The Rolls-Royce Dart is a turboprop engine that was widely used in various aircraft, including regional airliners such as the Vickers Viscount. 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.