MODULE 1 Jet Engines – Basic Operation

• Air enters the trough the intake duct (cowl).

PRINCIPLE OF JET PROPULSION L • Air compressed by passage through the

Newton’s 3rd law of motion compressor.

- “For every force acting on a body, there n • Mixed with fuel in the combustion chamber.

is an opposite and equal reaction” H • Fuel is ignited, Pressure and Temperature

Newton’s 2nd law of motion raised

– "Force equals mass accelerated i • Some of the pressure used to turn a turbine;

(F = ma)." G
• Turbine shaft drives the compressor.
T
• Hot, high pressure air forced through a nozzle.
2 TYPES OF JET PROPULSION 8 • The reaction force is the engine thrust.

➢ There are two general types of jet

propulsion—air breathing and non-
air breathing engines (see
airplane).
➢ Air breathing engines use oxygen
from the atmosphere in the
combustion of fuel. They include the
turbojet, turboprop, ramjet, and
pulsejet. The term jet is generally Suck: A fan at the front sucks cold air into the
used only in reference to air engine.
breathing engines.
➢ Non air breathing engines carry an Squeeze: The air is squeezed through the
oxygen supply. They can be used compressor raising the pressure and
both in the atmosphere and in temperature.
outer space. They are commonly
called ROCKETS OR ROCKET Bang: The hot, high pressure air travels into the
ENGINE and are of two kinds— combustion chamber where a fuel mist is
liquid propellant and solid sprayed in.
propellant. This fuel and air mix is then ignited with a high
power spark (2000 volts),with the resultant
Jet engine thrust can be increased in two ways: gasses reaching a temperature of around 1200
➢ Increase the speed of exhaust degrees C.
gases.
➢ Increase the quantity of exhaust Blow: The ignited fuel air mix expands rapidly
gases. forcing its way out of the combustion chamber,
through a narrowed exhaust section which
increases the speed of the gasses, creating
thrust which pushes the aircraft forward.

Afterburner: Some combat aircraft are fitted

with after-burners, which inject and ignite more
fuel after the hot gasses have passed into the
exhaust. This provides up to 50% extra uthrust
and is used for take-off, rapid climbing and
combat performance. The temperature of the
exhaust gasses during re-heat can exceed 1500
degrees C.
 Pulse Jet
• Can be run at static conditions unlike the
ram jet and is constructed with a robust
construction
• Inlet duct has spring loaded inlet valves to
the open position.
• As air passes to the combustion chamber it
produces high pressures as to force the valves
close. As the exhaust gases exits, this creates a
low pressure allows the valves to open and
repeat the cycle.
• Unstable as a powerplant due to high fuel
consumption and cannot match performance
of modern gas turbine engines

SCRAM Jet
• A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is
a variant of a ramjet air breathing jet engine in
which combustion takes place in supersonic
airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high
vehicle speed to compress the incoming air
TYPES OF AIR - BREATHING JET ENGINE forcefully before combustion (hence ramjet),
Ramjet but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to
• An athodyd (aero-thermodynamic-duct) subsonic velocities before combustion, the
which has no rotating parts and consists of a airflow in a scramjet is supersonic throughout
duct with a divergent entry and a convergent the entire engine. That allows the scramjet to
or convergent-divergent exit. operate efficiently at extremely high speeds.
• With a forward motion imparted by an
external source, air is forced in the divergent
inlet (increasing its pressure) the total energy of Rocket Engine
air is further increased by combustion of fuel • A jet engine that
and the rapid expanding gases accelerate to the does not use
atmosphere through the outlet duct. atmospheric air as
a propulsive fluid
stream (non-air
breathing)
• Uses propellants
thus enabling
outside
atmosphere
operations
 contains the fuel inlet and igniter for

Gas Turbine Engine combustion.

• The gas turbine engine is by far the most
practical form of jet engine in use today. In
fact, the turbine engine has become the TYPES OF TURBOJET:
standard on nearly all transport category, 1. Single Spool
business, and military aircraft. 2. Dual Spool
• Works in the same manner as a reciprocating ❖ In a single-spool engine, the high-
engine but all events happen simultaneously. pressure turbine drives the entire
compressor. In a dual-spool engine, the
MODULE 2 compressor and high-pressure turbine
are both split into two segments. Each
TYPES OF GTE compressor segment is driven by its
➢ TURBOJET corresponding turbine using two
➢ TURBOFAN separate drive shafts, with one inside
➢ TURBOPROP the other.
➢ TURBOSHAFT ❖ An afterburner (or a reheat) is an
additional component present on some
TURBOJET jet engines, mostly military supersonic
❖ A turbojet engine is a jet engine which aircraft. Its purpose is to provide an
produces all of its thrust by ejecting a increase in thrust, usually for
high energy gas stream from the engine supersonic flight, takeoff and for
exhaust nozzle. In contrast to a turbofan combat situations.
or bypass engine, 100% of the air
entering the intake of a turbojet engine
goes through the engine core. turbojet
engine consists of four sections—
compressor, combustion chamber,
turbine section, and exhaust. The
compressor section passes inlet air at a
high rate of speed to the combustion
chamber. The combustion chamber
 ➢ Bypass Ratio (bypass air to engine air),
Thrust Ratio (fan to engine core
exhaust), Fan Pressure Ratio (pressure
leaving the fan to pressure entering the
fan)

In order for fighter planes to fly faster than

sound (supersonic), they have to overcome a
sharp rise in drag near the speed of sound. ➢ Turbofan engines are commonly found
A simple way to get the necessary thrust is to in civilian commercial airline aircraft.
add an afterburner to a core turbojet. Every gas ➢ The turbofan engine is a development
turbine engine has a combustion section (red), of the turbojet engine and has many
a compressor (cyan) and a turbine (magenta). advantages over the turbojet.
The compressor, burner, and turbine are called ➢ A turbofan makes less noise, is more
the core of the engine, since all gas turbines efficient at lower airspeeds, uses less
have these components. The core is also fuel, but requires more maintenance
referred to as the gas generator since the than a turbojet engine.
output of the core is hot exhaust gas.

