Production of aircraft engines in Russia or non-Jewish production. Russia will grow jet engines

There is a fan at the front of the jet engine. It takes air from the external environment, sucking it into the turbine. In rocket engines, air replaces liquid oxygen. The fan is equipped with multiple titanium blades with special form.

They try to make the fan area large enough. In addition to air intake, this part of the system also participates in cooling the engine, protecting its chambers from destruction. Behind the fan is a compressor. It forces air into the combustion chamber under high pressure.

One of the main structural elements of a jet engine is the combustion chamber. In it, fuel is mixed with air and ignited. The mixture ignites, accompanied by strong heating of the housing parts. The fuel mixture expands under high temperature. In fact, a controlled explosion occurs in the engine.

From the combustion chamber, a mixture of fuel and air enters the turbine, which consists of many blades. The jet stream puts pressure on them and causes the turbine to rotate. The force is transmitted to the shaft, compressor and fan. A closed system is formed, the operation of which only requires a constant supply of the fuel mixture.

The last part of a jet engine is the nozzle. A heated flow enters here from the turbine, forming a jet stream. Cold air is also supplied to this part of the engine from the fan. It serves to cool the entire structure. The air flow protects the nozzle cuff from the harmful effects of the jet stream, preventing parts from melting.

How does a jet engine work?

The working fluid of the engine is a jet. She's very high speed flows out of the nozzle. This generates a reactive force that pushes the entire device into opposite direction. The traction force is created solely by the action of the jet, without any support from other bodies. This feature of the jet engine allows it to be used as power plant for rockets, aircraft and spacecraft.

In part, the operation of a jet engine is comparable to the action of a stream of water flowing from a hose. Under enormous pressure, the liquid is supplied through the hose to the narrowed end of the hose. The speed of water leaving the nozzle is higher than inside the hose. This creates a back pressure force that allows the firefighter to hold the hose only with great difficulty.

The production of jet engines is a special branch of technology. Since the temperature of the working fluid here reaches several thousand degrees, engine parts are made of high-strength metals and materials that are resistant to melting. Individual parts of jet engines are made, for example, from special ceramic compounds.

Video on the topic

The function of heat engines is to convert thermal energy into useful energy mechanical work. The working fluid in such installations is gas. It puts force on the turbine blades or the piston, causing them to move. The simplest examples of heat engines are steam engines, as well as carburetor and diesel internal combustion engines.

Instructions

Piston heat engines consist of one or more cylinders, inside of which there is a piston. Hot gas expands in the volume of the cylinder. In this case, the piston moves under the influence of gas and performs mechanical work. Such a heat engine converts the reciprocating motion of the piston system into shaft rotation. For this purpose, the engine is equipped with a crank mechanism.

External combustion heat engines include steam engines in which the working fluid is heated when fuel is burned outside the engine. Heated gas or steam under high pressure and at high temperature is fed into the cylinder. At the same time, the piston moves, and the gas gradually cools, after which the pressure in the system becomes almost equal to atmospheric pressure.

The exhaust gas is removed from the cylinder, into which the next portion is immediately supplied. To return the piston to its initial position, flywheels are used, which are attached to the crank shaft. Such heat engines can provide single or double action. In double-acting engines, there are two stages of piston stroke per shaft revolution; in single-acting engines, the piston makes one stroke in the same time.

The difference between internal combustion engines and the systems described above is that the hot gas here is obtained by burning the fuel-air mixture directly in the cylinder, and not outside it. Supplying the next portion of fuel and

Turbojet engine.

In this article we will return to my favorite engines. I have already said that a turbojet engine in modern aviation- basic. And we will often mention it in one topic or another. Therefore, the time has come to finally decide on its design. Of course, without delving into all sorts of jungle and subtleties :-). So aviation. What are the main parts of its design, and how do they interact with each other?

1. Compressor 2. Combustion chamber 3. Turbine 4. Outlet device or jet nozzle.

The compressor compresses the air to the required values, after which the air enters the combustion chamber, where it is heated to the required temperature due to the combustion of fuel, and then the resulting gas enters the turbine, where it releases part of the energy by rotating it (and it, in turn, the compressor), and the other part, with further acceleration of the gas in the jet nozzle, turns into a thrust impulse, which pushes the plane forward. This process is quite clearly visible in the video in the article about the engine as a heat engine.

Turbojet engine with axial compressor.

Compressors come in three types. Centrifugal, axial and mixed. Centrifugal ones are usually a wheel, on the surface of which there are channels that twist from the center to the periphery, the so-called impeller. When it rotates, the air is thrown through the channels by centrifugal force from the center to the periphery, when compressed it accelerates strongly and then enters the expanding channels (diffuser) and is slowed down and all its acceleration energy also turns into pressure. This is a bit like the old attraction that used to be in the parks, when people stand along the edge of a large horizontal circle, leaning their backs on special vertical backrests, this circle rotates, leaning in different sides and people don’t fall because they are held (pressed) by centrifugal force. The principle is the same in a compressor.

This compressor is quite simple and reliable, but to create a sufficient degree of compression, a large impeller diameter is needed, which aircraft, especially small ones, cannot afford. Turbojet engine it just won't fit in. Therefore, it is rarely used. But at one time it was used on the VK-1 (RD-45) engine, which was installed on the famous MIG-15 fighter, as well as on IL-28 and TU-14 aircraft.

The impeller of a centrifugal compressor is on the same shaft as the turbine.

Centrifugal compressor impellers.

Engine VK-1. The cross-section clearly shows the impeller of the centrifugal compressor and then the two flame tubes of the combustion chamber.

