SILOET Project 5 - Turbomachinery

Jet engines must run hotter and spin faster to cut carbon emissions, but today’s turbine blades cannot withstand those conditions without cracking or melting. This project tackles a core engineering bottleneck in aerospace: the high-pressure turbine, which sits directly behind the combustor and endures the most extreme temperatures and stresses. To improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO₂, engines need higher shaft speeds and hotter combustion. That demands shroudless blade designs—blades without the traditional tip covers—along with better tip clearance control to stop hot gas leaking past the blades. The project also aims to design components that use cooling air more sparingly, so less energy is wasted. A further complication is that lean-burn combustors, needed to keep nitrogen oxide emissions low, push temperatures even higher at the turbine’s edges. If successful, the research could enable next-generation gas turbine engines that burn less fuel and emit less CO₂ and NOx per flight. That would directly reduce aviation’s climate impact, while also lowering operating costs for airlines. The work is applied engineering—it targets a specific industrial need rather than exploring fundamental science—but its outcome would quietly underpin cleaner, more efficient air travel for decades.