• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.791-796
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• 2012

Small gas turbine engines are used in aircraft as an auxiliary power unit (APU) to supply compressed air to start the main engine and for emergency electricity. When an aircraft is operating in an environment in which sand and dust is present in the ambient air, the engines as well as the APU ingest the sand and dust. This causes erosion of the engine and a degradation in its performance. The present study investigated the effect of sand and dust ingestion on small gas turbine engines. The concentration of sand and dust was $4.4{\times}10^{-5}kg$ per unit kg of air, which follows the specification in MIL-E-8593. The test was conducted for 10 h, and the engine performance before and after the test was compared. In addition, a tear-down inspection was conducted to examine the erosion patterns of sub-components such as the impeller and turbine wheel.