What Are the Major Components of a Turbine Engine?

Investing in a turbine engine has got to be one of the most important undertakings of your life. You need to buy the engine from a company that’s known for its integrity. At the same time, the turbine engine parts should conform to the highest industry standards and traceable. There should be absolutely no compromise on the quality of the components used, which is why you must be aware of the major components of the turbine engine.

In this article, we look at the major components of a turbine engine, specifically, a gas-turbine engine.

• Compressor

While the older versions of gas turbines make use of centrifugal compressors – the easier and cheaper options, they were limited to low-pressure ratios, hence their replacement with the modern, high-efficient axial-flow compressors. You will, however, come across centrifugal compressors in the smaller industrial machinery.

The role of the axial-flow compressor is a reversal of the reaction turbine. It has blade passages designed like highly curved and twisted airfoils that must exert a tangential force directly to the fluid for the interaction of strong airflow– the pressure from one angle of the blades should be higher than the pressure on its other side. The variation and the rise in air pressure along the blades result in the increase of the flow area and the subsequent reduction in the velocity of flow between blade passages, hence the diffused flow.

Through the mechanical reduction of the volume, the compressor increases gas pressure in the turbine. 

• Combustion Chamber

The role of the combustion chamber is to add energy into the system, to power the turbine, and also to produce high-velocity gas that is exhausted through the nozzle of the aircraft. 

The air from the compressor is first slowed down then split to two air streams – a smaller stream-fed centrally to the region where the atomized fuel gets injected & burned using a flame that’s stabilized by the turbulence generating obstruction; the larger stream is cooler and the air goes to the chamber via the combustion liner holes (shell-like), reducing the temperature to the suitable level. Combustion then happens in the almost cylindrical elements. 

• Turbine

According to https://www.hitekmfg.com, in a jet engine, the turbine gives off just the right amount of output for driving the compressor, in addition to the auxiliary devices.

• Control/ Startup Keys

The control and the startup functions ensure that the speed is kept constant, the turbine’s electrical load notwithstanding. Using these functions, any decrease in the load from maximum could be matched through a reduction in the amount of fuel burning, while keeping the speed of the engine constant. The reduction of fuel flow lowers exit temperatures at the combustion chamber, causing a drop of enthalpy. 

• Burner

The burner is where the air and the fuel are mixed and then burned before the hot exhaust is released through the turbine and out of the nozzle.

• Nozzle

Besides accelerating the hot exhaust gasses thanks to its design, the nozzle is also designed to set the turbine’s mass flow rate throughout the engine. 

The other components include:

• Rotors – these are the spinning rows
• Stators – these are the fixed/ stationary rows
• Turbomachinery – this is the combination of the shaft, turbine, and compressor.