New commercial aero engines for 2050 are expected to have lower specific thrusts for reduced noise and improved propulsive efficiency, but meeting the ACARE Flightpath 2050 fuel-burn and emissions targets will also need radical design changes to improve core thermal efficiency. Intercooling, recuperation, inter-turbine combustion and added topping and bottoming cycles all have the potential to improve thermal efficiency. However, these new technologies tend to increase core specific power and reduce core mass flow, giving smaller and less efficient core components. Turbine cooling also gets more difficult as engine cores get smaller. The core-size-dependent performance penalties will become increasingly significant with the development of more aerodynamically efficient and lighter-weight aircraft having lower thrust requirements. In this study the effects of engine thrust and core size on performance are investigated for conventional and intercooled aeroengine cycles. Large intercooled engines could have 3%–4% SFC improvement relative to conventional cycle engines, while smaller engines may only realize half of this benefit. The study provides a foundation for investigations of more complex cycles in the EU Horizon 2020 ULTIMATE programme.

In the article by Rolt(1), there was an error in Equation (2). The correct equation is republished here. 2

$$\begin{equation} {W_c} = \ \frac{{{W_{\it cref}}\left( {{T_{\it grel}} - {T_{\it cref}}} \right){{({W_4}/{W_{\it 4ref}})}^{0.65}}}}{{\left( {{T_{\it gref}} - {T_c}} \right)}}\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \end{equation}$$

Deposit formation on turbine hardware in propulsion turbine engines can occur in many arid regions globally. Characterising crystalline deposits on metallic substrates can aid in component resilience and health monitor algorithms during particle ingestion. This study has developed two statistical empirical models for prediction from acquired experimental data for the onset of deposits. The prediction models are for crystalline particulate (Arizona Road Test Dust) deposits on a flat rectangular Hastelloy-X test coupon. Particle impingement angles varied between 20° and 80° in experimental flow temperatures of 1,000–1,100°C. Averaged deposits are methodically quantified through normalised particle deposit tallies per area and percent coverage of the surface using microscopic imaging and image processing programs. Deposit accumulation is a quadratic function of both near-surface coupon temperature and coupon angle.

The rotor sub-assembly of the high-pressure turbine of a modern turbofan engine is typically free to move downstream because of the force imbalance acting on the disc and blades following an un-located shaft failure. This downstream movement results in a change in the geometry of the rotor blade, tip seals and rim/platform seals because of the interaction of the rotor sub-assembly with the downstream vane sub-assembly. Additionally, there is a change in the leakage flow properties, which mix with the main flow because of the change in engine behaviour and secondary air system dynamics. In the present work, the changes in geometry following the downstream movement of the turbine, are obtained from a validated friction model and structural LS-DYNA simulations. Changes in leakage flow properties are obtained from a transient network source-sink secondary air system model. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations are used to evaluate the aerodynamic effect from the inclusion of the leakage flows, tipseal domains, and downstream movement of the rotor for three displacement configurations (i.e. 0, 10 and 15 mm) with appropriate changes in geometry and leakage flow conditions. It is observed from the results that there is a significant reduction in the expansion ratio, torque and power produced by the turbine with the downstream movement of the rotor because of changes in the flow behaviour for the different configurations. These changes in turbine performance parameters are necessary to accurately predict the terminal speed of the rotor using an engine thermodynamic model. Further, it is to be noted that such reductions in turbine rotor torque will result in a reduction of the terminal speed attained by the rotor during an un-located shaft failure. Therefore the terminal speed of the rotor can be controlled by introducing design features that will result in the rapid rearward displacement of the turbine rotor.