COMPOSITES TO REDUCE WEIGHT OF AERO ENGINES

The jet engine is the most complex element of an aircraft and one of the most complex human-made products ever developed, housing thousands of individual components and ultimately determining fuel efficiency for aircraft.

copter engines or auxiliary power units, Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has a name for providing dependable engines. With the introduction of the JT15D (powering the Citation I) and the PW100 (regional airline turboprop) family, the company was rebranded as Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) in 1975. Today, Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines and auxiliary power units.

Commercial engines are one of the strongest and most sought after products of P&W. The manufacturer’s large commercial engines power nearly 30 per cent of the world's mainline passenger aircraft fleet. A major breakthrough product has been Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower Geared Turbofan (GTF) Engine that is often seen in a league of its own. Claimed to be the first in a new era of commercial jet engines by the manufacturer, the GTF is professed to be built with an architecture that is superior by design with an unmatched runway for growth. The PurePower engine family has completed more than 23,000 hours of testing and more than 40,000 cycles.

Incorporating advances in aerodynamics, lightweight materials and other major technology improvements in the highpressure spool, low-pressure turbine, combustor, controls, engine health monitoring and more, the engine models of the

GTF engine family comprise PW1200G, PW1500G, PW1100GJM, PW1400G-JM, PW1700G and PW1900G. With a strong backlog of more than 8,000 firm and option engines on order with over 80 customers, the GTF offers approximate savings of 100 gallons of fuel per flight hour and reduction in C0 of 1 metric tonne per flight hour.

Pioneered by a proven geared architecture and over 40 ground breaking technologies, the GTF engine delivers significant reductions in fuel burn, noise and regulated emissions. Having introduced a fundamental shift in jet engine technology, GTF engines come with a guarantee to drive more efficient, sustainable air travel, enabling airlines to open new routes and fly more people farther, with less fuel – and much lower noise.

The PW1700G and PW1900G engines are no different, belonging to the strong legacy that their engine family entails and have equally attracted demands with their benefits. The PW1700G and PW1900G engines, which power the second-generation E-170/175 and the larger E-190/195 respectively, have a thrust range between 15,000 lbs and 22,000 lbs.

The PW1700G and PW1900G power the Embraer E-Jets E2, the profit hunter family. The PW1700G engine is the exclusive power plants for the E-Jets E175-E2. The geared architecture,

combined with an all-new, advanced engine core enables the PW1700G engine to deliver significant economic and environmental benefits, without compromise, owing to the engine’s revolutionary geared fan technology. The PW1900G powered E190-E2 builds on millions of hours of development and revenue experience with the P&W GTF family and is first in a new generation of E-Jets E2 powered by Pratt & Whitney.

Being a part of the GTF engine family, both these engines offer double-digit improvements in fuel consumption, up to 75 per cent reduction in noise footprint and up to 50 per cent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions. The engines use an advanced gear system allowing the engine’s fan to operate at a speed different from that of the low-pressure compressor and turbine. As a result, the fan pressure ratios are lower and the bypass ratios much higher enabling all components to achieve their respective optimum speed, which greatly boosts overall efficiency. The GTF engine holds a history of meeting all performance specifications since the start of entry into service, and this fact adds a golden feather to the hat of the PW1700G and PW1900G making them further trustworthy and dependable. The GTF engine powers five aircraft platforms, with the Airbus A220, the Airbus A320neo family and Embraer E190-E2 already in commercial service.

The major include:

Double digit reduction in fuel consumption

Upto 75 per cent reduction in noise footprint

Up to 50 per cent reduction in NOx emissions

Having entered service in 2018, the Embraer E-Jets equipped with PurePower PW1700G and PW1900G engines offer significant reductions in fuel burn, emissions, noise and operating costs compared to today’s aircraft.

Embraer selected the Pratt & Whitney PW1700G engine to power the E175-E2, which is expected to enter service in 2021. The PW1700G engine comes with an assurance to help drive more efficient, sustainable air travel, enabling airlines to open new routes and fly more people over longer distances with less fuel – and much lower noise emissions. This allows operators to have the ability to create options for routes that didn’t exist before and make point to point destinations more available to the flying public.

While improving efficiency, P&W’s geared engine architecture reduces the number of stages and parts simultaneously. The PW1700G and PW1900G engines provide optimised engines across the E-Jets E2 models, delivering high maturity and maximum benefit across the family.

Utilising the PW1000G engine family test program experience, the PW1700G and PW1900G engines benefit from millions of hours of experience at EIS, providing dependable engines for the E-Jets E2.

Holding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Cleen Program Status, the PW1900G/PW1700G engine programs were launched at 2013 Paris Air Show. The joint development phase for E190-E2/E195-E2 has been completed while that for the E175-E2 is underway.

It was in December 2012 when the engine selection took place. The first PW1900G engine went to test in June 2015 and engine certification for the same took place in April 2016. In May 2016, E190-E2 took its first flight and one year after that in May 2017, E195-E2 took its first flight. In 2018 the single aisle aircraft E190-E2 entered service while in 2019 the long range E195-E2 entered service and now E175-E2, the short to medium range aircraft is gearing up to enter into service in 2021 powered by the ultra-high bypass ratio engine, PW1700G. The jet made its inaugural flight in December 2019. benefits of PW1700G and PW1900G engines

important aspect of aircraft operating cost is fuel which represents 33 to 40 per cent of global airline expenses and even at somewhat moderated cost inflation could soon climb to 50 per cent or more. Aero engine manufacturers have replaced metal with composites to mitigate the weight increase of the engines. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the application of composites in aircraft engines was relatively limited. More than half of the total composite volume was directly associated with nacelle components, such as thrust reversers, acoustic liners, cascades, blocker doors, radial drive fairings and cowlings. On some models, aramid fibres (often in the form of dry-fibre belts) were used to reinforce aluminium fan cases. Composite nose cones, a variety of air ducts and engine air-oil seals were fairly common as well. A modest attempt in aero engines weight reduction!