How does a Turbine Engine Work? | A Breakthrough of Modern Science

How does a turbine engine work? Do you want to know? Then let me provide you with some interesting facts today. A turbo jet engine is a simple turbine engine. It functions by increasing the air pressure and temperature. As a result, this creates a high velocity that makes the jet engine move forward. 

This article will explain the technology behind the jet engine in a logical step-By-step Manner. The things that you will learn from this article:

1. How does a Turbine Engine Work?
2. Newton’s Third Law of Motion
3. How to create very hot and high-speed air to escape through the engine? How does this help in the jet engine?
4. Combustion Chamber
5. Compressor Stages
6. Turbine
7. 2 Spool Arrangement 
8. Turbo Jet Engine
9. Turbo Fan Engine
10. How to keep the noise of the jet engine to a minimum?

How does a Turbine Engine Work?

Jet engines have been the successful drivers of aircraft for nearly a century now. A jet engine keeps an aircraft moving forward using a very simple principle.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

“To Every Action, there is an Equal and Opposite Reaction.”

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Now, you might be thinking about how this law is applicable for jet engines. This law is the most prominent principle for jet engines. There is a production of a reaction force by the high-speed jet at the tail of the jet. This makes the engine move forward.

Let us learn using Analogy.

You must have got a chance to see balloons fly up when air leaks from the bottom. Air-filled balloons move upwards due to high-velocity downward force by the inner air. This produces an upward reaction force. This takes the balloon upwards. This is the basis of Newton’s Third Law. 

You can view a similar mechanism in jet engines.

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How to create a very Hot and High-Speed Air to Escape through the Engine? How does this help in the Jet Engine?

The working of a jet engine is all about producing a High-speed jet at the exit. 

Why we need to heat the incoming air:

• The higher the speed of the jet the greater the thrust force. 
• The thrust force makes an aircraft move forward. 
• There are many techniques to achieve such high-speed exhaust. 
• If you can heat the incoming air to a high temperature it will expand tremendously and will create a high velocity. 

Combustion Chamber

Now, in order to expand the air to a higher temperature, a combustion chamber comes in handy:

• An atomized form of the fuel is burnt in the combustion chamber.
• Effective combustion requires air to be at moderately high temperatures and pressure.

Compressor Stages

To bring the air to a higher temperature and pressure a set of compressor stages become very useful:

• The rotating blades of the compressor add energy to the fluid.
• Its temperature and pressure rise to a level suitable to sustain combustion.

Turbine

The compressor receives the energy for the rotation from a turbine. 

How a turbine helps:

• This turbine stays right after the combustion chamber. 
• The attachment of the compressor and turbine are to the same shaft. 
• The High-energy fluid that leaves the chamber makes the turbine blades turn.
• The turbine blades have a special airfoil shape.
• It creates lift force and makes them turn.
• As the turbine absorbs energy from the fluid its pressure drops.

The turbine has two parts:

1. Rotor Blade
2. Stator Blade

Here, the temperature rises from 10°C to 450°C and the pressure reaches 3500 kilopascals from 75 kilopascals. Through these steps, we can say why it is important to heat the air in a jet engine.

The engine case becomes narrower towards the outlet. As a result, there is a creation of an even greater jet velocity. In short the combination of the compressor, combustion chamber and turbine makes the aircraft move forward.

2 Spool Arrangement 

Modern aircraft use a slightly different compressor turbine arrangement which we know as a two-spool arrangement.

How it works:

• There are two independent turbine compressor stages here.
• The shaft of the outer compressor turbine passes in-between through the inner one.
• The outer turbine comes in contact with a low-energy fluid.
• The outer turbine runs at a slower speed than the inner turbine.
• Low-pressure blades become longer.
• This low speed helps to reduce centrifugal stress at the root. 

This improves the blade’s life. 

There are 2 parts involved in this arrangement:

• Outer Compressor
• Outer Turbine

Some modern aircraft even use a three-spool engine.

Turbo Jet Engine

Turbo jet engines are typical air-breathing jet engines. Its use is mostly in aircraft. The engine we so far came to know today is more specifically a turbo jet engine. A disadvantage of it is that it tends to produce high levels of noise. 

Turbo Fan Engine

A Revolutionary Improvement to this engine is the placement of a large fan with the low-pressure spool. These engines are what we know as Turbo fan engines. Almost every commercial aircraft runs using them. A Turbo fan engine bypass is a huge amount of air. The narrow bypass duct provides a good jet velocity to the passing air in a turbo fan engine. 

How the Fan helps in the process:

• The majority of the thrust force comes from the fan’s reaction force. So, here also you can see the application of Newton’s third law of motion.
• Furthermore, the fan greatly improves Airflow in the system by sucking in more air.
• Thus it helps to improve the thrust. This means the creation of high thrust with an expense of slightly less fuel.
• This is the reason why Turbo fan engines highly fuel economical.

The Turbo Fan Engine also has two parts:

• Rotor Blade
• Stator Blade

How to keep the Noise of the Jet Engine to a Minimum?

The noise produced by a jet engine depends highly on the exit jet velocity. In a turbofan, the passing cold air mixes with the hot air. So, it is possible to keep the outlet velocity within a limit.

Thus it overcomes the noise problem.

The Turbo Fan Engines dominate the aircraft propulsion systems.

Merits:

• Quieter exhaust 
• Better fuel economy

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed my ultimate guide to how does a turbine engine work. 

Now I’d like to hear from you: which technique from today’s guide did you like? Are you going to tell your friends about it? 

Either way, let me know by leaving a quick comment below.

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