MIG-15 fighter

Mostly an axial compressor is now used. In it, on one rotating axis (rotor), metal disks are mounted (they are called an impeller), along the rims of which the so-called “working blades” are placed. And between the rims of the rotating working blades there are rims of stationary blades (they are usually mounted on the outer casing), this is the so-called guide vane (stator). All these blades have a certain profile and are somewhat twisted; their work is in a certain sense similar to the work of the same wing or helicopter blade, but only in the opposite direction. Now it is no longer the air that acts on the blade, but the blade on it. That is, the compressor performs mechanical work (on the air :-)). Or even more clearly :-). Everyone knows fans that blow so pleasantly in the heat. Here you go, the fan is the impeller of an axial compressor, only of course there are not three blades, as in a fan, but more.

This is roughly how an axial compressor works.

Of course, it’s very simplified, but that’s essentially how it is. The working blades “capture” the outside air, throw it inside the engine, where the blades of the guide vanes direct it in a certain way to the next row of working blades, and so on. A row of working blades, together with a row of guide vanes following them, form a stage. At each stage, compression occurs by a certain amount. Axial compressors come in different numbers of stages. There can be five of them, or maybe 14. Accordingly, the degree of compression can be different, from 3 to 30 units and even more. It all depends on the type and purpose of the engine (and the aircraft, respectively).

The axial compressor is quite efficient. But it is also very complex both theoretically and constructively. And it also has a significant drawback: it is relatively easy to damage. As they say, he takes upon himself all foreign objects from the concrete road and birds around the airfield, and this is not always without consequences.

Combustion chamber. It surrounds the engine rotor after the compressor with a continuous ring, or in the form of separate pipes (they are called flame pipes). To organize the combustion process in combination with air cooling, it is all “holey”. There are many holes, they are of different diameters and shapes. Fuel (aviation kerosene) is supplied to the flame tubes through special nozzles, where it burns, entering a high-temperature region.

Turbojet engine (section). The 8-stage axial compressor, annular combustion chamber, 2-stage turbine and outlet device are clearly visible.

Next, the hot gas enters the turbine. It is similar to a compressor, but it works in the opposite direction, so to speak. It spins hot gas on the same principle as air spins a children's toy propeller. The fixed blades in it are not located behind the rotating workers, but in front of them and are called the nozzle apparatus. The turbine has few stages, usually from one to three or four. There is no need for more, because there is enough to drive the compressor, and the rest of the gas energy is spent in the nozzle for acceleration and generating thrust. The operating conditions of the turbine are, to put it mildly, “terrible.” This is the most loaded unit in the engine. Turbojet engine has a very high rotation speed (up to 30,000 rpm). Can you imagine the centrifugal force acting on the blades and discs! Yes, plus a torch from the combustion chamber with a temperature of 1100 to 1500 degrees Celsius. In general, hell :-). There is no other way to say it. I witnessed when a turbine blade of one of the engines broke off during takeoff of a Su-24MR aircraft. The story is instructive, I will definitely tell you about it in the future. Modern turbines use quite complex cooling systems, and they themselves (especially the rotor blades) are made of special heat-resistant and heat-resistant steels. These steels are quite expensive, and the entire turbojet is very expensive in terms of materials. In the 90s, in an era of general destruction, many dishonest people, including the military, profited from this. More on this later too...

After the turbine - jet nozzle. It is, in fact, where the thrust of a turbojet engine arises. Nozzles can be simply tapering, or they can be narrowing-expanding. In addition, there are uncontrolled ones (such as the nozzle in the figure), and there are controlled ones, when their diameter changes depending on the operating mode. Moreover, there are now nozzles that change the direction of the thrust vector, that is, they simply turn in different directions.

Turbojet engine- a very complex system. The pilot controls it from the cockpit with just one lever - the engine control stick (EC). But in fact, by doing this he only sets the regime he needs. And the rest is taken care of by the engine automation. This is also a large and complex complex and, I would also say, very ingenious. When I was still studying automation as a cadet, I was always surprised how the designers and engineers came up with all this :-), and the craftsmen made it. Difficult... But interesting 🙂 ...

Aircraft structural elements.

An interesting article about the past, present and future of our rocket industry and the prospects for space flights.

Creator of the world's best liquid rocket engines Academician Boris Katorgin explains why Americans still cannot repeat our achievements in this area and how to maintain the Soviet head start in the future.

On June 21, 2012, the winners of the Global Energy Prize were awarded at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. An authoritative commission of industry experts from different countries selected three applications from the 639 submitted and named the winners of the 2012 prize, which is already commonly called the “Nobel Prize for energy engineers.” As a result, 33 million bonus rubles were divided this year famous inventor from UK professor RodneyJohnAllam and two of our outstanding scientists - academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences BorisKatorgin And ValeryKostyuk.

All three are related to the creation of cryogenic technology, the study of the properties of cryogenic products and their use in various power plants. Academician Boris Katorgin was awarded “for the development of highly efficient liquid rocket engines using cryogenic fuels, which ensure reliable operation of space systems at high energy parameters for the peaceful use of space.” With the direct participation of Katorgin, who devoted more than fifty years to the OKB-456 enterprise, now known as NPO Energomash, liquid rocket engines (LPRE) were created, the performance characteristics of which are now considered the best in the world. Katorgin himself was involved in the development of schemes for organizing the working process in engines, the mixture formation of fuel components and the elimination of pulsation in the combustion chamber. His fundamental work on nuclear rocket engines (NRE) with high specific impulse and developments in the field of creating high-power continuous chemical lasers are also known.

During the most difficult times for Russian science-intensive organizations, from 1991 to 2009, Boris Katorgin headed NPO Energomash, combining the positions of general director and general designer, and managed not only to save the company, but also to create a number of new engines. The lack of an internal order for engines forced Katorgin to look for a customer on the foreign market. One of the new engines was the RD-180, developed in 1995 specifically to participate in a tender organized by the American corporation Lockheed Martin, which was choosing a liquid-propellant rocket engine for the Atlas launch vehicle, which was then being modernized. As a result, NPO Energomash signed an agreement for the supply of 101 engines and by the beginning of 2012 had already supplied more than 60 liquid propellant engines to the United States, 35 of which were successfully operated on Atlases when launching satellites for various purposes.

