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Concept
Turboprop
Summary
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel is then added to the compressed air in the combustor, where the fuel-air mixture then combusts. The hot combustion gases expand through the turbine stages, generating power at the point of exhaust. Some of the power generated by the turbine is used to drive the compressor and electric generator. The gases are then exhausted from the turbine. In contrast to a turbojet or turbofan, the engine's exhaust gases do not provide enough power to create significant thrust, since almost all of the engine's power is used to drive the propeller.
Exhaust thrust in a turboprop is sacrificed in favor of shaft power, which is obtained by extracting additional power (beyond that necessary to drive the compressor) from turbine expansion. Owing to the additional expansion in the turbine system, the residual energy in the exhaust jet is low. Consequently, the exhaust jet produces about 10% of the total thrust. A higher proportion of the thrust comes from the propeller at low speeds and less at higher speeds.
Turboprops have bypass ratios of 50–100, although the propulsion airflow is less clearly defined for propellers than for fans.
The propeller is coupled to the turbine through a reduction gear that converts the high RPM/low torque output to low RPM/high torque. This can be of two primary designs, a Free-turbine turboshaft found on the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6, where the gas generator is not connected to the propeller. This allows for Propeller strike or similar damage to occur without damaging the gas generator and allowing for only the power section (turbine and gearbox) to be removed and replaced in such an event, and also allows for less stress on the start during engine ground starts. The other design is a fixed shaft where the gearbox and gas generator are connected, such as on the Honeywell TPE331.
Official source
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