Kaveri Engine

[Rahul Singh]

Science & spirituality: GTRE Director chants Gayatri Mantra during Kaveri's maiden flight!

Scientists are superstitious.

So 'just a journalist' is challenging spiritual significance of mighty mahamantra 'Gayatri-Mantra' because one scientist has chanted it before testing of his product! What irony is this that the science which challenges word BHAGWAN is accepting it wholeheartedly but a [stupid] journalist is calling it superstition? He, before making these types of comments should have done some reading to know the power of mighty mahamanta 'Gayatri mantra'. It do wonders but but but only for good persons and believers not for idiots.

 

[Rahul Singh]

There is no news on the thrust but i am guessing its in the 57kN category. Ajay Shakula gave a damning report which stated that the engine was for burial after trials and was meant to be written off as an technology demonstrator in favor of the French engine! However the news thats floating outside does not seem to be positive, most people agree that it is still over weight and under powered. These are not official reports but we need to wait for many months before we can confirm the thrust or the fate of Kaveri.

It doesn't matter if the thrust is 57KN(which i highly doubt) or targeted 85 KN, the K-9 is and will remain unusable for LCA because required thrust has gone up from 85 KN to 90 KN. Today it is very much clear that without expert help from outside GTRE alone can't bring K-9 to about 100KN thrust level in short time so that at least LCA MK-3 or one which will be produced beyond 2018 gets equipped with semi-indigenous turbofan. Thats all because to up-thrust K-9 there is a requirement for special [low-weight high-melting point] alloys and these can't be bought from outside as well as can't just be developed in couple of years. Best solution as of now is to let SNECMA integrate eco-core with rest of K-9 and bring the thrust upto 95-100KN level.

 

[Rahul Singh]

Kaveri undergoes more flight trials in Russia

India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia's Gromov Flight Research Institute (GFRI) have conducted more flight trials of India's Kaveri engine on a modified Flying Test Bed (FTB) IL-76 transport aircraft.
Mohan Rao, director of the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) in Bangalore, told Aviation Week that flight data analysis from the first flight on Nov. 3 was submitted to GFRI officials, who presented a detailed report to Russia's Ministry of Industries.
"Based on this report, we got the clearances for further flights. We had the second flight after a week for more than an hour in very similar conditions to the first flight," Mohan said. "The engine was inspected again and all flight parameters were analyzed. During the second flight, we went up to 5 km. at 0.6 Mach and 4 km. at 0.4 Mach. We need to study the engine data and combustion stability."

 

[pavanvenkatesh]

personally i think GTRE guyz deserve a pat in the back i confess i was a serious critic of GTRE and never thought that kaveri is going to see the end of the day i never expected them to finish the engine let alone test it but it was a pleasent surprise to hear the sucessful testing. regarding the power, thrust and other issues i think it is solvable now and a/c engine development is an evolutionary process after all so i think they can make it better but the knowledge and experience GTRE has got in this development experience is priceless even the chinese are struggling with the engine issues

 

[Rahul Singh]

November 3rd test flight video

 

[Rahul Singh]

Source: DRDO news letter December 2010

 

[nitesh]

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gene... French Launch Contracts During Sarkozy Visit

Speaking to Aviation Week, Hossein Shafife, national executive at Safran Group, says that negotiations with India's Defense Research and Development Organization for the co-development of the Kaveri engine for India's Light Combat Aircraft are in their final stages. "This is a very important project for us," he says. "We are offering complete transfer of technology for the design and development of Kaveri. The talks are taking good shape."

 

[Rahul Singh]

Good news. Nitesh does this 'Final Stages' means of technical negotiation or of commercial negotiations or of both holistically? BTW any news on what thrust they are aiming at and in what time-frame they expecting Kaveri-JV becoming operational.

 

[nitesh]

Rahul I suspect this is just speculation at this time. French would like to close the deal asap, but I think our side will be waiting for test results data, so that they can negotiate on better footing.

 

[nitesh]

well some figures came out:

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/article1127075.ece

Being developed by DRDO's Gas Turbine research Establishment (GTRE), the Kaveri was initially being developed for the LCA Tejas programme but now it will be used on the AMCA, which is expected to be ready by 2016-17, senior officials told PTI here.

"In recent times, the engine has been able to produce thrust of 70-75 Kilo Newton but what the IAF and other stake-holders desire is power between 90—95 KN.

"I think with the JV with Snecma in place now, we would be able to achieve these parameters in near future," they said.

On using the Kaveri for the LCA, they said the engine would be fitted on the first 40 LCAs to be supplied to the IAF when they come for upgrades to the DRDO in the latter half of the decade.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.ptinews.com/news/1300981_Kaveri-engine-to-power-5th-generation-fighter-aircraft-



Kaveri engine to power 5th generation fighter aircraft

New Delhi, Jan 26 (PTI) Under development for over two decades, the indigenous fighter jet engine 'Kaveri' will be used for powering the home-grown fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

Being developed by DRDO's Gas Turbine research Establishment (GTRE), the Kaveri was initially being developed for the LCA Tejas programme but now it will be used on the AMCA, which is expected to be ready by 2016-17, senior officials told PTI here.

