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Turboprop engines are a type of aircraft powerplant that use a gas turbine to drive a propeller. The gas turbine is designed specifically for this application, with almost all of its output being used to drive the propeller. The engine's exhaust gases contain little energy compared to a jet engine and play a minor role in the propulsion of the aircraft. The propeller is coupled to the turbine through a reduction gear that converts the high RPM, low torque output to low RPM, high torque.
The propeller itself is normally a constant speed (variable pitch) type similar to that used with larger reciprocating aircraft engines.
Turboprop engines are generally used on small subsonic aircraft, but some aircraft outfitted with turboprops have cruising speeds in excess of 500 kt (926 km/h, 575 mph). Large military and civil aircraft, such as the Lockheed L-188 Electra and the Tupolev Tu-95, have also used turboprop power. The Airbus A400M is powered by four Europrop TP400 engines, which are the third most powerful turboprop engines ever produced, after the Kuznetsov NK-12 and Progress D-27. In its simplest form a turboprop consists of an intake, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle.
Air is drawn into the intake and compressed by the compressor.
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Fuel is then added to the compressed air in the combustor, where the fuel-air mixture then combusts. The hot combustion gases expand through the turbine. Some of the power generated by the turbine is used to drive the compressor. The rest is transmitted through the reduction gearing to the propeller.
Further expansion of the gases occurs in the propelling nozzle, where the gases exhaust to atmospheric pressure. The propelling nozzle provides a relatively small proportion of the thrust generated by a turboprop.
Turboprops are very efficient at flight speeds (below 450 mph) because the jet velocity of the propeller (and exhaust) is relatively low. Due to the high price of turboprop engines, they are mostly used where high-performance short-takeoff and landing (STOL) capability and efficiency at modest flight speeds are required. The most common application of turboprop engines in civilian aviation is in small commuter aircraft, where their greater reliability than reciprocating engines offsets their higher initial cost.
Turboprop airliners now operate at near the same speed as small turbofan powered aircraft and burn two thirds of the fuel per passenger. [1] Turboprop powered aircraft have become popular for bush airplanes such as the Cessna Caravan and Quest Kodiak as jet fuel is easier to obtain in remote areas than is aviation grade gasoline (avgas). Technological aspects Much of the jet thrust in a turboprop is sacrificed in favor of shaft power, which is obtained by extracting additional power (up to that necessary to drive the compressor) from turbine expansion.
While the power turbine may be integral with the gas generator section, many turboprops today feature a free power turbine on a separate coaxial shaft. This enables the propeller to rotate freely, independent of compressor speed. Owing to the additional expansion in the turbine system, the residual energy in the exhaust jet is low. Consequently, the exhaust jet produces (typically) less than 10% of the total thrust. Propellers are not efficient when the tips reach or exceed supersonic speeds.
For this reason, a reduction gearbox is placed in the drive line between the power turbine and the propeller to allow the turbine to operate at its most efficient speed while the propeller operates at its most efficient speed. The gearbox is part of the engine and contains the parts necessary to operate a constant speed propeller. This differs from the turboshaft engines used in helicopters, where the gearbox is remote from the engine. Residual thrust on a turboshaft is avoided by further expansion in the turbine system and/or truncating and turning the exhaust 180 degrees, to produce two opposing jets.
Apart from the above, there is very little difference between a turboprop and a turboshaft. While most modern turbojet and turbofan engines use axial-flow compressors, turboprop engines usually contain at least one stage of centrifugal compression. Centrifugal compressors have the advantage of being simple and lightweight, at the expense of a streamlined shape. Propellers lose efficiency as aircraft speed increases, so turboprops are normally not used on high-speed aircraft.
However, propfan engines, which are very similar to turboprop engines, can cruise at flight speeds approaching Mach 0. 75. To increase the efficiency of the propellers, a mechanism can be used to alter the pitch, thus adjusting the pitch to the airspeed. A variable pitch propeller, also called a controllable pitch propeller, can also be used to generate negative thrust while decelerating on the runway. Additionally, in the event of an engine outage, the pitch can be adjusted to a vaning pitch (called feathering), thus minimizing the drag of the non-functioning propeller.
Turboprop Engines: Efficient Propulsion for Subsonic Aircraft. (2017, Feb 17). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/turboprop-engines-essay
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