Chinese Engine Development

by78

General
Comparing the image with il76-90a images, one could say ws20 and ps90a are roughly comparable in intake size. ws20 does seem to have thicker lip and engine cowling, though. (and there are other differences when engines are looked at from the side)

I don't know, but judging from these two photos, WS-20's intake is noticeably larger. But again, it could be down to the angle at which these photos are taken.

PS-90 is on the left:
16623347759_f6613a4996_b.jpg


A collage of WS-20 photos:
16602185527_9e3776d1da_o.jpg
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
This is the most similar angle of Il-476 with PS-90 that I found. I think the overall diameter of WS-20 is definitely wider than PS-90.
aQ5Wstb.jpg


Fan blade diameter of PS-90 is listed as 1.9m on the manufacturer's website, while the standard D-30KP2 is listed at 1.455m
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Hard to tell if the actual inlet/fan diameter of WS-20 is meaningfully bigger than PS-90, but it definitely isn't smaller I think
 

Blitzo

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by78's picture is useful for guessing the diameter of WS-20, assuming we know D-30KP-2's fan diameter (1.455m).
Assuming the widest point of both WS-20 and D-30KP-2 corresponds proportionally to their fan diameter, then WS-20 is about 156% larger, so 2.26m in diameter at max. But by the looks of it WS-20's engine cowling is noticeably thicker than D-30's, so the real diameter is likely a little bit smaller.

Anyway, are we really that unaware of WS-20's intended thrust rating? I've seen 138 kN thrown around, but four of these are meant to power Y-20 with a MTOW of 220 tons and 66 tons of payload, and four PS-90A-76s at 157 kN power Il-476 with MTOW of 210 tons and 60 tons of payload, so 138 kN seems a bit low and something doesn't really add up.
 

Totoro

Major
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I wouldn't trust the 138 kn figure. For a plane of that class, 160-ish kn engines seem more likely.

As for ps90a and ws20 inlet size - images don't allow an exact comparison. So far one can say they're comparable. ws20 may be a bit bigger, but it doesn't look like it's bigger by much. Certainly the thrust class of two engines is similar, which is understandable since planes are roughly comparable in mtow, give or take a few tens of tons.
 

Blitzo

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@ asif, yes I'm aware that there are some charts supposedly displaying what the designations and various thrusts of Chinese engines are, however they're not always reliable. Certainly that one doesn't even mention WS-20 by name.

@Totoro, yes, I too would expect a 160 kN class thrust for WS-20 as well, but it is just very strange that there doesn't seem to be any consistent rumoured specs that has been agreed on..
 
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