Error Estimation of Measured Exhaust Gas Temperature in Afterburner Mode in an Aero Gas Turbine Engine

Abstract

In a turbofan engine, thrust is a key parameter which is measured or estimated from various parameters acquired during engine testing in an engine testbed. Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) is the most critical parameter used for thrust calculation. This work presents a novel way to measure and correct the errors in EGT measurement. A temperature probe is designed to measure EGT in the engine jet pipe using thermocouples. The temperature probe is designed to withstand the mechanical and temperature loads during the operation. Structural analysis at the design stage provided a strength margin of 90% and eigenfrequency margin of more than 20%. Thermal analysis is carried out to evaluate maximum metal temperature. Errors are quite high in high-temperature measurements which are corrected using the available methodologies. The velocity error, conduction error, and radiation error are estimated for the measured temperature. The difference of 97 K between the measured gas temperature and calculated gas temperature from measured thrust is explained. The estimated velocity error is 1 K, conduction error is 3 K, and radiation error is 69 K. Based on the error estimation, the measurement error is brought down to 24 K. After applying the above corrections, the further difference of 24 K between measured and estimated value can be attributed to thermocouple error of +/-0.4% of the reading for class 1 accuracy thermocouple, other parameter measurement errors, and analysis uncertainties. The present work enables the designer to calculate the errors in high-temperature measurement in a turbofan engine.