Regional Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Technology

Bali, February 9 – 10, 2010

Turbojet Engines Performance Testing and Simulator

Software
Singgih Satrio Wibowo* and Firman Hartono+
*
Aerospace and Software Engineer
PT UAVIndo Nusantara
Bandung – Indonesia
singgih_wibowo@yahoo.com

+
Lecturer
Aeronautics and Astronautics Study Program
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung – Indonesia
firman7738@yahoo.com

Abstract : An interactive simulator for turbojet engines has been developed to aid in
designing and testing of small turbojet engine. The software has two main puposes: engine
performace testing and engine performance simulation. The first purspose is performed
when the user use the tool as data viewer and data logger for engine static run test. The
data is transferred using serial data connection from the sensor to the computer where the
tool is running. The tool will show the data directly and save them automatically. The
second purpose, engine performace simulation, performed by solving the flow conditions
through the engine using classical one-dimensional thermodynamic analysis. A graphical
user interface is available for the users to vary the design condition and the engine
performance is calculated immediately. A variety of graphical formats are used to present
the result to the users including time history chart, numerical results, engine performance
plot, and three-dimensional (3D) model visualization. This paper details the numerical
methods use in the tools and describe how the tool can be used and modified. The tool is
running under Windows and employs OpenGL and Native Windows graphics.

Keywords : turbojet, simulation, real time

are thrust, engine RPM and exhaust gas temperature

1 Introduction
Jet engine simulator is a computer program
(software) developed by the jet engine development
team at PT UAVIndo Nusantara. The software has
graphical user interface as shown in Figure 1. This
engine simulator program has two utilities:
(EGT). These data then displayed in the form of 3D
(Three Dimensions) rotating engine, analog
indicators, and the time history plots. In addition,
these received data will be saved directly in a file
having CSV format (Comma Separated Value).

1. Engine Testing

2. Engine Simulation

The first utility, engine testing, is to control

engine fuel-flow, shut-off valve, and record the
engine parameter data during static test. Data
communication process is running by using RS232
serial connection with analog to digital and digital to
analog converter (ADC). Data Received from sensor Figure 1 Engine simulator interface

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The second utility, engine simulation, is
simulating engine performance. This simulation
adopt NASA turbojet simulation [1], based on aero-
thermodynamic calculations which will be explained
in the next section. Input parameter for simulation
are: air speed, altitude, and engine throttle setting.
Simulation results will be displayed directly in the
form of 3D rotating engine, analog indicators, and
the time history plots.
4 to 5, the air is expanded to obtain the power
necessary to drive the compressor. The air (mixed
with fuel) then accelerated through a nozzle, station
5 to 6, to produce thrust, out to external
environment, station 7 (did not shown in the figure).
The cycle analysis of the turbojet starts in free
stream with the computation of the isentropic total
conditions:

2 Thermodynamic Analysis
(1)
A tubojet engine is a kind of gas turbine engine,
which is designed to produce jet thrust. The thrust is
produced by accelerating gas entering the engine to (2)
the outside. Incoming flow of gas can be accelerated
due to provision of energy through the process of
Where is the upstream Mach number, is the
fuel combustion.
ratio of specific heats, is the ambient static
Turbojet has five main components, i.e. (1) pressure, the ambient static temperature, the
Inlet, (2) Compressor, (3) Burner, (4) Turbine, and total pressure, and the total temperature.
(5) nozzle as shown in Figure 2. This figure shows
engine schematic drawing with the numbering 2.1 Inlet
convention used in this analysis.
In the inlet, from station 1 (inlet face) to station 2
(compressor face), no work is done on the fluid and
the total temperature is constant. Under subsonic
free stream conditions, , the standard inlet
recovery is one.

