GTRE GTX-35VS Kaveri
Encyclopedia
The GTRE GTX-35VS Kaveri is an afterburning
turbofan
being developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment
(GTRE), a lab under the DRDO
in Bangalore
, India. An indigenous India
n design, the Kaveri was intended to power production models of the HAL Tejas
fighter, originally called the "Light Combat Aircraft" (LCA), but it was officially de-linked from HAL Tejas program in September, 2008. Now GTRE is running two separate program for engine, the two different platforms are K9+ Program and the K 10 Program.
(DRDO) was authorized to launch a programme to develop an indigenous powerplant for the Light Combat Aircraft. It had already been decided early in the LCA programme to equip the prototype aircraft with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning
turbofan
engine, but if this parallel program was successful, it was intended to equip the production aircraft with this indigenous engine.
The DRDO assigned the lead development responsibility to its Gas Turbine Research Establishment
(GTRE), which had some experience in developing jet engines. It had developed the GTX37-14U afterburning turbojet, which first ran in 1977, and was the first jet engine to be designed entirely in India. A turbofan derivative, the GTX37-14UB, followed. The GTRE returned to turbojet technology with the greatly redesigned, but unsatisfactory, GTX-35.
For the LCA programme, the GTRE would again take up a turbofan design which it designated the GTX-35VS "Kaveri" (named after the Kaveri River
). Full-scale development was authorised in April 1989 in what was then expected to be a 93-month programme projected to cost . A new engine typically costs up to $2 billion to develop, according to engine industry executives.
In 2002, little information had been publicly released concerning the nature of the Kaveris technical challenges, but it was known that the Kaveri had a tendency to "throw" turbine blades, which required securing blades from SNECMA (as well as digital engine control systems).
Continuing development snags with the Kaveri resulted in the 2003 decision to procure the uprated F404-GE-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production Limited Series Production (LSP) aircraft and two naval prototypes. The ADA awarded General Electric a 105 million contract in February 2004 for development engineering and production of 17 F404-IN20 engines, delivery of which is to begin in 2006.
In mid-2004, the Kaveri failed its high-altitude tests in Russia, ending the last hopes of introducing it with the first production Tejas aircraft. This unfortunate development led the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to order 40 more IN20 engines in 2005 for the first 20 production aircraft, and to openly appeal for international participation in completing development of the Kaveri. In February 2006, the ADA awarded a contract to SNECMA
for technical assistance in working out the Kaveri's problems.
In Dec. 2004, it was revealed that the GTRE had spent over on developing the Kaveri. Furthermore, the Cabinet Committee on Security judged that the Kaveri would not be installed on the LCA before 2012, and revised its estimate for the projected total development cost to .
In April 2005, "There is good progress" on the development of the Kaveri engine, M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister told The Hindu
. "We are planning to integrate a prototype Kaveri engine into one of the LCA prototypes sometime in 2007 to understand the nuances of such a complex powerpack," he further told The Hindu.
In Feb. 2006, the US experts told pti that "Kaveri is truly a world-class engine." "We are ready to join in partnership with the Defence Research and Development Organisation to make Kaveri work," General William J Begert of Pratt and Whitney, told PTI. But DRDO secretary Natrajan told PTI that "But Kaveri is and would remain an Indian project."
On February 5, 2007, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister M Natarajan said nearly 90 to 93 per cent of the expected performance had been realised and the government had recently floated an expression of interest to seek partners to move the programme further. Till February 11, 2008, Kaveri had undergone 1,700 hours of tests and has been sent twice to Russia
to undergo high-altitude tests for which India has no facility. The engine is also being tested to power the next generation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
In July 2007, GTRE divided Kaveri program into two separate programs. They are K9+ Program and K 10 Program. K9+ Program is a program to prove concept of complete design and gain hand-on experience of aircraft engine integration and flight trials to cover a defined truncated flight envelope prior to the launch of production version of K10 Standard engine. While K 10 Program is a Joint Venture (JV) partnership with a foreign engine manufacturer. K 10 program engine will be final production standard Kaveri engine and shall have less weight and more reheat thrust along with certain other changes to meet the original design intent.
In September 2008, it was announced that the Kaveri would not be ready in time for the Tejas, and that an in-production powerplant would have to selected. Development of the Kaveri by the GTRE would continue for other future applications. It was announced in November 2008 that the Kaveri engine will be installed on LCA by December 2009, apparently for tests only.
