How Does A Jet Engine Work

 

If we talked about the history of the jet engine then, the first gas turbine was discovered around 1930. Later, several modifications were made and the first jet engine got developed. Nowadays, a lot of accuracies are maintained during the manufacturing of the jet engines. In 2002, GE90-115B which was developed by the General Electric became the world’s most powerful jet engine. As of August 2018, GE90 is still the most powerful jet engine in the entire world.

Do you know the various types of jet engines? Basically, there are many types of jet engines. These include engines like Air-breathing jet engine, turbine powered engine, turbofans, turbojets, turboprop engines, turboshaft engines, ramjets, scramjets, ram compression engines, profane engines, etc.

Working-

Let us take a brief glance at Newton’s third law of motion. As per this 3rd law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. The working of the jet engine is completely based on this 3rd law of motion. In case of a jet engine, a high thrust is generated as a result of the exhaust gases which in turn generate a higher forward force. This forward force has a high magnitude due to which the plane moves in the air with a high speed.

• We all know that the airplanes move through the air with a massive speed.
• There are various fans are present at the inlet of this jet engine. So, the fans which are indicated by the second position sucks all the cool air into the engine.
• Now, this air which is sucked by the outside fan is passed through another fan which is situated inside the jet engine.
• The second fan is often known as the compressor. Inside the compressor, the pressure is increased to 8 times than the surrounding pressure. Due to such high pressure, the temperature of the cool air increases enormously.
• As shown by 4, the Fuel (Kerosene) is then added into this jet engine.
• In step 5, the kerosene is mixed with the hot air. The temperature of this mixture is raised to the 900ºC. Due to the burning of this hot mixture, the generation of the hot exhaust gases takes place.
• The hot gases then passed through the turbine blades which are rotating super-fast.
• An axle is connected to the turbine as well as various compressors which play a role of axis through which all this entire system rotates.
• Finally, all these exhaust gases are then pass through the nozzle at a very high speed. The shape of the nozzle is very small due to which the hot gases exit through the engine with a very higher velocity. Due to the high speed of these hot gases, the thrust gets developed. As the gases exit with the high velocity, they force the plane forward at high speed.

Uses of jet engines:

• They are used mostly in the projects related to the power generation. Today, everyone wants to see the drag racing. So, in the manufacturing of the drag racing cars, the jet engine is used.
• They are also used in the devices like cruise missiles, jet aircraft, space flights and in military applications.
• Due to the jet engines, we can travel from one part of the world to the other via air in just a few hours. It is one of the biggest inventions of the 20th century. The only drawback of the jet engine is the noise produced by them. They create a noise which has a very high intensity.