Hi, thanks for your comments. So what is it in a ducted turbofan that prevents the blades from crossing the sound barrier and producing sonic booms?
And is the distinction between a propfan and a regular prop mainly in the number of blades, or also in the shape of those blades?
Way back on the first page of this thread I posted this:
Jets use turbofans to improve thrust for fuel consumption, and to reduce the noise. They are big fans, and are in ducts so that the airflow into them can be slowed to keep the blades subsonic. Those ducts are divergent, making them diffusers, which slows the air and increases its pressure before it ever gets to the fan. Bernoulli at work. The blade tip clearances are really tiny with respect to the fan diameter, too. Then the fan discharge is often narrowed down to increase its velocity again, since K=MV². Increasing velocity has a bigger effect on thrust than increasing mass.
Most of the homebuilt ducted fans I saw appeared to be constant-diameter ducts. One needs to use all the available tools.
Pressure Recovery - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
Now, pay attention to this:
1. As a gas's velocity increases, its temperature and pressure both decrease.
2. As a gas's velocity decreases, its pressure and temperature both increase.
3. A divergent duct widens as the gas passes through it. In this case, the gas is air, and the divergent duct is the turbofan's intake. That means that the air SLOWS DOWN in there, and its PRESSURE AND TEMEPERATURE INCREASE. This does the following:
The slower air means that there is more room for higher tip speeds before they reach supersonic speeds.
The higher pressure means that the fan is dealing with denser air, meaning more mass moved, meaning more thrust created.
The higher temperature means that the speed of sound in that air is higher, again making more room for higher tip speeds. Remember that the speed of sound in air is dependent entirely on the air temperature, not its pressure, as is widely believed. Air temperature decreases with altitude.
So it's not just a straight-walled tube. It's MUCH more complex than that even though it appears simple.
A supersonic jet fighter's intakes form shockwaves in them that slow the air so the engine can operate even though the airplane is moving far above the speed of sound. The airflow in any turbine slows as the compressors compress it, and by the time it reaches the combustion section its pressure is pretty high, and is moving very slowly. The combustion causes expansion that increases its velocity, not its pressure, since an increase in pressure would stall the compressor section and the engine would never run. The velocity drives turbines that drive the compressor, and also a fan or propeller or helicopter transmission in those applications. Around 75% of the energy goes to compress the incoming air; the rest is thrust or shaft horsepower.
And that's not all. Between every pair of rotor or stator blades throughout that engine we find divergent and convergent ducts, to decelerate or accelerate the air or combustion gases. The above graph only shows that velocity change in the turbine section, bit it's happening in the compressor section, too.
When I taught this stuff I found that most students did not find it intuitive. Some had a hard time believing it, but if it isn't true you'd better not get on an airliner, because it won't go anywhere.
The propfan used many blades to absorb the horsepower, and their blades were designed to operate near supersonic. If they had been supersonic everyone for miles around would have known it.