Story of jet engine
Military aircraft and engines usually took the lead from the moment that flight was invented at the turn of the 20th century, with commercial aviation following. This was initially also true of the jet age, which started in the 1930s and 1940s with the development of jet engines with support from the military. However, by the turn of the 20th century, civilian jet-engine technology had caught up with and, in some cases, even surpassed military technology in terms of engine design.
The development of the jet engine also had a far greater societal impact on the world through commercial aviation than through its military equivalent, even though this was not immediately apparent. Commercial jet aircraft have transformed international travel, making every region of the globe accessible to both the wealthy and common people in many nations.
What is jet engine?
An example of a reaction engine is a jet engine, which emits a swiftly moving jet of heated gas, typically air, to produce force through jet propulsion. The word "jet engine" usually refers to an internal combustion air-breathing jet engine such as a turbojet, turbofan, ramjet, or pulse jet, although this wide definition may also include rocket, water jet, and hybrid propulsion. Jet engines are typically internal combustion devices.
Jet engines that breathe air usually have a rotating air compressor. The Brayton thermodynamic cycle describes how power is generated by a turbine and then used to drive a nozzle. Such engines are used for long-distance flight in jet aeroplanes. Turbojet engines, which were used in the first jet aeroplanes, were not very effective for subsonic flight. High-bypass turbofan engines are used by the majority of contemporary subsonic jet planes. Compared to piston and propeller aeroengines, they provide faster speeds and better fuel efficiency over extended distances. Ramjets and scramjets are two types of air-breathing engines designed for high-speed applications that use the ram effect of the vehicle's speed as opposed to a mechanical compressor.
Types of jet engine
- Turbojets
- Turboprop
- Turbofan
- Turboshaft
- Ramjet
What is turbojets?
An air-breathing jet motor, the turbojet is frequently found in aircraft. It is made up of a gas engine and a nozzle for propulsion. The gas turbine has a compressor, a combustion chamber, a rotor, and an air inlet with inlet guide vanes that drives the compressor. Fuel combustion in the combustion chamber heats the compressed air from the compressor before allowing it to spread through the turbine. The propelling nozzle expands the turbine exhaust, which is then propelled to a high speed to produce thrust. In the late 1930s, two engineers, Hans von Chain in Germany and Frank Whittle in the United Kingdom, separately developed the idea into working engines.
What is turboprop?
A turboprop is a kind of jet engine that propels a propeller in addition to producing jet propulsion.
The operation of a turboprop engine is similar to that of a turbojet engine, with the addition of a turbine behind the combustion chamber and a propeller at the engine's front that turns via a shaft and speed-regulating gear. Both slow cargo planes and small commuter planes use turbofan engines.
This kind of engine has an intake, a compressor, a combustion chamber, a turbine, a reduction gear, and a moving nozzle. The air is first brought into the combustion chamber of this engine, where it is compressed. Fuel is drawn into the chamber after air has been compressed, where it combines with the air and ignites.
The turbine is filled with the heated, ignited gas. The compressor is powered in part by the energy produced by the rotor. The combusted gas then exhausts from the rear of the engine after this procedure.
What is turbofan?
The front of a turbofan engine has a sizable fan that draws in air. The majority of airflow passes around the engine's exterior, which makes it quieter and provides more thrust at moderate speeds. Turbofans are used to propel the majority of modern aeroplanes. In a turbojet, the gas generator, which includes the compressor, combustion chamber, and engine, processes all of the air entering the intake. Only a fraction of the incoming air enters the combustion chamber of a turbofan engine.
The remaining material is either immediately ejected as a "cold" jet or combined with the gas generator exhaust to create a "hot" jet after passing through a fan or low-pressure compressor. This kind of bypass system's goal is to increase thrust without raising fuel consumption. To do this, it increases the overall air mass flow while decreasing the velocity while using the same amount of energy.
What is turboshaft?
An adaptation of a jet engine known as a turboshaft engine has been optimised to generate shaft power for machinery instead of thrust. Helicopters and auxiliary power units are two frequent applications for turboshaft engines, which are small, powerful, and lightweight.
A compressor, combustor, and turbine are all built into the gas generator of a turboshaft engine, which employs the same principles as a turbojet to generate energy. The main distinction between the turboshaft and turbojet is the inclusion of a second power section, which consists of turbines and an output shaft. The gas engine and the power turbine are typically not mechanically connected.
With this "free power turbine" design, which eliminates the need for an extra reduction gearbox inside the engine, the speed of the power turbine can be optimised for the machinery that it will power. Nearly all of the energy in the exhaust stream is extracted by the power turbine and transferred to the machinery it is meant to move via the output shaft.
What is ramjet?
The ramjet engine uses the same basic principles as a turbojet motor and breathes air. Its fundamental operational cycle is comparable to the turbojet's. By applying ram pressure to the incoming air, it compresses it, increases its velocity, and adds heat energy to create propulsion. The ramjet can run without a mechanical compressor because it converts the kinetic energy of the entering air into pressure. As a result, the engine has no moving components and is the most basic jet engine design ever created from a mechanical standpoint. The ramjet will not function statistically because the required compression relies on the velocity of the incoming air. This means that in order to get it up to working speed, it needs a turbojet or rocket assist.
The ramjet engine can generate extremely high thrust with great efficiency at supersonic speeds. Due to its tremendous power and light weight, this property makes it very useful for high-speed aircraft and missiles, which can fly in places that would be impossible with any other power source but the rocket. Ramjets have also been used at subsonic speeds, where they could benefit from their low cost and light weight.