hi, i want to know why do certain gas turbine engines express torque as a percentage and why does this torque vary with altitude & temperature?
I suppose at some point saying thousands upon thousands of lbs of torque gets a little silly.
Beech guys help out. PT6A-67D was 3950lbs takeoff and 3750lbs climb/cruise? CT7-9B we use % probably because at some point you are talking about too many lbs to make it worthwhile.
As far as altitude and temp, the higher (hotter) you go the less air available to burn. Going much deeper than that really requires a book or a long long long reply.
Hope that helps.
I suppose another reason is that percentages give you a "nicer" point of reference from a human factors perspective. Would you rather look down at takeoff and see 100% or 3950 ft-lbs.? Suppose you saw 3937 ft-lbs? Would you be able to do the math yourself to see that this is still 100% (99.670886%, actually, but it rounds to 100).