Gas turbine engine compressors

Rolls Royce Goblin II numbered cutaway. The impeller of the

centrifugal compressor is number 12

3 Mixed ow compressor

Diagram of gas turbine with axial compressor

In the future, mixed ow compressors may feature at the

small end of the market, particularly in turbofans, where
the relatively large diameter across the diuser of a centrifugal compressor is a signicant disadvantage.

As the name suggests, Gas turbine engine compressors provide the compression part of the Gas turbine engine thermodynamic cycle. There are three basic categories of Gas turbine engine compressor: Axial compressor, Centrifugal compressor and Mixed ow compressor. A fourth, unusual, type is the Free-piston gas generator which combines the functions of compressor and
combustion chamber in one unit.

4 Staged compression
4.1 Two stage

Axial compressor

At high overall pressure ratios, the compression system is

usually split into two units; a Low Pressure (LP) Compressor mounted on one shaft followed by an High Pressure (HP) Compressor mounted on the HP shaft and
driven by its own (HP) turbine. On civil turbofans, the
rst stage of the LP Compressor is often a single stage
fan. If the HP Compressor pressure ratio exceeds about
4.5:1, then the unit will probably have variable geometry (i.e. variable stators) on the rst few stages, to make
the surge line on the compressor map more shallow, to
accommodate the shallow working line.

Axial compressors are used in medium to large thrust

Gas turbine engines, because the alternative centrifugal
units would be too heavy and too large in cross-sectional
area. At smaller sizes, the axial blading at the rear of the
compressor loses its robustness and is dicult to manufacture accurately. Consequently, manufacturers tend
replace the rear stages with a centrifugal unit. The compression system is then said to be axial-centrifugal.

Centrifugal compressor

4.2 Three stage

At even smaller sizes, particularly in turboprop/turboshaft

applications, the compression system is either a single
centrifugal or has two centrifugal units connected in series (i.e. double-centrifugal).

On their large civil turbofans, Rolls-Royce split the compression system into three: a Fan, an Intermediate Pressure (IP) Compressor and an HP Compressor, each unit
being driven by its own turbine unit. The RB199 military
1

turbofan also has this arrangement.

Free-piston gas generator

Diagram of free-piston gas generator for gas turbine

Main article: Free-piston engine

A Free-piston gas generator is a free-piston engine whose
exhaust is used to power a gas turbine. It combines the
functions of compressor and combustion chamber in one
unit. These machines were quite widely-used in the period 1930-1960 but then fell out of favour.[1]

References

[1] Gas Turbines. freikolben.ch. Retrieved 1 April 2015.

REFERENCES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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