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2 answers

Skyhawk is pretty much right.
Centrifugal and radial are the same thing.
Axial is what you generally see on Turbo-fan type engines that move most "jet" airliners.

Axial compress the air through the axis of the engine with increasing pitched blades and vanes.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/0/0a/250px-Turbojet_operation-_axial_flow.png

Centrifugal uses centrifugal force to compress the air at the outer edges of the turbine.
http://www.turbo.co.jp/en/products/products2102034057_files/pro_proinfo_img_tpl_01.gif

There is also a combination engine a Centrifugal Axial turbine. This generally has a Centrufugal compressor but an axial flow and axial power spool after that.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Turbojet_operation-_centrifugal_flow.png
This was how the first turbine engines were made (WWII era).

There is no most efficient between the two though. They are used for diffieren applications for different reasons.

Axial are generally used when the airflow is already going pretty fast going into the engine (like to propell a plane). Axial make more noise and have a harder time with higher compression ratios partly because the spools are connected in most cases. The airflow is straighter and cooling is easier for an axial engine.

Centrifugal are generally used when the incoming airflow has low/no voloicty as it is better at compressing the air to higher ratios. The power spool is usually disconnected and the noise signature is much lower. These are used on APU (Aux Power Units) on planes and tons of applications non-aircraft related.

Yes there are tons of exceptions to this but those are the general applications.

2007-02-28 01:25:39 · answer #1 · answered by Drewpie 5 · 0 0

I believe you are talking about axial compressor vs centrifugal compressor. With nan axial compressor the air enters the compressor and travels straight thru the engine. It is compressed because the space inside the compressor becomes smaller the farther thru the compressor it travels. With an centrifugal compressor the air enters at the center of the compressor wheel and is compressed by being forced outward toward the outer diameter of the compressor wheel. Axial flow engines are much more effective because the air travels straight thru where-as in a centrifugal engine the air is forced to make a number of turns.

2007-02-27 10:39:02 · answer #2 · answered by Skyhawk 5 · 1 0

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