MEC205 Assignments for 2021/22

Investigation into Gas Turbine

This year you will be reviewing the design of a WREN 80i gas turbine. No doubt you will have seen
and probably travelled in an aircraft powered by gas turbines. Gas turbines have applications in
aerospace, petrochemical industries and power generation. The engines you will use are designed
for use by model aircraft hobbyists. The Aerospace Programme has purchased 20 machines for their
students and have consented to allow their use in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Your first task is to disassemble and then reassemble a gas turbine. You have been allocated to one
of four laboratory sessions of four hours. You will work in pairs to disassemble and reassemble the
gas turbine.

Please dismantle and reassemble the gas turbine with care. You will not need force to reassemble
the machine. If parts will not come together easily, review the assembly process in the manual. If
you are satisfied you are following the instructions correctly. If the parts still don’t fit together easily,
seek help from one of the graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). If we damage the gas turbines, we
may not be allowed to use them again next year.

The assignments which you will submit via MOLE, are:

• An assembly drawing. Drawings for the parts are available on MOLE. You are to download
the parts files and use them together with your shaft drawing to create the assembly
drawing noting errors in the files. (20%)
• Calculations. You should carry out the calculations detailed in these instructions, and you
should review your notes from other modules and look for opportunities to use your
analytical skills. (40%)
• A report summarising your investigation into the design and operation of the gas turbine.
The report shall contain no more than 1200 words (not including references, calculations or
drawings) so you will need to write concisely to convey as much information as possible
within the word limit. (40%)

Preparation
Before the workshop session, read the manual on how to disassemble and reassemble the gas
turbine. These documents are provided on MOLE. You should also read the manufacturer’s literature
which describes the intended use of the gas turbine and also some performance information which
you will need for your calculations.

Alternative Path
At your discretion, and with my approval you may choose an alternative basis for any or all of these
assignments. This course is based around the Wren 80i gas turbine and a substantial amount of
scaffolding is provided, based on that machine. If you want to study another machine, and
demonstrate that you meet the learning objectives, based on that machine, come and talk to me
and we will discuss if it is appropriate. If I agree, then you may base some, or all, of your assessment
on an alternative machine.

The same marking criteria will apply in the marking of your submission.
Some useful background Information

The manufacturer has advised that the pressure increase across the compressor is 190 kPa.

You may also find the information in the table below useful.

Property Value Units

Fuel name Kerosene, Jet A/A1 N/A
Lower heating value of kerosene 43.1 MJ/kg
Density of kerosene 0.81 Kg/l
Adiabatic constant 1.4 dimensionless
Molecular weight of air 0.02895 Kg/mol
Universal gas constant 8.314 J/molK

Table 1. Useful values.

Practical Workshop. Disassemble and reassemble the gas turbine

Anticipated time spent on this section: Three to four hours.

Attend your timetabled practical session.

Ask questions about the manufacture and operation of the gas turbine. Take photos, make sketches.
Assignment 1. Drawing (20%)
Review the drawing files provided on MOLE.

Prepare an assembly drawing in CAD with a section showing the internal arrangement of the Wren
80i gas turbine.

Clearly identify errors in the CAD file. When you are practising as an engineer, one of your duties is
likely to be checking drawings done by others, highlighting errors, and returning the drawings to be
corrected. On your drawing, clearly highlight deficiencies or errors in the CAD files provided and
direct a notional CAD technician to rectify them.

Refer to BS 8888: 2020, Technical product documentation and specification, and follow the
conventions specified in the standard. BS 8888: 2020 is available free via BSOL when accessed from
the University’s website.

You may find the disassembly and reassembly manual useful for showing you how components fit
together.

Deliverable

Upload a pdf of your drawing as a single file in PDF onto Blackboard before the deadline.
Assignment 2. Calculations (40%)
Essential Calculations (20%)

The essential calculations are as follows. The formulae for the essential calculations have been given
to you to help scaffold your learning. Part of the exercise is for you to check these calculations
against your notes, and other sources like text books, and determine the meaning for the symbols
and the units.

Thermodynamics

Assume that the working fluid is air.

Calculate the exhaust gas flow rate from the rated thrust using conservation of momentum. Note
that the properties of the working fluid (air) are affected by temperature so you will need to account
for this.

Calculate the speed of sound in the working fluid. Calculate the Mach Number of the exhaust gas.

Calculate the ideal temperature of the air at the entry to the combustion chamber using the
equation for adiabatic compression.

Calculate the heat input from the fuel.

Calculate the average temperature of the working fluid at the exit from the combustion chamber.

Calculate the ideal (isentropic) efficiency of the gas turbine derived in lectures.

Calculate the power in the gas using the thrust and the exhaust gas velocity.

Referring to your calculation of heat input, calculate the actual efficiency.

Additional Calculations (20%)

Thinking about the coursework undertaken in your academic career to date, what other analysis
could you perform on the gas turbine?

Perform up to five additional calculations which add depth to the assessment of the performance of
the gas turbine.

Deliverable

Upload a single file in PDF of all your calculations onto Blackboard before the deadline.
Assignment 3. Investigation into the operation of the gas turbine (40%)
Operation of the gas turbine

Read the reference material which is made available on Blackboard. Carry out additional reading of
text books and on-line material to supplement your knowledge.

With the aid of hand sketches to illustrate your understanding, describe the operation of the gas
turbine.

You must reference your sources using the IEEE (numbered) system.

DO NOT CUT AND PASTE ONLINE MATERIAL INTO YOUR REPORT. Directly copied material constitutes
plagiarism. The University uses sophisticated software to detect material which is copied directly or
even slightly modified. Make notes from your material, summarise your findings from your notes,
then attribute your material to its source, using IEEE referencing.

Future production of a gas turbine

Describe with the aid of hand sketches where appropriate, the materials and processes which would
be most suitable for the production of:

• The compressor wheel

• The diffuser
• The drive shaft
• The nozzle guide vanes
• The turbine

Discuss the processes you have selected, and describe why each process is appropriate in this
application.

You should assume an annual production of 200 gas turbines.

Deliverable

Upload a short report as a single file in PDF onto Blackboard before the deadline.

The page limit for the report is six pages. Font shall not be smaller than 11pt and there are marks
awarded for overall appearance. Your best strategy will be to plan your report and write succinctly,
rather than “game” the page limit.

The page limit does not include references.

Change Log

This is a record of changes that have been made to this document. It is for information only.

R8 1/11/2017. “we” changed to “you”

R9 6/9/2018. Design Audit deliverables split into three parts to stagger load and enable students to
“bank” marks. New assignment added to replace exam.

R10 18/9/19.Assignment 4 deleted to reduce workload. Solid mechanics calculations deleted. Minor
corrections. Limit on additional calculation lowered from 10 to 5 to stop students spending too much
time on this assignment.

R11 24/9/20 Order of assignments changed. Lab moved on-line. Report restrictions changed from
word to page limit.

R12 22/9/21 Order of assignments changed back.