(3)

(4)

Figure 2 Turbojet engine schematic
The following paragraphs detailed the description
of the components and the thermodynamic processes
as explained in [1][2][3][4].
Station 0 is upstream flow conditions, which are
determined by flight Mach number and altitude. This
static conditions are computed for a standard day at
the given altitude and total conditions computed
using the free stream Mach number.
Inlet recovery or total pressure ratio during subsonic
free stream can be specified by designer less than
one to account for boundary layers along the walls
or flow separations whithin the inlet.
Total pressure losses will be present under
supersonic free stream conditions, ,
associated with shock waves present in the inlet.
(5)

In station 1, inlet face, the air may be either

accelerated or decelerated to the inlet, and then
decelerated to the compressor face, station 2. The air
2.2 Compressor
is compressed across the compressor from station 2
Across the compressor, the total pressure ratio and
to 3, work is done on the air and the total
temperature ratio are:
temperature is increased. In the burner, station 3 to
4, fuel is added, mixed, and ignited, thus increasing
the total temperature. Across the turbine from station

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The temperature setting, inputting by user are

(6) determine by,
pecified

(13)
The temperature relation is derived from the
work equation across the compressor for a specified
CPR, as follows. Where is throttle lever setting in percent.

(7) 2.4 Turbine

Across the turbine, temperature and pressure

relations are as follows,
Where is entalphy change in compressor due to
work by turbine,
(14)

(8)
(15)

where is the compressor efficiency factor, which

is equal to 1.0 for the ideal case. Equation (14) expresses the energy balance between
the turbine and the compressor and is the turbine
From equations (7) and (8), the temperature ratio efficiency factor which must be specified.
in the compressor is:
Across the entire engine, the engine temperature
ratio ( ) and engine pressure ratio ( ) can be
(9) computed as:

(16)

2.3 Burner (17)

Within the burner the following relations are
present,
gi en (10)
2.5 Nozzle
(11)
From the turbine exit, the high temperature, high
pressure flow is expanded through the nozzle to
produce thrust. The exit pressure is assumed to be
gi en (12) ambient and the nozzle is assumed to be choked at
the minimum area ( ). The exit velocity is then
given by
The value of is set by the throttle with the
maximum ( ) determined by material limits.
For Ideal condition, the total pressure ratio in the
(18)
burner is equal to one, but the user can specify some
value less then one.

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Where is the nozzle efficiency, and are select pressure/station, temperature/station,

derived from the and and free stream termperature/entropy, pressure/temperature, and
conditions, and is the specific heat coefficient. pressure/volume plot.
With this value of and the free stream velocity
determined from the Mach number and altitude, the
net thrust, is

(19)

Where is air mass flow rate.

3 Description of The Software

Some examples of the graphical user interface for
the application are given in Figure 3 to Figure 6.
Figure 3 how the main ‘blank’ window that appear
when the program is started.

Figure 5 Simulation input window with graphical output

The user can also view a 3D rotating engine,

Figure 6, which shows the effect on rotating speed.
This 3D model can be viewed from any point of
Figure 3 Main GUI view by dragging mouse cursor on the window
while moving the cursor.
On the top left of the GUI, a main toolbar, Figure
4, is available for the user to choose the tool as
simulation or engine testing by clicking one of the
two first button.

Figure 4 Main toolbar

The third and fourth buttons, use for diplaying

3D engine windows and engine instrument windows,
as shown in Figure 7 and Figure 6.

3.1 Engine Simulation Mode

Input panel for the tool is shown in Figure 5. The

input are specific heat ratio ( ), inlet efficiency ( ),
compressor efficiency ( ), burner efficiency ( ),
turbine efficiency ( ) and nozzle efficiency ( ).
Other physical parameter inputting by user are
speed/free-stream airspeed in m/s, altitude in meter, Figure 6 Engine 3D window
and throttle lever in percent. In this window, a
graphical plotting is also available. The user can

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Figure 7 shows engine instrument and time history 4 Results

plot of several parameters: thrust (N), rpm, exhaust
gas temperature (EGT) and fuel pump motor.
A series of simulation has been performed to show
the capability of the tool. The simulation conducted
for a turbojet having design parameter as shown in
Table 1. The results are presented in Table 2 to
Table 4 and Figure 8 to Figure 10.