In February 2009, it was published in flightglobal that the GTRE had spent in developing the Kaveri engine since 1989, but the powerplant is still overweight and does not have the 21,000-22,500 lb of thrust (93-100 kN) that its customer requires. Natarajan told Flightglobal that the programme will not be scrapped. "A team of air force engineers is working with GTRE and ADA in addressing the issues. As an ongoing project, the air force will be involved at the point of integrating the upgraded version of the engine with the aircraft," he told Flightglobal. "Discussions with Snecma have been going on for two years," he further adds. "Development and flight-testing of the new engine will take at least five to six years."
In Dec 2009, Kaveri-Snecma JV was trying Back-door Entry In LCA. The People's Post reported that GTRE has agreed to de-link Kaveri from LCA, but has put in a proposal that when the first 40 GE 404 engines in the initial two squadrons of the LCA for the IAF, get phased out should be replaced by the Kaveri-Snecma engine, in future.
On May 3, 2010, about 1880 hrs of engine test had been completed on various prototypes of Kaveri Engine. A total of eight Kaveri Engines and four core engines have been manufactured, assembled and tested. High Altitude testing on core engine has been completed successfully.
In June 2010, the Kaveri engine based on Snecma’s new core, an uprated derivative of the M88-2 engine that powers the French Rafale fighter, providing 83-85 Kilonewtons (KN) of maximum thrust is being considered an option by DRDO.
In July 2010, according to Vinayak shetty, Tejas aircraft will be Integrated with Kaveri engine and will be flying on board a Tejas Air frame by early 2011 or some time later in the year.
A Press release in August 2010, stated that GTRE with the help of Central Institute of Aviation Motors
(CIAM) of Russia is trying to match objective of fine tuning of Kaveri engine performance. Till August 2010, one major milestone which is altitude testing, simulating Kaveri engine performance at different altitude and achieving speed of Mach 1 had been completed successfully. One of Kaveri prototype (K9) was successfully flight tested at Gromov Flight Research Institute in Moscow, on 4 November 2010.
The test was conducted at the Flying Test Bed at Gromov, with the engine running right from the take-off to landing, flying for a period of over one hour up to an altitude of 6,000 metres. The engine helped the IL-76 aircraft test bed fly at speeds of 0.6 mach in its maiden flight, according to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
"The engine control, performance and health during the flight were found to be excellent. With this test, Kaveri engine has completed a major milestone of development programme," it added. After completing these milestone Kaveri engine is flight-worthy. The Kaveri engine was tested for the first time on a flying testbed and the trials were a success.
Till April 2011, the first phase of Kaveri engine FTB trials have been completed successfully and further tests will continue from May 2011 onwards. The flight tests successfully carried out so far are up to 12 km maximum altitude and a maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach No.
In its annual report for 2010-11, The Comptroller and Auditor General of India
noted that had been spent on development, with only two out of the six milestones prescribed having being met. Among its deficiencies, CAG says the engine weight was higher than the design specifications (1235 kg against 1100 kg) and there was no progress on developing the compressor, turbine and engine control systems.
Problems
The Kaveri program has attracted much criticism due to its ambitious objective, protracted development time, cost overruns, and the DRDO's lack of clarity and openness in admitting problems. Much of the criticism of the LCA program has been aimed at the Kaveri and Multi-Mode Radar programs. There has been much criticism of the degree of realism in the DRDO's planning schedules for various elements of the LCA programme, most particularly for the Kaveri development effort. France's SNECMA
, with over half a century of successful jet engine development experience, took nearly 13 years to bring the Rafale
fighter's M88
engine to low-volume production after bench testing had begun; a similar timespan for the less-experienced GTRE would see Kaveri production beginning no earlier than 2009. Another criticism has been DRDO's reluctance to admit problems in the engine and its resistance to involve foreign engine manufacturers until the problems became too large to handle.
In August 2010, regarding the reasons for delay, a Ministry of Defence press release reported:
(BPR) afterburning
turbofan
engine featuring a six-stage core high-pressure (HP) compressor with variable inlet guide vanes (IGVs), a three-stage low-pressure (LP) compressor with transonic blading, an annular combustion chamber, and cooled single-stage HP and LP turbines. The development model is fitted with an advanced convergent-divergent
("con-di") variable nozzle
, but the GTRE hopes to fit production Tejas aircraft with an axisymmetric, multi-axis thrust-vectoring
nozzle
to further enhance the LCA's agility. The core Turbojet engine of the Kaveri is the Kabini.