Before presenting the award, “Expert” talked with academician Boris Katorgin about the state and prospects for the development of liquid rocket engines and found out why engines based on developments forty years ago are still considered innovative, and the RD-180 could not be recreated at American factories.

— Boris Ivanovich, V how exactly yours merit V creation domestic liquid reactive engines, And Now considered the best V the world?

— To explain this to a non-specialist, you probably need a special skill. For liquid rocket engines, I developed combustion chambers and gas generators; generally supervised the creation of the engines themselves for peaceful development outer space. (In the combustion chambers, the mixing and combustion of fuel and oxidizer occurs and a volume of hot gases is formed, which, then ejected through the nozzles, create the jet thrust itself; in gas generators, the fuel mixture is also burned, but for the operation of turbopumps, which, under enormous pressure, pump fuel and oxidizer into the same combustion chamber. — « Expert".)

— You speak O peaceful development space, Although obviously, What All engines traction from several dozens up to 800 tons, which were created V NGO " Energomash", intended before total For military needs.

“We didn’t have to drop a single atomic bomb, we didn’t deliver a single nuclear warhead on our missiles to the target, and thank God.” All military developments went into peaceful space. We can be proud of the enormous contribution of our rocket and space technology to the development of human civilization. Thanks to astronautics, entire technological clusters were born: space navigation, telecommunications, satellite television, sensing systems.

— Engine For intercontinental ballistic rockets R-9, over which You worked, Then lay down V basis a little whether Not all our manned programs.

— Back in the late 1950s, I carried out computational and experimental work to improve mixture formation in the combustion chambers of the RD-111 engine, which was intended for that same rocket. The results of the work are still used in modified RD-107 and RD-108 engines for the same Soyuz rocket; about two thousand space flights have been carried out on them, including all manned programs.

— Two year back I took interview at your Colleagues, laureate Global energy" academician Alexandra Leontyev. IN conversation O closed For wide public specialists, whom Leontyev myself When- That was, He mentioned Vitaliy Ievleva, Same many who did For our space industry.

— Many academicians who worked for the defense industry were kept secret - that’s a fact. Now much has been declassified - this is also a fact. I know Alexander Ivanovich very well: he worked on creating calculation methods and methods for cooling the combustion chambers of various rocket engines. Solving this technological problem was not easy, especially when we began to squeeze out the maximum chemical energy of the fuel mixture to obtain maximum specific impulse, increasing, among other measures, the pressure in the combustion chambers to 250 atmospheres. Let's take our most powerful engine - RD-170. Fuel consumption with oxidizer - kerosene with liquid oxygen passing through the engine - 2.5 tons per second. The heat flows in it reach 50 megawatts per square meter - this is enormous energy. The temperature in the combustion chamber is 3.5 thousand degrees Celsius. It was necessary to come up with a special cooling for the combustion chamber so that it could work properly and withstand the thermal pressure. Alexander Ivanovich did just that, and, I must say, he did a great job. Vitaly Mikhailovich Ievlev - corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, who, unfortunately, died quite early - was a scientist of the widest profile, possessed of encyclopedic erudition. Like Leontiev, he worked a lot on methods for calculating highly stressed thermal structures. Their work overlapped in some places, was integrated in others, and as a result, an excellent technique was obtained that can be used to calculate the thermal intensity of any combustion chambers; Now, perhaps, using it, any student can do this. In addition, Vitaly Mikhailovich took active participation in the development of nuclear and plasma rocket engines. Here our interests intersected in those years when Energomash was doing the same thing.

— IN our conversation With Leontyev We affected topic sales Energomashevsky engines RD-180 V USA, And Alexander Ivanovich told What in in many ways this engine - result developments, which were done How once at creation RD-170, And V some That sense his half. What This - really result reverse scaling?

— Any engine in a new dimension is, of course, a new device. The RD-180 with a thrust of 400 tons is really half the size of the RD-170 with a thrust of 800 tons. The RD-191, intended for our new rocket“Angara”, the thrust is 200 tons. What do these engines have in common? They all have one turbopump, but the RD-170 has four combustion chambers, the “American” RD-180 has two, and the RD-191 has one. Each engine requires its own turbopump unit - after all, if a single-chamber RD-170 consumes approximately 2.5 tons of fuel per second, for which a turbopump with a capacity of 180 thousand kilowatts was developed, more than two times greater than, for example, the power of the reactor of the nuclear icebreaker "Arktika" , then the two-chamber RD-180 is only half, 1.2 tons. I participated directly in the development of turbopumps for the RD-180 and RD-191 and at the same time supervised the creation of these engines as a whole.

— Camera combustion, Means, on everyone these engines one And that same, only quantity their miscellaneous?

— Yes, and this is our main achievement. In one such chamber with a diameter of only 380 millimeters, a little more than 0.6 tons of fuel per second is burned. Without exaggeration, this chamber is a unique, highly heat-stressed equipment with special protection belts against powerful heat flows. Protection is carried out not only due to external cooling of the chamber walls, but also thanks to an ingenious method of “lining” a film of fuel on them, which, as it evaporates, cools the wall. On the basis of this outstanding camera, which has no equal in the world, we manufacture our best engines: RD-170 and RD-171 for Energia and Zenit, RD-180 for the American Atlas and RD-191 for the new Russian rocket "Angara".

— « Angara" should was replace " Proton- M" more some years back, But creators rockets collided With serious problems, first flying tests repeatedly were postponed And project like would continues slip.

— There really were problems. The decision has now been made to launch the rocket in 2013. The peculiarity of the Angara is that, based on its universal rocket modules, it is possible to create a whole family of launch vehicles with a payload capacity of 2.5 to 25 tons for launching cargo into low Earth orbit based on the universal oxygen-kerosene engine RD-191. “Angara-1” has one engine, “Angara-3” has three with a total thrust of 600 tons, “Angara-5” will have 1000 tons of thrust, that is, it will be able to put more cargo into orbit than “Proton”. In addition, instead of the very toxic heptyl, which is burned in Proton engines, we use environmentally friendly fuel, after combustion of which only water and carbon dioxide remain.

