Aircraft

An engine core using active technologies is to be tested at MTU's Munich facility in the third quarter of 2009 under the four-year, €71 million ($98.5 million) New Aero Engine Core Concepts (NEWAC) research project, a European Union Sixth Framework programme involving 40 partners.

NEWAC, which started in June, will investigate four different core configurations - Active Core, Intercooled Core, Flow Controlled Core and Intercooled Recuperative Core - with the goal of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide by 6% and nitrogen oxides by 17%.

The Active Core will have compressor surge and clearance control, using air cooled by a heat exchanger in the bypass flow. The Intercooled Core will allow for high overall pressure ratios the Flow Controlled Core will have a highly loaded high-pressure compressor to increase efficiency and the Intercooled Recuperated Core will exploit engine exhaust heat.

The Active Core configuration to be tested in 2009 will use existing core hardware with a new high-pressure compressor case and stators modified for active tip-clearance control. A thermally and mechanically actuated active clearance control system is being studied. "We will run core engine tests in 2009 to validate air cooling and smart high-pressure compressor technology at MTU's test facility in Munich," says head of innovation Jorg Sieber.