The general arrangement of the Kaveri is very similar to other contemporary combat engines, such as the Eurojet EJ200
, General Electric F414
, and Snecma M88
. At present, the peak turbine inlet temperature is designed to be a little lower than its peers, but this is to enable the engine to be flat-rated to very high ambient temperatures. Consequently, the bypass ratio that can be supported, even with a modest fan pressure ratio, is only about 0.16:1, which means the engine is a "'leaky' turbojet" like the F404.
The Kaveri engine has been specifically designed for the demanding Indian operating environment, which ranges from hot desert to the highest mountain range in the world. The GTRE's design envisions achieving a fan pressure ratio of 4:1 and an overall pressure ratio of 27:1, which it believes will permit the Tejas to "supercruise
" (cruise supersonically without the use of the afterburner). The Kaveri is a variable-cycle, flat-rated engine and has 13% higher thrust than the General Electric
F404-GE-F2J3 engines equipping the LCA prototypes.
Plans also already exist for derivatives of the Kaveri, including a non-afterburning version for an advanced jet trainer, and a high-bypass-ratio turbofan based on the Kabini core. Another concept being considered is an enlarged version of the Tejas with two engines fitted with fully vectoring nozzles, which might make the vertical tail redundant (the Tejas has no horizontal tail).
An indigenous Full-Authority Digital Engine Control
(FADEC) unit, called Kaveri Digital Engine Control Unit (KADECU) has been developed by the Defence Avionics Research Establishment
(DARE), Bangalore. The Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment
(CVRDE) of Avadi
was responsible for the design and development of the Tejas aircraft-mounted accessory gear box (AMAGB) and the power take-off (PTO) shaft.
“In recent times, the engine has been able to produce thrust of 82 Kilo Newton but what the IAF and other stake-holders desire is power between 90—95 KN" , senior officials told The Hindu
. "On using the Kaveri for the LCA, they said the engine would be fitted on the first 40 LCAs to be supplied to the IAF when they come for upgrades to the DRDO in the latter half of the decade." Article further adds that in 2011,50-60 test flights will be carried out to mature the engine in terms of reliability, safety and airworthiness.
Afterburner (engine)
An afterburner is an additional component added to some jet engines, primarily those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to provide a temporary increase in thrust, both for supersonic flight and for takeoff...
turbofan
Turbofan
The turbofan is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used for aircraft propulsion. A turbofan combines two types of engines, the turbo portion which is a conventional gas turbine engine, and the fan, a propeller-like ducted fan...
being developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment
Gas Turbine Research Establishment
Gas Turbine Research Establishment is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation . Located in Bangalore, its primary function is research and development of aero gas-turbines for military aircraft...
(GTRE), a lab under the DRDO
Defence Research and Development Organisation
The Defence Research and Development Organisation is a agency of the Republic of India, responsible for the development of technology for use by the military, headquartered in New Delhi, India...
in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India. An indigenous India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n design, the Kaveri was intended to power production models of the HAL Tejas
HAL Tejas
The HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta-wing design powered by a single engine. It came from the Light Combat Aircraft programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India's ageing MiG-21 fighters...
fighter, originally called the "Light Combat Aircraft" (LCA), but it was officially de-linked from HAL Tejas program in September, 2008. Now GTRE is running two separate program for engine, the two different platforms are K9+ Program and the K 10 Program.
Program
In 1986, the Indian Defence Ministry's Defence Research and Development OrganisationDefence Research and Development Organisation
The Defence Research and Development Organisation is a agency of the Republic of India, responsible for the development of technology for use by the military, headquartered in New Delhi, India...
(DRDO) was authorized to launch a programme to develop an indigenous powerplant for the Light Combat Aircraft. It had already been decided early in the LCA programme to equip the prototype aircraft with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning
Afterburner (engine)
An afterburner is an additional component added to some jet engines, primarily those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to provide a temporary increase in thrust, both for supersonic flight and for takeoff...
turbofan
Turbofan
The turbofan is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used for aircraft propulsion. A turbofan combines two types of engines, the turbo portion which is a conventional gas turbine engine, and the fan, a propeller-like ducted fan...
engine, but if this parallel program was successful, it was intended to equip the production aircraft with this indigenous engine.
