Abstract
During the static testing of a single spool turbojet engine (400 N Titan Engine) running on Jet A-1 as fuel, the starting sequence was unsuccessful, however, upon substituting the fuel with Diesel the engine started successfully. Till that point, the engine operation/performance was normal, and a series of tests were conducted for a total time of 5 hours. These 5 hours of testing spanned over five months during which ambient temperature varied from 5 °C to 37 °C, and relative humidity varied from 40% to 90%. The starting sequence was unsuccessful at the maximum ambient temperature (37 °C) and moderate relative humidity condition (50%). During the test, various parameters including pressure, temperature, rotor speed and mass flow rate were measured and recorded using a computer based data acquisition. For the failed start-up case, during the starting sequence, a sudden decrease in rotor speed was observed as the rotor reached ∼80% of the calibration value followed by flameout in combustion chamber. This sudden drop in rotor speed occurred due to mild-surge in compressor which continued up to flameout. The cause of mild-surge is attributed to the momentary blockage at the exit of the compressor caused by the combustion process. These pressure fluctuations propagated downstream leading to flame out. The combination of high ambient temperature (35 °C) and moderate humidity (∼50%) resulted in higher combustion chamber temperature which resulted in the momentary blockage at compressor exit during the transient operation. The substitution of Diesel as fuel resulted in lower combustion chamber temperature, and resolved the issue. It is important to note that, the mild-surge observed in this case is caused by downstream condition, and would occur only at some special situations (inlet conditions). Hence, it may be concluded, that the compressor surge in a jet engine may be caused by downstream components (under some special conditions), and design modifications to these downstream components may resolve the issue in those cases.
