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POLITECNICO DI MILANO - DIPARTIMENTO DI INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE

AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS – LECTURE NOTES, VERSION 2004


Chapter 5 – Pneumatic System

Chapter 5

Pneumatic System

These lecture notes are available for the students of the Polytechnic of Milan for free download. 5.1
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POLITECNICO DI MILANO - DIPARTIMENTO DI INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE
AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS – LECTURE NOTES, VERSION 2004
Chapter 5 – Pneumatic System

5.1 Introduction
In many cases energy from compressed air has different advantages on board,
especially when the aircraft is powered by turbine engines because air can be easily
bled from the compressors. Air is present at high pressures and temperatures and
then, after regulation, can be used for heating and pressurisation.
Main uses are as follows:

• Environmental control;
• Ice protection;
• Windscreen demisting and rain dispersal;
• Pressurisation for hydraulic oil reservoir, fuel tanks, water tanks;
• Turbine engine start;
• Turbines;
• Actuators (under very restricted conditions).

5.2 Pneumatic power generation and control


The turbine engine is a generator of high-speed gas aimed to provide thrust for the
aircraft. Before entering the combustion chamber and being mixed with atomised
fuel, the external air is processed by a multi-stage axial compressor, driven by the
turbine. From one or more stages of the compressor, a limited volume of air can be
bled without significant degradation of the engine performances. Then the engine
compressor is responsible for the pneumatic power generation on board.
Two remarks are relevant for this kind of compressed air generation:

1. the system needs a regulation, because bled air conditions depend on engine
functioning conditions and these vary from idle (low pressure and temperature) to
max thrust (high pressure and temperature);
2. in some flight conditions a reduced amount of air can be bled from the
compressor to avoid significant breakdown in engine performance, especially
when max thrust is requested.

The sketch in fig. 5.1 summarises the components of pneumatic system generation
for a turbofan engine. Air is commonly bled at two different stages of the compressor:
a low pressure port at an intermediate stage (around 7TH stage) and a high pressure
port at a final stage (around 15TH stage). A check valve is necessary to prevent air
flowing from high to low pressure bleeding ports. The low pressure bleeding port is
normally open, but can be excluded with the shut-off valve if the engine is in critical
conditions; the high pressure port is open when the pressure coming from the
intermediate stage is not adequate, or a considerable amount of air is necessary, and
anyway the engine must
be in operating
conditions that cannot be
deteriorated by intensive
air bleeding: typically this
bleeding is operated
during taxiing or
descent, with the engine
near idle.
A low flow rate can be
extracted from the
Fig. 5.1 – Compressed air generation engine, between 2 and 8
These lecture notes are available for the students of the Polytechnic of Milan for free download. 5.2
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POLITECNICO DI MILANO - DIPARTIMENTO DI INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE
AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS – LECTURE NOTES, VERSION 2004
Chapter 5 – Pneumatic System

% of the total flow rate processed, but a significant amount of energy content.
The same amount of energy is obtained by compressed air extracted from the APU,
but the bleeding rate is here around 70-80% of the total flow rate, because the APU
is not finalised to generate thrust with the exhaust gases. This allows operation of all
pneumatic uses when the aircraft is on ground with engines off, in particular the
environmental control system and engine starting.

Bleed air conditions from the compressor stages range, for a modern turbofan, from
0.2 to more than 1 MPa in pressure and from 180 to more than 350 °C in
temperature, depending on altitude and engine speed. Because the generated air is
at a temperature higher than that requested by the uses, and may be too hot to be
canalised safely to other regions of the aircraft, it is cooled through a heat exchanger
with fresh external air before going to the pneumatic system delivery (see again fig.
5.1). By metering the fresh cooling air with a flow rate regulator, the compressed air
temperature is controlled, usually for a final temperature around 175 °C. Moreover a
regulator on the compressed air line keeps the pressure to system at about 0.3 MPa.

5.3 Pneumatic uses


The uses are located in different areas of the aircraft; like the hydraulic system, the
pneumatic system is normally made of a number of sub-systems equal to the number
of engines, capable of operating separately different uses but with the possibility of a
full cross-feed in case of malfunction of the power generation in one sub-system.
The principal use of the pneumatic system is the environmental control: on large
airliners this may request an intense flow rate of compressed air to keep suitable
environmental conditions in the cabin. This subject will be treated in a specific
chapter.
Ice protection system may request an important flow rate of hot air in some parts of
the flight mission, usually during climb. This subject will be treated in a specific
chapter too.
Windscreen demisting, rain dispersal and reservoir pressurisation request low flow
rate.
Compressed air from APU of from ground compressors is used to start large turbine
engines. Sometimes the aircraft is equipped with small turbines that, in emergency
conditions, can be operated by the pneumatic system to drive hydraulic pumps or
electrical generators.
The power that can be obtained with compressed air flow through a turbine can be
calculated as follows:

m& ⋅ c p ⋅ (Tin − Tout ) ⋅ η m = C ⋅ ω ,


where:
m& = air mass flow rate through the turbine;
cp = air specific heat;
Tin,out = actual values of air temperature before and after turbine process;
ηm = turbine mechanical efficiency;
C = shaft torque;
ω = rotational speed.

Moreover, if the pressure difference is known, the thermodynamic transformation of


the gas can be ideally described as follows:

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POLITECNICO DI MILANO - DIPARTIMENTO DI INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE
AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS – LECTURE NOTES, VERSION 2004
Chapter 5 – Pneumatic System

γ −1
Tout p  γ
=  out 
Tin  pin 
where:
Tin ,out = isoentropic, or ideal, values of air temperature before and after turbine
process;
pin,out = air pressures before and after turbine process;
γ = specific heats ratio.

The thermodynamic efficiency ηt of the turbine, establishing a link between the


isoentropic and the actual temperature differences, is defined as follows:

Tin − Tout
ηt =
Tin − Tout

The shaft torque C generated by the air flow will spin up the turbine; if this is an
engine turbine, the operation is done with all gearbox services unloaded (hydraulic
pumps at zero flow and electrical generators at zero current generation), in order to
limit the contrasting torque and inertia of the system that must be accelerated.

As far as actuators are concerned, only a limited category can be operated by air,
because pressures available are low and, most of all, fluid compressibility makes the
position of the actuator strictly dependent on the external load and then its control is
difficult. The air-operated actuators are those with two positions only (on/off) and low
external load; in particular the actuators located in the engine area are preferably air-
operated, because hydraulic oil use may be critical due to high temperatures:
examples are the thrust reverses and valves.
The additional advantage of using air to operate actuators is that no return lines are
needed: after the compressed air has served its purpose, it can be dumped
overboard, which saves tubing, fittings, valves, and then weight.
There are of course exceptions to this general rule, but they belong to old aviation:
for instance the Fairchild F-27 Friendship airliner used a high pressure pneumatic
system, operated by two radial compressors driven by the two engine gearboxes, for
landing gear retraction and extension, propeller brakes, nose wheel steering, wheel
brakes and passenger door retraction.

These lecture notes are available for the students of the Polytechnic of Milan for free download. 5.4
No commercialisation allowed.
Queste dispense possono essere gratuitamente scaricate da Internet dagli studenti del Politecnico di Milano.
E’ vietata la commercializzazione.

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