The DRDO assigned the lead development responsibility to its Gas Turbine Research Establishment
Gas Turbine Research Establishment
Gas Turbine Research Establishment is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation . Located in Bangalore, its primary function is research and development of aero gas-turbines for military aircraft...
(GTRE), which had some experience in developing jet engines. It had developed the GTX37-14U afterburning turbojet, which first ran in 1977, and was the first jet engine to be designed entirely in India. A turbofan derivative, the GTX37-14UB, followed. The GTRE returned to turbojet technology with the greatly redesigned, but unsatisfactory, GTX-35.
For the LCA programme, the GTRE would again take up a turbofan design which it designated the GTX-35VS "Kaveri" (named after the Kaveri River
Kaveri River
The Kaveri , also spelled Cauvery in English, is a large Indian river. The origin of the river is traditionally placed at Talakaveri, Kodagu in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, flows generally south and east through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and across the southern Deccan plateau through the...
). Full-scale development was authorised in April 1989 in what was then expected to be a 93-month programme projected to cost . A new engine typically costs up to $2 billion to develop, according to engine industry executives.
Development
The original plans called for 17 prototype test engines to be built. The first test engine consisted of only the core module (named "Kabini"), while the third engine was the first example fitted with variable inlet guide vanes (IGV) on the first three compressor stages. The Kabini core engine first ran in March 1995. Test runs of the first complete prototype Kaveri began in 1996 and all five ground-test examples were in testing by 1998; the initial flight tests were planned for the end of 1999, with its first test flight in an LCA prototype to follow the next year. However, progress in the Kaveri development programme was slowed by both political and technical difficulties.In 2002, little information had been publicly released concerning the nature of the Kaveris technical challenges, but it was known that the Kaveri had a tendency to "throw" turbine blades, which required securing blades from SNECMA (as well as digital engine control systems).
Continuing development snags with the Kaveri resulted in the 2003 decision to procure the uprated F404-GE-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production Limited Series Production (LSP) aircraft and two naval prototypes. The ADA awarded General Electric a 105 million contract in February 2004 for development engineering and production of 17 F404-IN20 engines, delivery of which is to begin in 2006.
In mid-2004, the Kaveri failed its high-altitude tests in Russia, ending the last hopes of introducing it with the first production Tejas aircraft. This unfortunate development led the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to order 40 more IN20 engines in 2005 for the first 20 production aircraft, and to openly appeal for international participation in completing development of the Kaveri. In February 2006, the ADA awarded a contract to SNECMA
Snecma
Snecma is a major French manufacturer of engines for commercial and military aircraft, and for space vehicles. The name is an acronym for Société Nationale d'Étude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation .In 2005, the Snecma group, which included Snecma ,...
for technical assistance in working out the Kaveri's problems.
In Dec. 2004, it was revealed that the GTRE had spent over on developing the Kaveri. Furthermore, the Cabinet Committee on Security judged that the Kaveri would not be installed on the LCA before 2012, and revised its estimate for the projected total development cost to .
In April 2005, "There is good progress" on the development of the Kaveri engine, M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister told The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
. "We are planning to integrate a prototype Kaveri engine into one of the LCA prototypes sometime in 2007 to understand the nuances of such a complex powerpack," he further told The Hindu.
In Feb. 2006, the US experts told pti that "Kaveri is truly a world-class engine." "We are ready to join in partnership with the Defence Research and Development Organisation to make Kaveri work," General William J Begert of Pratt and Whitney, told PTI. But DRDO secretary Natrajan told PTI that "But Kaveri is and would remain an Indian project."
On February 5, 2007, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister M Natarajan said nearly 90 to 93 per cent of the expected performance had been realised and the government had recently floated an expression of interest to seek partners to move the programme further. Till February 11, 2008, Kaveri had undergone 1,700 hours of tests and has been sent twice to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
to undergo high-altitude tests for which India has no facility. The engine is also being tested to power the next generation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
In July 2007, GTRE divided Kaveri program into two separate programs. They are K9+ Program and K 10 Program. K9+ Program is a program to prove concept of complete design and gain hand-on experience of aircraft engine integration and flight trials to cover a defined truncated flight envelope prior to the launch of production version of K10 Standard engine. While K 10 Program is a Joint Venture (JV) partnership with a foreign engine manufacturer. K 10 program engine will be final production standard Kaveri engine and shall have less weight and more reheat thrust along with certain other changes to meet the original design intent.
