The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a maritime patrol aircraft equipped with turboprop engines, specifically the Allison T56, which is a series of turboprop engines developed by Allison Engine Company, a division of Rolls-Royce. The thermal efficiency of a turboprop engine is a measure of how effectively the engine converts the chemical energy in fuel into useful work, primarily in the form of shaft power. The thermal efficiency is defined as the ratio of the useful work output to the energy input from burning the fuel.
The thermal efficiency is expressed mathematically as:
where:
- is the thermal efficiency,
- is the thrust produced by the engine,
- is the jet velocity,
- ṁf is the mass flow rate of fuel,
- is the specific enthalpy of the fuel.