Ratio Split of Intercooled Recuperated Turbofan Engines

Abstract

Intercooled recuperated turbofan engines with high bypass ratio are becoming a research focus in recent years due to its advantages of relatively better fuel economy, lower emission and noise characteristic. The re-heater can recover waste heat in the exhaust gas downstream of the low pressure turbine to reduce the specific fuel consumption, and the intercooler can improve compression ability of the compressors with sufficient temperature difference between the high pressure compressor and the low pressure turbine. An optimal pressure ratio split is often sought to maximize the effect of the intercooler on improving the compression ability of the compressors. To determine an optimal pressure ratio split, different combinations of pressure ratio between high and low pressure spools must be calculated, and this requires huge amount of work with the traditional method to achieve the suitable cycle selections. In this paper, theoretic thermodynamic analysis is carried out to derive an explicit solution of the optimum pressure ratio split for maximizing the efficiency of the whole compression path. The effects of different variables on the optimum pressure ratio split are investigated according to the correlated variables in the solution function. A comparison calculation is also made to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the explicit solution. The results show that the optimum pressure ratio split can be achieved with the derived solution function, which will significantly simplify the process of the cycle parameter selection.