In September 2008, it was announced that the Kaveri would not be ready in time for the Tejas, and that an in-production powerplant would have to selected. Development of the Kaveri by the GTRE would continue for other future applications. It was announced in November 2008 that the Kaveri engine will be installed on LCA by December 2009, apparently for tests only.
In February 2009, it was published in flightglobal that the GTRE had spent in developing the Kaveri engine since 1989, but the powerplant is still overweight and does not have the 21,000-22,500 lb of thrust (93-100 kN) that its customer requires. Natarajan told Flightglobal that the programme will not be scrapped. "A team of air force engineers is working with GTRE and ADA in addressing the issues. As an ongoing project, the air force will be involved at the point of integrating the upgraded version of the engine with the aircraft," he told Flightglobal. "Discussions with Snecma have been going on for two years," he further adds. "Development and flight-testing of the new engine will take at least five to six years."
In Dec 2009, Kaveri-Snecma JV was trying Back-door Entry In LCA. The People's Post reported that GTRE has agreed to de-link Kaveri from LCA, but has put in a proposal that when the first 40 GE 404 engines in the initial two squadrons of the LCA for the IAF, get phased out should be replaced by the Kaveri-Snecma engine, in future.
On May 3, 2010, about 1880 hrs of engine test had been completed on various prototypes of Kaveri Engine. A total of eight Kaveri Engines and four core engines have been manufactured, assembled and tested. High Altitude testing on core engine has been completed successfully.
In June 2010, the Kaveri engine based on Snecma’s new core, an uprated derivative of the M88-2 engine that powers the French Rafale fighter, providing 83-85 Kilonewtons (KN) of maximum thrust is being considered an option by DRDO.
In July 2010, according to Vinayak shetty, Tejas aircraft will be Integrated with Kaveri engine and will be flying on board a Tejas Air frame by early 2011 or some time later in the year.
A Press release in August 2010, stated that GTRE with the help of Central Institute of Aviation Motors
Central Institute of Aviation Motors
The P. I. Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motor Development The P. I. Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motor Development The P. I. Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motor Development (also known as the "Central Institute for Aviation Motor Development named after P. I...
(CIAM) of Russia is trying to match objective of fine tuning of Kaveri engine performance. Till August 2010, one major milestone which is altitude testing, simulating Kaveri engine performance at different altitude and achieving speed of Mach 1 had been completed successfully. One of Kaveri prototype (K9) was successfully flight tested at Gromov Flight Research Institute in Moscow, on 4 November 2010.
The test was conducted at the Flying Test Bed at Gromov, with the engine running right from the take-off to landing, flying for a period of over one hour up to an altitude of 6,000 metres. The engine helped the IL-76 aircraft test bed fly at speeds of 0.6 mach in its maiden flight, according to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
"The engine control, performance and health during the flight were found to be excellent. With this test, Kaveri engine has completed a major milestone of development programme," it added. After completing these milestone Kaveri engine is flight-worthy. The Kaveri engine was tested for the first time on a flying testbed and the trials were a success.
Till April 2011, the first phase of Kaveri engine FTB trials have been completed successfully and further tests will continue from May 2011 onwards. The flight tests successfully carried out so far are up to 12 km maximum altitude and a maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach No.
In its annual report for 2010-11, The Comptroller and Auditor General of India
Comptroller and Auditor General of India
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is an authority, established by the Constitution of India, who audits all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the state governments, including those of bodies and authorities substantially financed by the government. The CAG is...
noted that had been spent on development, with only two out of the six milestones prescribed having being met. Among its deficiencies, CAG says the engine weight was higher than the design specifications (1235 kg against 1100 kg) and there was no progress on developing the compressor, turbine and engine control systems.
Problems
The Kaveri program has attracted much criticism due to its ambitious objective, protracted development time, cost overruns, and the DRDO's lack of clarity and openness in admitting problems. Much of the criticism of the LCA program has been aimed at the Kaveri and Multi-Mode Radar programs. There has been much criticism of the degree of realism in the DRDO's planning schedules for various elements of the LCA programme, most particularly for the Kaveri development effort. France's SNECMA
Snecma
Snecma is a major French manufacturer of engines for commercial and military aircraft, and for space vehicles. The name is an acronym for Société Nationale d'Étude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation .In 2005, the Snecma group, which included Snecma ,...
