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High-pressure compressor
The company’s product strategy is clear: MTU Aero Engines’ top-notch technological capabilities are to make the company a preferred partner in commercial high-pressure compressors. The company comes recommended by its earlier performance in the field of military applications involving advanced low-pressure and innovative high-pressure compressors.
The high-pressure compressor currently being developed in partnership with Pratt & Whitney constitutes the centerpiece of a new family of engines targeted at regional jets and medium- to large-sized business jets.
Development here focuses on
- improvements in efficiency
- weight reductions.
Both factors directly affect fuel consumption and hence also the emission of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Further cost reductions, too, are on the wish list.
High-pressure compressor efficiency
Over the next years, the compressor’s efficiency will be enhanced to further lower specific fuel consumption. Because about one-third of flow losses are caused by leakage, the transitional zones between the rotor and stator stages are areas of particular importance.
High-pressure compressor weight
Integral constructions and novel materials are key to achieving significant weight reductions. To this end, rotors in blisk configuration, where disk and blades form an integral part, are used on advanced high-pressure compressors today. This concept should equally be applicable to successive stages in line. Tandem configurations of the type open up opportunities to reduce overall length and hence compressor weight.
Comparable savings potentials are offered by novel titanium and nickel-base materials for disks and blisks.
Manufacturing costs of high-pressure compressors
Rotors in blisk (integrally bladed disk) construction are normally milled from the solid. In view of rising raw material costs, solutions are needed to reduce the weight of the forgings used. A viable approach is to produce the blisk forging in near net shape, which - depending on the blisk stage in question - saves up to 30 percent of the material employed.
Life and reliability of high-pressure compressors
To protect costly components, such as compressor blisks, from erosion by sand and dirt particles MTU has developed a novel multilayer coating: ERCoatnt.