Jet engine is meant for converting liquid fuel into powerful pushing force which is also called thrust by using an energy-rich liquid fuel.
These thrusts obtained from one or multiple engines pushes an aero-plane forward forcing the air past its scientifically designed wings for creating an upward force which is called lift and this powers it to fly into the sky.
Well that is how an aero-plane works but what about jet engines?
In this post, we shall explain how jet engine can convert a liquid fuel into strong force. If you require knowing about any components of jet engines then you can get its detail from NSN search.
- If any jet is moving slower than sound speed, then its engine is moving in the air at a speed of nearly 1000 km/h which is 600 mph. Here we may assume the engine as stationary and only cold air is moving towards it with this speed.
- There is a fan placed in the front to suck cold air by the engine and then forces it into the inlet. It will slow the air down almost by about 60% and its speed will now be about 400 km/h that is 240 mph.
- Another fan called compressor that will squeeze the air by nearly 8 times and this will dramatically increase its temperature.
- The liquid fuel will be squirted into engine from the fuel tank available in the wings of the plane.
- Just behind the compressor, inside the combustion chamber, liquid fuel mixes with compressed air and will burn fiercely, and releases hot exhaust gases that will increase the temperature.
Burning mixture will reach the temperature of about 900°C.
- The exhaust gases will rush past turbine blades and spinning them almost like windmill. As the turbine will gain energy, the gases will lose same energy and they will do so by getting cooled and also losing pressure.
- Turbine blades will be connected to a long axle which runs the engine length. The compressor and also the fan will be connected to the axle. So, as your turbine blades will spin, they also will turn compressor and also the fan.
- All the hot gases from exhaust will exit engine through tapering exhaust nozzle. Almost like water squeezed through certain narrow pipe gets accelerated dramatically into fast jet.
- Tapering design of exhaust nozzle may help to accelerate gases to the speed of more than 2100 km/h. So, hot air leaving engine at back will be traveling over 2 times the speed of cold air entering into it from the front which powers the plane.
- All jets meant for military purpose often have one after burner which squirts fuel into exhaust jet for producing extra thrust. All backward-moving exhaust gases will power jet forward.
- As the plane usually is much heavier and bigger than exhaust gases that it produces, exhaust gases need to zoom backward at faster speed than plane’s own speed.
Briefly, you can find that each of the engine’s main part does certain different thing to air or the fuel mixture that is passing through:
- Compressor: Intensely increases the air pressure and temperature.
- Combustion chamber: Intensely increases temperature of air-fuel mixture by discharging heat energy from fuel.
- Exhaust nozzle: Intensely increases velocity of exhaust gases to power the plane.