, with over half a century of successful jet engine development experience, took nearly 13 years to bring the Rafale
Dassault Rafale
The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine delta-wing multi-role jet fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Introduced in 2000, the Rafale is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations with the French Navy...
fighter's M88
SNECMA M88
|-See also:-External links:* * Snecma M88's pdf* *...
engine to low-volume production after bench testing had begun; a similar timespan for the less-experienced GTRE would see Kaveri production beginning no earlier than 2009. Another criticism has been DRDO's reluctance to admit problems in the engine and its resistance to involve foreign engine manufacturers until the problems became too large to handle.
In August 2010, regarding the reasons for delay, a Ministry of Defence press release reported:
- "Ab-initio development of state-of-the-art gas turbine technologies.
- Technical/technological complexities.
- Lack of availability of critical equipment & materials and denial of technologies by the technologically advanced countries.
- Lack of availability of test facilities in the country necessitating testing abroad.
- Non availability of skilled/technically specialized manpower."
Design
The Kaveri is a low-bypass-ratioBypass ratio
The term bypass ratio relates to the design of turbofan engines, commonly used in aviation. It is defined as the ratio between the mass flow rate of air drawn in by the fan bypassing the engine core to the mass flow rate passing through the engine core....
(BPR) afterburning
Afterburner (engine)
An afterburner is an additional component added to some jet engines, primarily those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to provide a temporary increase in thrust, both for supersonic flight and for takeoff...
turbofan
Turbofan
The turbofan is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used for aircraft propulsion. A turbofan combines two types of engines, the turbo portion which is a conventional gas turbine engine, and the fan, a propeller-like ducted fan...
engine featuring a six-stage core high-pressure (HP) compressor with variable inlet guide vanes (IGVs), a three-stage low-pressure (LP) compressor with transonic blading, an annular combustion chamber, and cooled single-stage HP and LP turbines. The development model is fitted with an advanced convergent-divergent
De Laval nozzle
A de Laval nozzle is a tube that is pinched in the middle, making a carefully balanced, asymmetric hourglass-shape...
("con-di") variable nozzle
Nozzle
A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow as it exits an enclosed chamber or pipe via an orifice....
, but the GTRE hopes to fit production Tejas aircraft with an axisymmetric, multi-axis thrust-vectoring
Thrust vectoring
Thrust vectoring, also thrust vector control or TVC, is the ability of an aircraft, rocket or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine or motor in order to control the attitude or angular velocity of the vehicle....
nozzle
Nozzle
A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow as it exits an enclosed chamber or pipe via an orifice....
to further enhance the LCA's agility. The core Turbojet engine of the Kaveri is the Kabini.
The general arrangement of the Kaveri is very similar to other contemporary combat engines, such as the Eurojet EJ200
Eurojet EJ200
|-See also:-External links:* * * * *...
, General Electric F414
General Electric F414
The General Electric F414 is an afterburning turbofan engine in the 22,000 lbf thrust class produced by GE Aviation. The F414 was developed from GE's widely-used F404 turbofan for use in the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.-Origin:...
, and Snecma M88
SNECMA M88
|-See also:-External links:* * Snecma M88's pdf* *...
. At present, the peak turbine inlet temperature is designed to be a little lower than its peers, but this is to enable the engine to be flat-rated to very high ambient temperatures. Consequently, the bypass ratio that can be supported, even with a modest fan pressure ratio, is only about 0.16:1, which means the engine is a "'leaky' turbojet" like the F404.
The Kaveri engine has been specifically designed for the demanding Indian operating environment, which ranges from hot desert to the highest mountain range in the world. The GTRE's design envisions achieving a fan pressure ratio of 4:1 and an overall pressure ratio of 27:1, which it believes will permit the Tejas to "supercruise
Supercruise
Supercruise is sustained supersonic flight of an aircraft with a useful cargo, passenger, or weapons load performed efficiently and without the use of afterburners ....
" (cruise supersonically without the use of the afterburner). The Kaveri is a variable-cycle, flat-rated engine and has 13% higher thrust than the General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
F404-GE-F2J3 engines equipping the LCA prototypes.
Plans also already exist for derivatives of the Kaveri, including a non-afterburning version for an advanced jet trainer, and a high-bypass-ratio turbofan based on the Kabini core. Another concept being considered is an enlarged version of the Tejas with two engines fitted with fully vectoring nozzles, which might make the vertical tail redundant (the Tejas has no horizontal tail).
