Depicting Jet Engine:
A typical turbine for reaching sky-high.
Introduction:
The era of engines began in the 1800s, that time there was only heavy coal-powered steam engines. Making a plane with the intention to fly was not possible with these engines. Gradually, after many tests and trails in 1939, Hans von Ohain German physicists developed and flew the first jet-engine plane (Fig-1). In 2002, General Electric’s GE90-115B started to become the most popular turbofan jet engine and vastly used commercially. A jet engine is something which converts fuel into pushing force called thrust along with wing shapes giving the vehicle the upward force called lift, which allows it to fly.
Figure 1- First Jet Engine Plane, Heinkel He 178. From-THE JET ENGINE: A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
Types:
Jet engines commonly have six different categories shown in Fig-2. But for the economic purpose, the turbofan engine is used because of its low fuel consumption and more thrust advantage. A turbofan is a mixer of turboprop and turbojet, and it has two sub-sections which are low-bypass and high-bypass. All air travels through the core in low-bypass while air goes around it in high-bypass. The quietness and cooling of the engine is down by the bypass. Basically, changing the direction of the air is known as bypassing.
Figure 2- Types of Jet Engine. From-How does a jet engine work?
Components and Function:
The Engine can be divided into six segments to understand how it functions in simple terms. The segments consist of: Fan, Compressor, Combustor, Turbine, Mixer, and Nozzle. The fan takes in abundance of air, increasing the speed of the air and transfers half into the core, and the rest into bypass channels. Next comes the compressor, made up of many blades, which increases the pressure of the air. Gradually enters into a smaller area and is forced into the combustor, where the air is mixed with the fuel. The reaction creates high temperature reaching up to 2700 degree Celsius. This highly energized air goes into the turbine causing it to spin, as all these are connected to the shaft it makes rest of the components to spin at higher rate. The thrust is channeled through the nozzle giving the plane the forward push and the part mixer which is with the nozzle mixes the cold and hot air making the engine quitter. Details are shown in Fig-3 and Fig-4
Figure 3- Section of the engine. From-Google
Figure 4- Separate parts of the engine. From – How does a jet engine work?
Conclusion:
Jet engines are evolving with time. We have already broke the speed of sound and more is yet to come. In this engine all the parts move together and work simultaneously which gives the power its capable of delivering. Therefore, it needs vast amount of fuel. Among all the types there is even variation in turbofan engines, the most popular engine that I mentioned is shown in Fig-5. It delivers a thrust of more than 170,000 pound. Because of the innovation of the jet engine, millions of people have been able to travel thousands of miles.
Figure 5- GE90-115B Engine. From – THE JET ENGINE: A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Work Cite
Shaw, R. J., Dr. (2014, June 12). How does a jet engine work? Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/engines.html
THE JET ENGINE: A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. (2004, March 16). Retrieved April 29, 2019, fromhttps://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/ww2/projects/jet-airplanes/planes.html
Woodford, C. (2018, April 22). How do jet engines work? | Types of jet engine compared. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.explainthatstuff.com/jetengine.html
