TurboMachine Fundamental Principles          TurboMachine.com home

Fundamental forces that act on an aircraft
The fundamental forces that act on an aircraft are lift (generally from the wing), weight, thrust (from the engine), and drag. 

Basic Engine Terms  Basic engine terms that describe engine types and conditions.

Brayton Cycle  The fundamental gas turbine thermodynamic cycle is the Brayton cycle.
 

Fundamental Equations

Here are some fundamental equations for turbomachinery analysis. These can be found in common thermodynamics references.

Equation of State

Conservation of Mass

Conservation of Linear Momentum

Conservation of Energy

Specific Heats

Isentropic Process

Mach Number Functions

Total Pressure Compressible Flow Function

Aircraft engine uninstalled isolated engine thrust (standard for engine comparison)

Aircraft engine ideal thrust (assuming complete ideal expansion)

Specific Fuel Consumption = fuel flow in pounds per hour divided by net thrust
SFC = Wfuel/Fn