— How it worked out What That same RD-170, which was created more V mid 1970- X, to these since then remains By essentially, innovative product, A his technologies are used V quality basic For new Liquid rocket engine?

— A similar story happened with the aircraft created after World War II by Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev (long-range strategic bomber of the M series, developed by the Moscow OKB-23 in the 1950s. — « Expert"). In many respects, the aircraft was about thirty years ahead of its time, and elements of its design were later borrowed by other aircraft manufacturers. It’s the same here: the RD-170 has a lot of new elements, materials, and design solutions. In my estimation, they won't become obsolete for several decades. This is primarily due to the founder of NPO Energomash and its general designer Valentin Petrovich Glushko and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Petrovich Radovsky, who headed the company after Glushko’s death. (Note that the world's best energy and operational characteristics of the RD-170 are largely achieved thanks to Katorgin's solution to the problem of suppressing high-frequency combustion instability through the development of anti-pulsation partitions in the same combustion chamber. - « Expert".) And what about the first stage RD-253 engine for the Proton launch vehicle? Adopted back in 1965, it is so perfect that it has not yet been surpassed by anyone. This is exactly how Glushko taught us to design - at the limit of the possible and necessarily above the world average. Another important thing to remember is that the country has invested in its technological future. What was it like in the Soviet Union? The Ministry of General Engineering, which was in charge, in particular, of space and rockets, spent 22 percent of its huge budget on R&D alone - in all areas, including propulsion. Research funding is much lower today, and that says a lot.

— Not means whether achievement these LRE some perfect qualities, and happened This half a century back, What missile engine With chemical source energy V some That sense is becoming obsolete myself: basic openings done And V new generations rocket engine, Now speech coming quicker O So called supporting innovation?

- Definitely not. Liquid rocket engines are in demand and will be in demand for a very long time, because no other technology is capable of more reliably and economically lifting cargo from the Earth and placing it into low-Earth orbit. They are safe from an environmental point of view, especially those that run on liquid oxygen and kerosene. But liquid rocket engines, of course, are completely unsuitable for flights to stars and other galaxies. The mass of the entire metagalaxy is 1056 grams. In order to accelerate on a liquid-propellant rocket engine to at least a quarter of the speed of light, you will need an absolutely incredible amount of fuel - 103,200 grams, so it’s stupid to even think about it. Liquid rocket engines have their own niche - propulsion engines. Using liquid engines, you can accelerate the carrier to the second escape velocity, fly to Mars, and that’s it.

— Next stage - nuclear rocket engines?

- Certainly. Whether we will live to reach some stages is unknown, but much has been done to develop nuclear propulsion engines already in Soviet era. Now, under the leadership of the Keldysh Center, headed by Academician Anatoly Sazonovich Koroteev, a so-called transport and energy module is being developed. The designers came to the conclusion that it was possible to create a gas-cooled nuclear reactor that was less stressful than in the USSR, which would work both as a power plant and as an energy source for plasma engines when moving in space. Such a reactor is currently being designed at NIKIET named after N. A. Dollezhal under the leadership of Corresponding Member of the RAS Yuri Grigorievich Dragunov. The Kaliningrad design bureau “Fakel” also participates in the project, where electrical jet engines. As in Soviet times, it will not do without the Voronezh Chemical Automation Design Bureau, where gas turbines and compressors will be manufactured to drive the coolant - the gas mixture - in a closed circuit.

— A Bye let's fly on Liquid rocket engine?

— Of course, and we clearly see prospects for the further development of these engines. There are tactical, long-term tasks, there are no limits: the introduction of new, more heat-resistant coatings, new composite materials, reducing the weight of engines, increasing their reliability, simplifying the control circuit. A number of elements can be introduced to more closely monitor the wear of parts and other processes occurring in the engine. There are strategic tasks: for example, the development of liquefied methane and acetylene together with ammonia or ternary fuel as combustible materials. NPO Energomash is developing a three-component engine. Such a liquid-propellant rocket engine could be used as an engine for both the first and second stages. At the first stage, it uses well-developed components: oxygen, liquid kerosene, and if you add about five percent more hydrogen, the specific impulse, one of the main energy characteristics of the engine, will significantly increase, which means that more payload can be sent into space. At the first stage, all kerosene with the addition of hydrogen is produced, and at the second, the same engine switches from running on three-component fuel to two-component fuel - hydrogen and oxygen.

We have already created an experimental engine, albeit of small size and a thrust of only about 7 tons, carried out 44 tests, made full-scale mixing elements in the nozzles, in the gas generator, in the combustion chamber, and found out that it is possible to first work on three components, and then smoothly switch to two. Everything works out, high combustion efficiency is achieved, but to go further, we need a larger sample, we need to modify the stands in order to launch into the combustion chamber the components that we are going to use in a real engine: liquid hydrogen and oxygen, as well as kerosene. I think this is a very promising direction and a big step forward. And I hope to have time to do something during my lifetime.

— Why Americans, having received right on playback RD-180, Not can do his already many years?

— Americans are very pragmatic. In the 1990s, at the very beginning of working with us, they realized that in the energy field we were much ahead of them and we needed to adopt these technologies from us. For example, our RD-170 engine in one launch, due to its greater specific impulse, could carry two tons more payload than their most powerful F-1, which meant a gain of 20 million dollars at that time. They announced a competition for an engine with a thrust of 400 tons for their Atlases, which was won by our RD-180. Then the Americans thought that they would start working with us, and in four years they would take our technologies and reproduce them themselves. I immediately told them: you will spend more than a billion dollars and ten years. Four years have passed, and they say: yes, we need six years. More years passed, they said: no, we need another eight years. Seventeen years have passed and they have not reproduced a single engine. They now need billions of dollars just for bench equipment. At Energomash we have stands where the same RD-170 engine, whose jet power reaches 27 million kilowatts, can be tested in a pressure chamber.

