Course Syllabus

Welcome to the course MMS175 - Aerospace Propulsion!

Below you can find a short overview of the course content. A detailed outline of the course can be found in the Modules page that you can access in the menu to the left. Each week has a different section in the Modules page. This section further contains information about all lectures, exercises and other events that will take place during the week. 

Aim of the course

The course aims at providing knowledge about the applied design and use of aircraft and spacecraft propulsion systems. This involves developing an insight into how applied aerodynamics, turbomachinery, heat-transfer, as well as to some extent to solid mechanics and material mechanics can be used to understand and define limitations on the design of the propulsion systems.

Learning Goals

After completion of the course the student should be able to:

• apply turbomachinery design principles to airbreathing (aircraft) and rocket (spacecraft) propulsion systems.
• carry out conceptual design and analysis of several different gas turbine and rocket cycles
• evaluate and discuss how losses arise in turbomachines using commercial software for CFD and turbomachinery modelling.
• use simple methods, based on the first and second law of thermodynamics, to freely analyze new types of aircraft and rocket propulsion concepts.

Content and organisation

Within the course, aspects ranging from thermodynamic cycle studies and performance calculations to preliminary design of individual components for aircraft and spacecraft propulsion are covered. Emphasis is put on the relation between the propulsion system and the vehicle performance. The ambition is that the student shall become familiar with different propulsion concepts and their operation.

The course starts with a general overview of aircraft and rocket propulsion systems. The requirements, as given by the vehicle and its mission and the implications resulting by these on the propulsion system are treated. A range of design principles for components such as compressors, turbines, nozzles etc. are described and their relation to system requirements are established. Apart from traditional areas normally taught in a propulsion course, some aspects of materials selection (superalloys and composites), fatigue (creep, high and low cycle fatigue) as well as environmental aspects of operation are discussed.

The course is a mixed of recorded lectures and in-site activities in the form of tutorials, design project work and lecture seminars. Three design exercises complement the learning process.

• Thermodynamic analysis of a three-shaft modern aero engine
• Conceptual design of a modern three shaft aero engine.
• Two- and three-dimensional fluid dynamic design, i.e. generation of geometry required to achieve good fluid mechanics performance, of a transonic high pressure compressor.

Literature

• Saravanamuttoo, H. I., Rogers, G. F. C., & Cohen, H. (2001). Gas turbine theory. Pearson Education.
• Farokhi, S, Aircraft Propulsion. Wiley, 2 edition.

Most of the course is based in chapters from Gas Turbine Theory. It is relatively expensive and for that reason a number of copies are available for borrowing at the division. Except for the material on mechanical design added in the 6/7^th edition the 4^th/5^th editions are sufficient for learning the course. References will only be made to the 6^th edition.

The course is supplemented by handed out material from Farokhi, S, Aircraft Propulsion. Wiley, 2 edition., but a free ebook is also available at the library. 

Examination

The examination is an open book written exam. Bonus credits are given for the design tasks (a maximum of 16 credits may be obtained).

A maximum of additional 4 bonus credits may be obtained for a successful participation in 4 (30 min, per group) discussion seminars. Three questions will be given. 1-2 students can choose to answer each question. You can only respond to one question, then your fellow students must answer the other questions. Group will be given 0, 0.5 and 1.0 bonus credit for the exam depending on the group performance.

The maximum credit on the exam is 60 credits, where 24 is the limit for the grade 3, 36 for the grade 4 and 48 for the grade five. Any calculator with a cleared memory is allowed, formula sheet (some useful expressions), course book (with moderate amount of margin notes), Lecture slides copies, design task 2 PM (note that this PM contains conceptual design methods that may be used to formulate exam questions).

Contacts

Examiner: Carlos Xisto, tel : 072-9723069, email: carlos.xisto@chalmers.se  

Course assistant: Adam Johansson, email: adam.l.johansson@chalmers.se   (Exercises, Design Task 1, 2)

CFD-Lab: Emil Ellenius, email : ellenius@chalmers.se  (Design Tasks 3)