TURBOFAN

➢ While a turbojet sucks in air and

compresses it, creating combustion of
fuel. A turbofan has a large fan that
sucks in a lot of air, but only part of it is Engines that have the fan mounted in front of
used to fuel the engine's combustion, the compressor are called forward-fan engines,
the rest exiting as exhaust. This makes while turbofan engines that have the fan
it less noisy and more powerful. mounted to the turbine section are called aft-
➢ Essentially, a low bypass ratio means fan engines.
more thrust is produced via the
engine's core compared to bypass. On a
high bypass engine, the fan produces
more thrust than the core. Turbojets
have no bypass. Thrust on turbojets is
produced by accelerating a small
amount of air at very high speeds.
➢ Turbofan engines are much quieter
than turbojet engines. The larger the
bypass ratio of the engine, typically, the
quieter it is.
FORWARD-FAN ENGINE 4 STAGES OF TURBOFAN ENGINE
Advantages • INTAKE stage – stage of the turbofan engine
• Highly fuel-efficient feeds the compressor of the engine with cold
- As a result of producing more thrust for air.
the same quantity of fuel, the engine is • Compression Stage - compression stage of the
extremely fuel-efficient. engine is crucial to the efficient operation of any
• Increased thrust type of gas turbine engine. The compression
- More air is being drawn into the engine. stage ensures that the air is at the correct
• Protection and control pressure and temperature to be ignited in the
- The fan is covered by the cowling, and combustion stage.
the aerodynamics of the fan may be • Combustion Stage - combustion stage along
easily controlled because the cowling is with the components in its chamber are
enclosed. responsible for the creating and burning the air-
Disadvantages fuel mixture. The combustion chamber consists
• Larger frontal area of a fuel injector system to allow fuel to be
- The frontal area of a forward-fan engine ignited and subsequently burned by the high
is significantly bigger than that of a temperature and pressure air.
reverse-fan engine since the engine • Exhaust Stage - The way the exhaust stage
diameter is enlarged as a result of the produces thrust is a clear manifestation of
fan itself. Newtons 3rd law. exhaust gases exit at high
• Has greater complexity velocity out of the rear of the engine, the
- The engine has greater complexity due reaction force of the exhaust gases is in the
to the addition of ducts and multiple opposite direction of the exhaust thus it is
shafts. called thrust.
• Not efficient in supersonic speed
- Forward-fan engines are most efficient TURBOPROP
only at subsonic speeds. That is why ❖ A gas turbine engine that delivers
most commercial aircraft are equipped power to a propeller is referred to as a
with forward-fan engines. turboprop engine.
❖ Turboprop engines are similar in design
AFT-FAN ENGINE to turbojet engines except that the
Advantages power produced by a turboprop engine
• Simple design and low-cost is delivered to a reduction gear system
- Aft-fan type engine, in 1956, relative to that spins a propeller. Reduction gearing
a turbojet engine, is known to be is necessary in turboprop engines
uncomplicated and low-cost because optimum propeller
development since it was derived from performance is achieved at much
the aforementioned relative engine. slower speeds than the engine's
Disadvantages operating rpm.
• Hot gas leakage ❖ Reduction gears are very commonly
• It cannot contribute to air compression at the used in the automotive and aviation
inlet industries. A propeller's efficiency
decreases rapidly as the speed of the
blade tips nears the speed of sound. An
engine reduction gear enables the
engine to develop more torque while
reducing the propeller's revolutions per
minute (RPM).
Turboprop Engines:
❖ Working Principle: Turboprop engines
are a type of aircraft propulsion system
that use a gas turbine engine to drive a
propeller. The basic working principle
involves several key steps:
1. Air Intake: Air is drawn into the
engine through an intake.
2. Compression: The incoming air is
compressed to increase its pressure.
3. Combustion: Fuel is injected and
TURBOSHAFT
burned in a combustion chamber,
❖ A turboshaft engine is a
creating high-pressure, high-velocity
variant of a jet engine that
gases.
has been optimized to
4. Expansion: The high-pressure gases
produce shaft power to
are expelled through a nozzle,
drive machinery instead of
creating thrust.
producing thrust.
5. Power Transmission: In a
Turboshaft engines are
turboprop, instead of directly using
most commonly used in
the thrust to propel the aircraft, the
applications that require a
energy is used to turn a shaft
small, but powerful, light
connected to a gearbox.
weight engine, inclusive of
6. Propeller Operation: The gearbox
helicopters and auxiliary
converts the high-speed, low-torque
power units.
output of the turbine into low-
❖ A turboshaft engine may be
speed, high-torque rotation of the
made up of two major
propeller
parts assemblies: the 'gas
7. Thrust Production: The propeller
generator' and the 'power
blades, driven by the shaft,
section'. The gas generator
generate thrust by accelerating a
consists of the compressor,
large mass of air backwards.
combustion chambers with
ignitors and fuel nozzles,
Two basic types of turboprop engine
and one or more stages of
are in use:
turbine. The power section
fixed turbine and free turbine.
consists of additional
• The FIXED TURBINE has a
stages of turbines, a gear
mechanical connection from
reduction system, and the
the gas generator (gas-turbine
shaft output.
engine) to the reduction gear box
and propeller.
• The FREE TURBINE has only an air
link from gas generator to the
power turbines. There is no
mechanical link from the propeller
to the gas turbine engine (gas
generator).