— I Not misheard - 27 gigawatt? This more established power everyone NPP " Rosatom".

— Twenty-seven gigawatts is the power of the jet, which develops in relatively short time. When tested on a bench, the energy of the jet is first extinguished in a special pool, then in a dissipation pipe with a diameter of 16 meters and a height of 100 meters. To build such a stand, which houses an engine that creates such power, you need to invest a lot of money. The Americans have now abandoned this and are taking finished product. As a result, we do not sell raw materials, but a product with enormous added value, into which highly intellectual work has been invested. Unfortunately, in Russia this is a rare example of high-tech sales abroad in such a large volume. But this proves that if we pose the question correctly, we are capable of much.

— Boris Ivanovich, What necessary do, to Not lose head start, typed Soviet missile engine building? Maybe, except lack financing R&D Very painful And other problem - personnel?

— To remain on the world market, we must constantly move forward and create new products. Apparently, until we were completely pressed and thunder struck. But the state needs to realize that without new developments it will find itself on the margins of the world market, and today, in this transition period, while we have not yet matured into normal capitalism, it, the state, must first of all invest in new things. Then you can transfer the development for the release of the series private company on conditions beneficial to both the state and business. I don’t believe that it is impossible to come up with reasonable methods for creating new things; without them, it is useless to talk about development and innovation.

There are frames. I head the department at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where we train both engine and laser engineers. The guys are smart, they want to do the job they are learning, but we need to give them a normal initial impulse so that they don’t go, like many people do now, to write programs for distributing goods in stores. To do this, it is necessary to create an appropriate laboratory environment and provide a decent salary. Build the correct structure of interaction between science and the Ministry of Education. The same Academy of Sciences resolves many issues related to personnel training. Indeed, among the current members of the academy and corresponding members there are many specialists who manage high-tech enterprises and research institutes, powerful design bureaus. They are directly interested in the departments assigned to their organizations training the necessary specialists in the field of technology, physics, and chemistry, so that they immediately receive not just a specialized university graduate, but a ready-made specialist with some life and scientific and technical experience. This has always been the case: the best specialists were born in institutes and enterprises where educational departments existed. At Energomash and NPO Lavochkin we have departments of the MAI branch “Kometa”, which I head. There are old personnel who can pass on experience to the young. But there is very little time left, and the losses will be irrevocable: in order to simply return to the current level, it will be necessary to spend a lot more strength than is needed today to maintain it.

Here's some pretty recent news:

The Samara-based Kuznetsov enterprise has entered into a preliminary agreement to supply Washington with 50 NK-33 power plants developed for the Soviet lunar program.

An option (permission) for the supply of the specified number of engines until 2020 was concluded with the American corporation Orbital Sciences, which produces satellites and launch vehicles, and the Aerojet company, one of the largest manufacturers of rocket engines in the United States . This is a preliminary agreement, since the option agreement implies the right, but not the obligation, of the buyer to make a purchase under predetermined conditions. Two modified NK-33 engines are used on the first stage of the Antares launch vehicle developed in the United States under a contract with NASA (project name Taurus-2). The carrier is designed to deliver cargo to the ISS. Its first launch is planned for 2013. The NK-33 engine was developed for the N1 launch vehicle, which was supposed to take Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon.

There was also some rather controversial information on the blog describing

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

According to statistics, only one flight out of 8 million ends in an accident with loss of life. Even if you boarded a random flight every day, it would take you 21,000 years to die in a plane crash. According to statistics, walking is many times more dangerous than flying. And all this is largely due to the amazing reliability of modern aircraft engines.

On October 30, 2015, testing of the newest Russian aircraft engine PD-14 began on the Il-76LL flying laboratory. This is an event of exceptional importance. 10 interesting facts about turbojet engines in general and the PD-14 in particular will help you appreciate its significance.

A miracle of technology

But a turbojet engine is an extremely complex device. Its turbine operates in the most difficult conditions. Its most important element is the spatula, with which kinetic energy gas flow is converted into mechanical rotational energy. One blade, and there are about 70 of them in each stage of an aircraft turbine, develops a power equal to the power of a Formula 1 car engine, and at a rotation speed of about 12 thousand revolutions per minute, a centrifugal force equal to 18 tons acts on it, which is equal to load on the suspension of a double-decker London bus.

But that's not all. The temperature of the gas with which the blade comes into contact is almost half the temperature on the surface of the Sun. This value is 200 °C higher than the melting point of the metal from which the blade is made. Imagine this problem: you need to prevent an ice cube from melting in an oven heated to 200 °C. Designers manage to solve the problem of blade cooling using internal air channels and special coatings. It is not surprising that one spatula costs eight times more than silver. To create just this small part that fits in the palm of your hand, it is necessary to develop more than a dozen complex technologies. And each of these technologies is protected as the most important state secret.

TRD technologies are more important than atomic secrets

In addition to domestic companies, only US companies (Pratt & Whitney, General Electric, Honeywell), England (Rolls-Royce) and France (Snecma) possess technologies for the full cycle of creating modern turbojet engines. That is, there are fewer countries producing modern aviation turbojet engines than countries that have nuclear weapons or launch satellites into space. China's decades-long efforts, for example, have so far failed to achieve success in this area. The Chinese quickly copied and equipped the Russian Su-27 fighter with their own systems, releasing it under the designation J-11. However, they were never able to copy its AL-31F engine, so China is still forced to purchase this no longer the most modern turbojet engine from Russia.