An indigenous Full-Authority Digital Engine Control
FADEC
Full Authority Digital Engine Control is a system consisting of a digital computer, called an electronic engine controller or engine control unit , and its related accessories that control all aspects of aircraft engine performance...
(FADEC) unit, called Kaveri Digital Engine Control Unit (KADECU) has been developed by the Defence Avionics Research Establishment
Defence Avionics Research Establishment
Defence Avionics Research Establishment is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation . Located in Bangalore, Karnataka, it is the main DRDO lab involved in the Research & Development of Airborne Electronic Warfare and Mission Avionics systems.- History :DARE was established...
(DARE), Bangalore. The Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment
Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment
Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation . Located in Avadi, in Chennai, India...
(CVRDE) of Avadi
Avadi
Avadi is a suburb of chennai and a municipality in Thiruvallur district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Avadi is an acronym for "Armoured Vehicles and Ammunition Depot of India". Situated about 23 km north west of Chennai, it is surrounded by major defence establishments.-Geography:Avadi...
was responsible for the design and development of the Tejas aircraft-mounted accessory gear box (AMAGB) and the power take-off (PTO) shaft.
Current status
The DRDO currently hopes to have the Kaveri engine ready for use on the Tejas in the latter half of the 2010s decade and according to latest news still research on it is going on and date to complete its research has been extended to 2011-2012.“In recent times, the engine has been able to produce thrust of 82 Kilo Newton but what the IAF and other stake-holders desire is power between 90—95 KN" , senior officials told The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
. "On using the Kaveri for the LCA, they said the engine would be fitted on the first 40 LCAs to be supplied to the IAF when they come for upgrades to the DRDO in the latter half of the decade." Article further adds that in 2011,50-60 test flights will be carried out to mature the engine in terms of reliability, safety and airworthiness.
Applications
Plans are also already under way for derivatives of the Kaveri, including a non-afterburning version for an advanced jet trainer and a high-bypass-ratio turbofan based on the Kaveri core, named as Kabini.- GTX-35VS Kaveri:
- HAL TejasHAL TejasThe HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta-wing design powered by a single engine. It came from the Light Combat Aircraft programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India's ageing MiG-21 fighters...
(planned for production models)- Kaveri Engine for LCA
- Name of the Project / Programme -- Kaveri Engine for LCA
- Date of Sanction—30 Mar 1989
- Original Probable Date of Completion (PDC) -- 31 Dec 1996
- Revised PDC—31 Dec 2010
- Technologies / Products developed and status of Projects / Programmes on 3 May 2010—About 1880 hrs on engine test has been completed on various prototypes of Kaveri Engine. A total of eight Kaveri Engines and four core engines have been manufactured, assembled and tested. High Altitude testing on core engine has been completed successfully.
- Kaveri Engine for LCA
- HAL Medium Combat AircraftMedium Combat Aircraft-External links:*...
(conceptual) - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- HAL Tejas
- Derivatives:
- The Indian government plans to adapt and further develop the Kaveri engine design and technology to create a gas-turbine powerplant for armoured fighting vehicleArmoured fighting vehicleAn armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and armed with weapons. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked....
s such as the Arjun tankArjun MBTThe Arjun is a third generation main battle tank developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organization , for the Indian Army...
. - Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT), a recently developed derivative of the GTX-35VS Kaveri engine for ships.
- Indian Railways has expressed interest in utilizing Kaveri to power locomotives
- The Indian government plans to adapt and further develop the Kaveri engine design and technology to create a gas-turbine powerplant for armoured fighting vehicle
Specification (GTX-35VS Kaveri)
Engine cycle
- Airflow: 172 lb/s (78.0 kg/s)
- Bypass ratio: 0.16:1
- Overall pressure ratio: 21.5:1 [Goal: 27:1]
- LP compressor pressure ratio: 3.4:1 [Goal: 4:1]
- HP compressor pressure ratio: 6.4:1
- Turbine entry temperature: 2,218-2,601 °F (1,214-1,427 °C; 1,487-1,700 K) [Goal: 3,357 °F (1,847 °C; 2,120 K)]
See also
- Gas Turbine Research EstablishmentGas Turbine Research EstablishmentGas Turbine Research Establishment is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation . Located in Bangalore, its primary function is research and development of aero gas-turbines for military aircraft...
(GTRE) - List of aircraft engine manufacturers
- List of aircraft engines