The AMCA is a twin-engine indigenous fighter aircraft programme for which initial sanctions have already been accorded by the Defence Ministry, they added.

The indigenous fighter aircraft engine programme was first started in 1986 and has suffered delays and cost over-runs. It was also marred by the technology denial regimes in the 90s.

 

[SATISH]

Kaveri is one Leaky engine I guess....they better plug the holes. It is almost similar to the M-88 series 2 engine. but better pressure.

 

[Godless-Kafir]

70-75kN without reheat is pretty good for a country that does not design engines! I think we need to make a twin engined aircraft with the Kaveri for the 3rd world countries. Its very similar to the GE-f404 engine, i would rather use the Kaveri than the 404.

 

[pmaitra]

Kaveri is one Leaky engine I guess....they better plug the holes. It is almost similar to the M-88 series 2 engine. but better pressure.

I think Kaveri is 'leaky' on purpose. It depends upon the bypass ratio and being 'leaky' does not necessarily mean inefficient.

 

[nitesh]

70-75kN without reheat is pretty good for a country that does not design engines! I think we need to make a twin engined aircraft with the Kaveri for the 3rd world countries. Its very similar to the GE-f404 engine, i would rather use the Kaveri than the 404.

GK I guess this figure is with reheat thrust, but Kaveri is a flat rated engine, so your observation about comparable to GE 404 is correct to large extent. Silver lining is that we have a decent engine and it works. Also as mentioned in the report, clearly the over ambitions have been carved out, and concentration is on to make kaveri ready for AMCA, so that AMCA does not need to go through the torturous route as LCA has taken.

I feel that LCA MK II will also go through an engine change in future if kaveri is able to produce more thrust.

 

[nitesh]

70-75kN without reheat is pretty good for a country that does not design engines! I think we need to make a twin engined aircraft with the Kaveri for the 3rd world countries. Its very similar to the GE-f404 engine, i would rather use the Kaveri than the 404.

GK I guess this figure is with reheat thrust, but Kaveri is a flat rated engine, so your observation about comparable to GE 404 is correct to large extent. Silver lining is that we have a decent engine and it works. Also as mentioned in the report, clearly the over ambitions have been carved out, and concentration is on to make kaveri ready for AMCA, so that AMCA does not need to go through the torturous route as LCA has taken.

I feel that LCA MK II will also go through an engine change in future if kaveri is able to produce more thrust.

 

[Godless-Kafir]

GK I guess this figure is with reheat thrust, but Kaveri is a flat rated engine, so your observation about comparable to GE 404 is correct to large extent. Silver lining is that we have a decent engine and it works. Also as mentioned in the report, clearly the over ambitions have been carved out, and concentration is on to make kaveri ready for AMCA, so that AMCA does not need to go through the torturous route as LCA has taken.

I feel that LCA MK II will also go through an engine change in future if kaveri is able to produce more thrust.

nitesh i am not sure if the Kaveri had a governor on! I think even with the flat rate governor off the maximum thrust would be 75kN at high altitude! Which is still not bad, however we have the issue of weight the last i heard Kaveri was 200kgs overweight and i dont know how that has matured. However i agree with you, countries like China have engines which are far-less reliable or powerful and yet use them on their fighters. We should learn for the Chinese on these issues and go ahead in testing it on the LCA.

 

[nitesh]

nitesh i am not sure if the Kaveri had a governor on! I think even with the flat rate governor off the maximum thrust would be 75kN at high altitude! Which is still not bad, however we have the issue of weight the last i heard Kaveri was 200kgs overweight and i dont know how that has matured. However i agree with you, countries like China have engines which are far-less reliable or powerful and yet use them on their fighters. We should learn for the Chinese on these issues and go ahead in testing it on the LCA.

I guess the governer has to be kept on, to make sure that the end product is what customer needs and the design goals are meet. But we both can make guesses only. Kaveri overweight is more to do with materials, so with Snecma should be able to help in those areas. Overweight happens, like for IJT AL55 is again 200kg overweight but it is used in current form to make sure the IJT project goes ahead. So the weight optimization will continue in future versions (This is K9 version, correct me if I am wrong here). Now once Kaveri gets the necessary hours to be qualified to be put in fighter, it should be put asap to log the flight hours, to access the reliability of the engine.

 

[gogbot]

nitesh i am not sure if the Kaveri had a governor on! I think even with the flat rate governor off the maximum thrust would be 75kN at high altitude! Which is still not bad, however we have the issue of weight the last i heard Kaveri was 200kgs overweight and i dont know how that has matured. However i agree with you, countries like China have engines which are far-less reliable or powerful and yet use them on their fighters. We should learn for the Chinese on these issues and go ahead in testing it on the LCA.

I think KAveri was meant to be tested on LCA very soon.
One of the New LSP's will be configured for Kaveri testing.
Not sure of the time line however.

 

[Welcome]

i think current kavari engine is useless even it is success bcoz you can't use it any aircraft however it is very important for next gen DRDO fighter aircraft engine. Keep it up....