PD-14 - the first domestic aircraft engine of the 5th generation

Progress in aircraft engine manufacturing is characterized by several parameters, but one of the main ones is the temperature of the gas in front of the turbine. The transition to each new generation of turbojet engines, and there are five of them in total, was characterized by an increase in this temperature by 100-200 degrees. Thus, the gas temperature of the 1st generation turbojet engines, which appeared in the late 1940s, did not exceed 1150 °K, in the 2nd generation (1950s) this figure increased to 1250 °K, in the 3rd generation (1960s) this parameter rose to 1450 °K; for engines of the 4th generation (1970-1980) the gas temperature reached 1650 °K. Turbine blades of 5th generation engines, the first examples of which appeared in the West in the mid-90s, operate at a temperature of 1900 °K. Currently, only 15% of engines in use worldwide are of the 5th generation.

An increase in gas temperature, as well as new design schemes, primarily double-circuit, have made it possible to achieve impressive progress over the 70 years of development of turbojet engines. For example, the ratio of engine thrust to its mass increased 5 times during this time and for modern models reached 10. The degree of air compression in the compressor increased 10 times: from 5 to 50, while the number of compressor stages was halved - on average from 20 to 10. The specific fuel consumption of modern turbojet engines was halved compared to 1st generation engines. Every 15 years, the volume of passenger traffic in the world doubles while the total fuel consumption of the world's aircraft fleet remains almost unchanged.

Currently, Russia produces the only 4th generation civil aircraft engine - the PS-90. If we compare the PD-14 with it, then the two engines have similar weights (2950 kg for the basic version PS-90A and 2870 kg for the PD-14), dimensions (fan diameter for both is 1.9 m), compression ratio (35.5 and 41) and take-off thrust (16 and 14 tf).

At the same time, the PD-14 high-pressure compressor consists of 8 stages, and the PS-90 - of 13 with a lower total compression ratio. The bypass ratio of the PD-14 is twice as high (4.5 for the PS-90 and 8.5 for the PD-14) with the same fan diameter. As a result, the specific fuel consumption in cruising flight for the PD-14 will drop, according to preliminary estimates, by 15% compared to existing engines: to 0.53-0.54 kg/(kgf h) versus 0.595 kg/(kgf h) ) at PS-90.

PD-14 is the first aircraft engine created in Russia after the collapse of the USSR

When Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian specialists on the start of testing the PD-14, he said that the last time such an event occurred in our country was 29 years ago. Most likely, this meant December 26, 1986, when the first flight of the Il-76LL took place under the PS-90A test program.

The Soviet Union was a great aviation power. In the 1980s, eight powerful aircraft engine design bureaus operated in the USSR. Often firms competed with each other, since there was a practice of giving the same task to two design bureaus. Alas, times have changed. After the collapse of the 1990s, all industry forces had to be brought together to implement the project of creating a modern engine. Actually, the formation in 2008 of the United Engine Corporation (UEC), with many of whose enterprises VTB Bank actively cooperates, was aimed at creating an organization capable of not only preserving the country’s competencies in gas turbine construction, but also competing with the world’s leading companies.

The lead contractor for the PD-14 project is the Aviadvigatel Design Bureau (Perm), which, by the way, also developed the PS-90. Serial production is organized at the Perm Motor Plant, but parts and components will be manufactured throughout the country. The cooperation involves the Ufa Engine Production Association (UMPO), NPO Saturn (Rybinsk), NPCG Salyut (Moscow), Metallist-Samara and many others.

PD-14 - engine for long-haul aircraft of the 21st century

One of the most successful projects in the area civil aviation The USSR had a medium-range aircraft Tu-154. Produced in a quantity of 1026 pieces, it for many years formed the basis of Aeroflot's fleet. Alas, time passes, and this hard worker no longer meets modern requirements either in terms of efficiency or ecology (noise and harmful emissions). The main weakness of the Tu-154 is the 3rd generation D-30KU engines with high specific fuel consumption (0.69 kg/(kgf·h).

The medium-range Tu-204, which replaced the Tu-154 with 4th generation PS-90 engines, in the conditions of the collapse of the country and the free market, could not withstand competition with foreign manufacturers even in the fight for domestic air carriers. Meanwhile, the segment of medium-haul narrow-body aircraft, which is dominated by the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 (in 2015 alone, 986 of them were delivered to airlines around the world), is the most widespread, and its presence is necessary condition preservation of the domestic civil aircraft industry. Thus, in the early 2000s, an urgent need was identified to create a competitive new generation turbojet engine for a medium-range aircraft with 130-170 seats. Such an aircraft should be the MS-21 (Mainline Aircraft of the 21st Century), developed by the United Aircraft Corporation. The task is incredibly difficult, since not only the Tu-204, but also no other aircraft in the world could withstand the competition with Boeing and Airbus. It is for MS-21 that the PD-14 is being developed. Success in this project will be akin to an economic miracle, but such undertakings are the only way for Russian economy get off the oil needle.

PD-14 - basic design for the engine family

The letters “PD” stand for advanced engine, and the number 14 stands for thrust in ton-force. PD-14 is the base engine for the family of turbojet engines with a thrust from 8 to 18 tf. The business idea of ​​the project is that all these engines are created on the basis of a unified gas generator of a high degree of perfection. The gas generator is the heart of a turbojet engine, which consists of a high-pressure compressor, a combustion chamber and a turbine. It is the manufacturing technologies of these components, primarily the so-called hot part, that are critical.

The family of engines based on the PD-14 will make it possible to equip almost all Russian planes: from PD-7 for the short-haul Sukhoi Superjet 100 to PD-18, which can be installed on the flagship of the Russian aircraft industry - the long-range Il-96. Based on the PD-14 gas generator, it is planned to develop a PD-10V helicopter engine to replace the Ukrainian D-136 on the world's largest Mi-26 helicopter. The same engine can also be used on the Russian-Chinese heavy helicopter, the development of which has already begun. On the basis of the PD-14 gas generator, gas pumping installations and gas turbine power plants with a capacity of 8 to 16 MW, which are so necessary for Russia, can be created.