Table 1 Turbojet Engine Parameter for Simulation

Parameter Symbol Value Units
Inlet Efficiency 0.95
Compressor 0.85
Efficiency
Burner Efficiency 0.90
Turbine Efficiency 0.85
Nozzle Efficiency 0.85
Specific Heat Ratio 1.4
Speed 0 - 300 m/s
Altitude 0 - 3000 m
Throttle lever setting 50 - 100 %

Table 2 shows simulation results conducted at

sea level ( = 0) and static condition ( = 0) by
varying throttle lever from 50% to 100%. It can be
seen on the table and related plotting curve, Figure
Figure 7 Engine intruments window
8, that the minimum thrust is 82.55 N and the
maximum thrust is 367.97 N.

3.2 Engine Testing Mode Table 2 Simulation Output for Various Throttle Setting
at = 0, = 0
The engine testing mode is similar to simulation
Throttle (%) Thrust (N)
mode, exept for one window, i.e. the data
50 82.55
communication window will be available but
60 181.02
simulation input inavailable.
70 241.97
During turbojet static testing, the simulator – 80 290.21
setted as engine testing mode – will communicate 90 331.41
with controller hardware and several sensor. The 100 367.97
controller hardware control fuel valve, starter-gas
valve, and fuel pump motor. User can open or close
the valves and set oil pump speed. By varying the
fuel pump speed, the engine will vary its rotating
speed. This lead to varying thrust and EGT. These
data than sensed by several sensor and read by the
software. The application will saving the measured
data directly into a file.

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Table 4 Simulation Output for Various Speed at = 100,

=0
Speed (m/s) Thrust (N)
0 367.97
50 307.76
100 259.92
150 221.86
175 205.49
200 190.39
225 176.20
250 370.27
275 705.41
300 1090.49
Figure 8 Simulation result: Various Throttle Setting

The simulation also performed at various

altitude from sea level to 3000 metres above sea
level, at 100% throttle setting and static condition (
= 0). The results shown in Table 3, and its related
figure, Figure 9. It can bee seen from the figure that
the thrust produced by the engine is linearly vary
with altitude.

Table 3 Simulation Output for Various Altitude at =

100, = 0
Altitude (m) Thrust (N)
0 367.97
500 369.80 Figure 10 Simulation result: Various Speed
1000 371.63
1500 373.45
2000 375.25
2500 377.05
5 Conclusion and Further Works
3000 378.84
The advantages of turbojet engine simulator for
calculating specific engine performance have been
demonstrated. The equations and assumptions which
form the basis for this tool have been also presented
in this paper as well as several examples of the
results from the simulator.

This application is helpful during static test and

Figure 9 Simulation result: Various Altitude
Table 4 and Figure 10 show the simulation results
performed at sea level and maximum throttle by
varying speed from 0 to 300 m/s.
designing process of turbojet engine. During static
test of turbojet, the tool can be use as command
control and data logger for thrust produced, engine
rotation speed (rpm), and exhaust gas temperature.
The application also useful in turbojet designing
process for predicting and calculating its
performance. The next generation of the software
will be developed as object-oriented simulator
software as in [5] to make applicable for wide
variety of gas turbine engine.

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Acknowledgement
This project is supported by Department of Defense
of the Republik of Indonesia under turbojet engine
development project. The software use GLSCENE,
an opensource OpenGL library for Delphi
programming language.

References
[1] Benson, T. J., An Interactive Educational Tool
for Turbojet Engines, AIAA, 1995.
[2] Gordon C. Oates, Aerothermodynamic of Gas
Turbine and Rocket Propulsion 3rd Edition,
AIAA Education Series, 1997.
[3] Jack D. Mattingly, Elements of Propulsion: Gas
Turbines and Rockets 2nd Edition, AIAA
Education Series, 2006.
[4] Cohen, H. and Rogers, G.F.C and
Saravanamutto, H.I.H, Gas Turbine Theory 4th
Edition, Longman Group Limited, 1996.
[5] Alexiou, Gas Turbine Engine Performance
Model Application Using an Object Oriented
Simulation System, Proceeding of GT2006
ASME, 2006.

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