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A workstationbased, interactive educational computer program
has been developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center to aid in
the teaching and understanding of turbine engine design and analysis.
This tool has recently been extended to model the performance
of two-spool turbofans and afterburning turbojets. The program
solves for the flow conditions through the engine by using classical
onedimensional thermodynamic analysis found in various propulsion
textbooks. Either an approximately thermally perfect or calorically
perfect gas can be used in the thermodynamic analysis. Students
can vary the design conditions through a graphical user interface;
engine performance is calculated immediately. A variety of graphical
formats are used to present results, including numerical results,
moving bar charts, and student-generated temperature versus entropy
(
T
s
), pressure versus specific volume (
p
v
),
and engine performance plots. The package includes user-controlled
printed output, restart capability, online help screens, and a
browser that displays teacher-prepared lessons in turbomachinery.
The program runs on a variety of workstations or a personal computer
using the UNIX operating system and Xbased graphics. It
is being tested at several universities in the midwestern United
States; the source and executables are available free from the
author.
Previous articleLast updated April 29, 1997
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