Subject: NTSB Report on Turbine failure 12 g
From: paul lamar
Date: 3/17/2018, 12:34 AM
To: A10-Me-Earthlink





     12 g

     Paul, et al:

      From the NTSB
report [WPR16LA088]:

     The pilot reported that
he initially purchased the engine in 1999
     from Atkins Rotary,
located in Eatonville, Washington, and that
     there were no historical
records available for the engine. The
     pilot subsequently
installed the turbocharger to the engine, with
     its first flight being
in 2003.


     This is the interesting
read from Hartzell:

https://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/document.cfm?docID=450749&docketID=59730&mkey=92906

     -----

     It appears that he
exceeded the EIT (Exhaust Inlet Temp) of
     1650F. He had an EGT set
to warn if the Exhaust temps got to 1600F.

     Not being a
turbo-charged engine operator, and knowing that this
     ATP was attempting to
turbo normalize for 5000 MSL = SL, my
     question is, is it this
easy to get into over-speed/over-temp
     conditions?

     Regards,
     Steve Thompson

     Tom Parke's engine is a
3 rotor. That is a lot of hot exhaust gas.
     With a rotary it is wise
to use a very large turbo as a given amount
     of hot exhaust gas will
do less damage to the turbine. We use a
large GT 40
     on the two rotor. Tom's
is an older turbo charger as well. I would not
     be surprised
     if the turbine was not
made from the best material now available.

     Tom also had a temp
exhaust gas sensor but for some reason he did
not see
     the warning.

     The turbine might have
been damaged earlier and Tom did not notice it.

     Paul Lamar


------------------------------------------------
     Putting the material
aside the turbine was made of there are two
features
     of this installation
that contributed to the turbine failure.

     The exhaust manifold was
insulated to a degree by the sheet metal
shroud.
     Removing that would cool
the exhaust manifold to some degree.

     The turbo bearing was
not water cooled. That is a common option
     that cools the turbine
as well as the bearings.

     Both of these features
led to a higher exhaust gas temperature
     impacting the turbine.
It was only necessary to lower the temperature
     by 200 F. Despite the
higher temperature it lived for ten years.

     I don't know what
material the turbine was made from but the GT40
     turbo charger we use on
the TTC is Inconel and the bearing housing
     is water cooled.


     Paul Lamar

     One of the water
injection companies had a controller that could
use EGT as
     an input that would
solve this over temp problem.

     Murry Rozansky

Paul and everyone,
1650°F really isn't that high for a
rotary exhaust gas temp. In a
turbocharged version I would go so far
as to consider it common. If
that's to much for the turbine he would
be forced to change to one of
the Inconel or ceramic turbines. On the
aircraft dyno Steve Beckham's
latest stocker based P-port version
would regularly see 1600. If you are
at or near the ragged edge on any
temperature issue with the rotary it
would be wise to always default to the
highest temperature resistant
materials possible. Otherwise a few
moments of mis-adjusted  mixture are
going to cause damage.
Bill Jepson

Also just cool the exhaust manifold a
little bit.

Paul Lamar

Paul,
The temperature emitted from the exhaust port can be a killer for
manifolds and turbine housings.
There are many variables that affect the temperature when the exhaust
port opens but the main ones are:
1.- Ignition timing.
2.- AFR Mixture.
3.- And excessive port timing.


Note also that the internet "safe" mixtures and timing tend to
aggravate/increase the temp at exhaust opening.

See 2 attachments.
Examine the red trace on the top right hand side at the vertical EO
(exhaust opening) temperature.
One port opens at 1790C and the other at 1460C because the timing and
burn rates differ.
The 1790C is the Internet "safe" settings (rich and retarded) and the
second one is 1460C, it is optimized from AFR and timing combustion tests.

The detonation protection of rich mixtures and retarded ignition become
a problem that has to be considered.

Turbine engines use similar but some what cooler temp limits.
800C take off.
927C never exceed.

Barry Bordes

If exhaust back pressure is not too high, instead of an exhaust waste gate,
excess air can be routed to the exhaust manifold to cool egt and for boost
limiting.
If needed a small compressor or smog pump could give a positive delta P.
Murry
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