PD-14 is 16 critical technologies

For the PD-14, with the leading role of the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Manufacturing (CIAM), the leading research institute of the industry and the Aviadvigatel Design Bureau, 16 critical technologies were developed: monocrystalline high-pressure turbine blades with a promising cooling system, operable at gas temperatures up to 2000 °K, hollow wide-chord fan blade made of titanium alloy, thanks to which it was possible to increase the efficiency of the fan stage by 5% in comparison with PS-90, low-emission combustion chamber made of intermetallic alloy, sound-absorbing structures made of composite materials, ceramic coatings on the hot part parts, hollow low-pressure turbine blades etc.

PD-14 will continue to be improved. At MAKS 2015, one could already see the prototype of a wide-chord fan blade made of carbon fiber, created at CIAM, the mass of which is 65% of the mass of the hollow titanium blade currently used. At the CIAM stand one could also see a prototype of the gearbox that is supposed to be equipped with the modification of the PD-18R. The gearbox will allow you to reduce the fan speed, due to which, not tied to the turbine speed, it will operate in a more efficient mode. It is expected to raise the gas temperature in front of the turbine by 50 °K. This will increase the thrust of the PD-18R to 20 tf, and reduce specific fuel consumption by another 5%.

PD-14 is 20 new materials

When creating the PD-14, the developers from the very beginning relied on domestic materials. It was clear that Russian companies under no circumstances will they provide access to new foreign-made materials. Here, the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) played a leading role, with the participation of which about 20 new materials were developed for the PD-14.

But creating the material is half the battle. Sometimes Russian metals are superior in quality to foreign ones, but their use in a civil aircraft engine requires certification according to international standards. Otherwise, the engine, no matter how good it is, will not be allowed to fly outside Russia. The rules here are very strict because we are talking about people's safety. The same applies to the engine manufacturing process: enterprises in the industry require certification according to the standards of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). All this will force us to improve production standards, and it is necessary to re-equip the industry to accommodate new technologies. The development of the PD-14 itself took place using new, digital technology, thanks to which the 7th copy of the engine was assembled in Perm using mass production technology, while previously a pilot batch was produced in quantities of up to 35 copies.

PD-14 must be pulled out new level the entire industry. What can I say, even the Il-76LL flying laboratory, after several years of inactivity, needed to be retrofitted with equipment. Work has also been found for the unique CIAM stands, which allow simulating flight conditions on the ground. In general, the PD-14 project will save more than 10,000 highly qualified jobs for Russia.

PD-14 is the first domestic engine that directly competes with its Western counterpart

The development of a modern engine takes 1.5-2 times longer than the development of an aircraft. Unfortunately, aircraft manufacturers are faced with a situation where the engine does not have time to start testing the aircraft for which it is intended. The rollout of the first copy of the MS-21 will take place at the beginning of 2016, and the testing of the PD-14 has just begun. True, the project provided an alternative from the very beginning: MS-21 customers could choose between the PD-14 and Pratt & Whitney’s PW1400G. It is with the American engine that the MC-21 will go on its first flight, and it is with it that the PD-14 will have to compete for a place under the wing.

Compared to its competitor, the PD-14 is somewhat inferior in efficiency, but it is lighter, has a noticeably smaller diameter (1.9 m versus 2.1), and therefore less resistance. And one more feature: Russian specialists deliberately went for some simplification of the design. The basic PD-14 does not use a gearbox in the fan drive, and also does not use an adjustable nozzle of the external circuit; it has a lower gas temperature in front of the turbine, which makes it easier to achieve reliability and service life indicators. Therefore, the PD-14 engine is cheaper and, according to preliminary estimates, will require lower maintenance and repair costs. By the way, in the context of falling oil prices, it is lower operating costs, and not efficiency, that become the driving factor and the main competitive advantage of an aircraft engine. In general, the direct operating costs of the MS-21 with the PD-14 can be 2.5% lower than that of the version with the American engine.

To date, 175 MS-21 have been ordered, of which 35 are with the PD-14 engine

Experimental samples of gas turbine engines (GTE) first appeared on the eve of World War II. The developments came to life in the early fifties: gas turbine engines were actively used in military and civil aircraft construction. At the third stage of introduction into industry, small gas turbine engines, represented by microturbine power plants, began to be widely used in all areas of industry.

General information about gas turbine engines

The operating principle is common to all gas turbine engines and consists in transforming the energy of compressed heated air into mechanical work of the gas turbine shaft. The air entering the guide vane and compressor is compressed and in this form enters the combustion chamber, where fuel is injected and the working mixture is ignited. Gases formed as a result of combustion are under high pressure pass through the turbine and rotate its blades. Part of the rotational energy is spent on rotating the compressor shaft, but most of the energy of the compressed gas is converted into useful mechanical work of rotating the turbine shaft. Among all internal combustion engines (ICE), gas turbine units have the greatest power: up to 6 kW/kg.

Gas turbine engines operate on most types of dispersed fuel, which makes them stand out from other internal combustion engines.

Problems of developing small TGDs

As the size of the gas turbine engine decreases, the efficiency and specific power decrease compared to conventional turbojet engines. At the same time, the specific fuel consumption also increases; the aerodynamic characteristics of the flow sections of the turbine and compressor deteriorate, and the efficiency of these elements decreases. In the combustion chamber, as a result of a decrease in air flow, the combustion efficiency of the fuel assembly decreases.

A decrease in the efficiency of gas turbine engine components with a decrease in its dimensions leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the entire unit. Therefore, when modernizing the model, designers pay special attention to increasing the efficiency of individual elements, up to 1%.

For comparison: when the compressor efficiency increases from 85% to 86%, the turbine efficiency increases from 80% to 81%, and the overall Engine efficiency increases immediately by 1.7%. This suggests that for a fixed fuel consumption, the specific power will increase by the same amount.

