what surprises me is that this engine will be tested for TVC also.
This engine is 2 inch larger in total diameter over F414/F404 and the peak thrust is said to be 52/81kN at ISA conditions without any mention of flat rating. So, is the engine significantly inferior to RD33 and F404?
Are we to understand that if the tests succeed , they'd be uprating the engines for Mk2?
Guys let us please stop these questions forever. Kaveri is flat rated and a variable cycle engine. Do you know what flat rating means and why limit of 52KN dry? This means at no altitude, temp and pressure conditions will the engine exceed this limit. However when there are differences to the ISA values, the engine will increase the airflow to sustain a minimum dry thrust of 52KN. You can expect Kaveri to give same level of thrust from seal level to about 15k feet altitude in ISA conditions. And no military engine fitted in any fighter till date has this performance level.
This is a bad feature as take off requires more thrust than cruising. Take off will be greatly harmed if the thrust is just 81kN.
It is not a bad feature. It is one of the best features which has never been introduced in fighter engines.
Kaveri engine in its present form is nearly as sophisticated as M88-2 engine with 60/90 thrust rating. Kaveri is derated by about 13% and weighs about 1050 kgs with a length of 3.9m and a fan dia of under 75cms. the 60/90 Kn version of M88 weighs about 998 kgs with a length of 3.6m and a fan dia meter of nearly 80cms. with such a small inlet dia kaveri has an air flow of 78kgs/sec while M88-2 has 72kgs/sec and Kaveri is more fuel efficient compared to M88-2 0.78kgs vs 0.8kgs SFC in favour of kaveri and Kaveri is variable cycle.
M88
- Length: 353.8 cm (139.3 in)
- Diameter: 69.6 cm (27.4 in)
- Dry weight: 897 kg (1,978 lb)
- Specific fuel consumption: 22.14 g/kNs and 47.11 g/kNs (with afterburner)
- Length: 3,490.0 mm (137.4 in)
- Diameter: 909.3 mm (35.8 in)
- Dry weight: 1,236 kg (2,724 lb) [Goal: 953–1,111 kg (2,100–2,450 lb)]
- Specific fuel consumption: 22.08 g/kNs and 57.5 g/kNs (with afterburner)
The data sheet i posted very much supports the posts of Aashish when he stated that Safran has concluded that Kaveri can hit above 75KN dry and 110Kn wet thrust with modification to core. The present core is capable of withstanding temp upto about 1450*C and to hit 76KN we need a core which can withstand 1650*C temp. third generation SCBs should be able to hit these values and to go beyound we will need ceramics core.
The other Project Ganga to create an engine of 132KN thrust and initial 125KN thrust is probably the engine being developed with help from RR. If you guys recollect, about an year back when the FM of Britain came to India, he had announced a tie up for a JV to develop the most powerful engine which was supposed to be completed in 18 months time.
the present problems of kaveri have been resolved completely in house by GTRE. Safran has only done the audit to certify it. Anykind of tech help from Safran is yet to come. GTRE is now very confident of scaling up or down the engine size for a fixed core but it has no expertise in scaling up or down the core to suit thrust requirements and this is the field they have asked safran for help.
The other Project Ganga to create an engine of 132KN thrust and initial 125KN thrust is probably the engine being developed with help from RR. If you guys recollect, about an year back when the FM of Britain came to India, he had announced a tie up for a JV to develop the most powerful engine which was supposed to be completed in 18 months time.
the present problems of kaveri have been resolved completely in house by GTRE. Safran has only done the audit to certify it. Anykind of tech help from Safran is yet to come. GTRE is now very confident of scaling up or down the engine size for a fixed core but it has no expertise in scaling up or down the core to suit thrust requirements and this is the field they have asked safran for help.
Completed in 18 months ??? Are you serious ,Sir ? Or is it a typo ? And where would this engine go ? AMCA ?