Aviation gas turbine engine "Klimov GTD-350" for the Mi-2 helicopter

The development of the GTD-350 first began in 1959 at OKB-117 under the leadership of designer S.P. Izotov. Initially, the task was to develop a small engine for the MI-2 helicopter.

At the design stage, experimental installations were used, and the node-by-unit finishing method was used. In the process of research, methods for calculating small-sized bladed devices were created, and constructive measures were taken to dampen high-speed rotors. The first samples of a working model of the engine appeared in 1961. Air tests of the Mi-2 helicopter with GTD-350 were first carried out on September 22, 1961. According to the test results, two helicopter engines were torn apart, re-equipping the transmission.

The engine passed state certification in 1963. Serial production opened in the Polish city of Rzeszow in 1964 under the leadership of Soviet specialists and continued until 1990.

Ma l The second domestically produced gas turbine engine GTD-350 has the following performance characteristics:

— weight: 139 kg;
— dimensions: 1385 x 626 x 760 mm;
— rated power on the free turbine shaft: 400 hp (295 kW);
— free turbine rotation speed: 24000;
— operating temperature range -60…+60 ºC;
— specific fuel consumption 0.5 kg/kW hour;
— fuel — kerosene;
— cruising power: 265 hp;
— takeoff power: 400 hp.

For flight safety reasons, the Mi-2 helicopter is equipped with 2 engines. The twin installation allows the aircraft to safely complete the flight in the event of failure of one of the power plants.

GTD - 350 per at the moment is morally obsolete; modern small aircraft require more powerful, reliable and cheaper gas turbine engines. At the present time, a new and promising domestic engine is the MD-120, produced by the Salyut corporation. Engine weight - 35 kg, engine thrust 120 kgf.

General scheme

The design of the GTD-350 is somewhat unusual due to the location of the combustion chamber not immediately behind the compressor, as in standard models, but behind the turbine. In this case, the turbine is attached to the compressor. This unusual arrangement of components reduces the length of the engine power shafts, therefore reducing the weight of the unit and allowing for high rotor speeds and efficiency.

During engine operation, air enters through the VNA, passes through the axial compressor stages, the centrifugal stage and reaches the air collecting scroll. From there, through two pipes, air is supplied to the rear of the engine to the combustion chamber, where it reverses the direction of flow and enters the turbine wheels. The main components of the GTD-350 are: compressor, combustion chamber, turbine, gas collector and gearbox. Engine systems are presented: lubrication, control and anti-icing.

The unit is divided into independent units, which makes it possible to produce individual spare parts and ensure their quick repair. The engine is constantly being improved and today its modification and production is carried out by Klimov OJSC. The initial resource of the GTD-350 was only 200 hours, but during the modification process it was gradually increased to 1000 hours. The picture shows the general mechanical connection of all components and assemblies.

Small gas turbine engines: areas of application

Microturbines are used in industry and everyday life as autonomous sources electricity.
— The power of microturbines is 30-1000 kW;
— volume does not exceed 4 cubic meters.

Among the advantages of small gas turbine engines are:
— wide range of loads;
— low vibration and noise level;
- work for various types fuel;
- small dimensions;
— low level of exhaust emissions.

Negative points:
— complexity electronic circuit(in the standard version, the power circuit is performed with double energy conversion);
— a power turbine with a speed maintenance mechanism significantly increases the cost and complicates the production of the entire unit.

To date, turbogenerators have not received such wide distribution in Russia and in post-Soviet space, as in the USA and Europe due to the high cost of production. However, according to calculations, a single autonomous gas turbine unit with a power of 100 kW and an efficiency of 30% can be used to supply energy to standard 80 apartments with gas stoves.

A short video of the use of a turboshaft engine for an electric generator.

By installing absorption refrigerators, a microturbine can be used as an air conditioning system and for simultaneous cooling of a significant number of rooms.

Automotive industry

Small gas turbine engines have demonstrated satisfactory results during road tests, but the cost of the vehicle increases many times due to the complexity of the structural elements. Gas turbine engine with a power of 100-1200 hp. have characteristics similar to gasoline engines, however, mass production of such cars is not expected in the near future. To solve these problems, it is necessary to improve and reduce the cost of all components of the engine.

Things are different in the defense industry. The military does not pay attention to cost; performance is more important to them. The military needed a powerful, compact, trouble-free power plant for tanks. And in the mid-60s of the 20th century, Sergei Izotov, the creator of the power plant for MI-2 - GTD-350, was involved in this problem. Izotov Design Bureau began development and eventually created the GTD-1000 for the T-80 tank. Perhaps this is the only positive experience of using gas turbine engines for ground transport. The disadvantages of using an engine on a tank are its gluttony and pickiness about the cleanliness of the air passing through the working path. Below is presented short video operation of the tank GTD-1000.

Small aviation

Today, the high cost and low reliability of piston engines with a power of 50-150 kW do not allow Russian small aviation to confidently spread its wings. Engines such as Rotax are not certified in Russia, and Lycoming engines used in agricultural aviation are obviously overpriced. In addition, they run on gasoline, which is not produced in our country, which further increases the cost of operation.

It is small aviation, like no other industry, that needs small gas turbine engine projects. By developing the infrastructure for the production of small turbines, we can confidently talk about the revival of agricultural aviation. Abroad, a sufficient number of companies are engaged in the production of small gas turbine engines. Scope of application: private aircraft and drones. Among the models for light aircraft are the Czech engines TJ100A, TP100 and TP180, and the American TPR80.

In Russia, since the times of the USSR, small and medium-sized gas turbine engines have been developed mainly for helicopters and light aircraft. Their resource ranged from 4 to 8 thousand hours,

Today, for the needs of the MI-2 helicopter, small gas turbine engines of the Klimov plant continue to be produced, such as: GTD-350, RD-33, TVZ-117VMA, TV-2-117A, VK-2500PS-03 and TV-7-117V.