Turbofan

Turbofan Engine

A turbofan is a type of aircraft engine consisting of a ducted fan which is

powered by a gas turbine. Part of the airstream from the ducted fan passes
through the gas turbine core, providing oxygen to burn fuel to create
power. However, most of the air flow bypasses the engine core, and is
accelerated by the fan blades in much the same manner as a propeller.
The combination of thrust produced from the fan and the exhaust from
the core is a more efficient process than other jet engine designs, resulting
in a comparatively low specific fuel consumption.[1]
A few designs work slightly differently and have the fan blades as a radial
extension of an aft-mounted low-pressure turbine unit.
Turbofans have a net exhaust speed that is much lower than a turbojet.
This makes them much more efficient at subsonic speeds than turbojets,
and somewhat more efficient at supersonic speeds up to
roughly Mach 1.6, but have also been found to be efficient when used
with continuous afterburner at Mach 3 and above.
All of the jet engines used in currently manufactured commercial jet
aircraft are turbofans. They are used commercially mainly because they
are highly efficient and relatively quiet in operation. Turbofans are also
used in many military jet aircraft.

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Turbofan

Turbofan

Schematic diagram of a high-bypass turbofan engine

A turbofan is a type of aircraft engine consisting of a ducted fan which is

powered by a gas turbine. Part of the airstream from the ducted fan passes
through the gas turbine core, providing oxygen to burn fuel to create
power. However, most of the air flow bypasses the engine core, and is
accelerated by the fan blades in much the same manner as a propeller.
The combination of thrust produced from the fan and the exhaust from
the core is a more efficient process than other jet engine designs, resulting
in a comparatively low specific fuel consumption.[1]
A few designs work slightly differently and have the fan blades as a radial
extension of an aft-mounted low-pressure turbine unit.
Turbofans have a net exhaust speed that is much lower than a turbojet.
This makes them much more efficient at subsonic speeds than turbojets,
and somewhat more efficient at supersonic speeds up to
roughly Mach 1.6, but have also been found to be efficient when used
with continuous afterburner at Mach 3 and above.

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Turbofan

All of the jet engines used in currently manufactured commercial jet

aircraft are turbofans. They are used commercially mainly because they
are highly efficient and relatively quiet in operation. Turbofans are also
used in many military jet aircraft.

To move an airplane through the air, thrust is generated by some kind

of propulsion system. Most modern airliners useturbofan engines
because of their high thrust and good fuel efficiency. On this page, we
will discuss some of the fundamentals of turbofan engines.

A turbofan engine is the most modern variation of the basic gas

turbine engine. As with other gas turbines, there is a core engine,
whose parts and operation are discussed on a separate page. In the
turbofan engine, the core engine is surrounded by a fan in the front and an
additional turbine at the rear. The fan and fan turbine are composed of
many blades, like the corecompressor and core turbine, and are connected
to an additional shaft. All of this additional turbomachinery is colored
green on the schematic. As with the core compressor and turbine, some of
the fan blades turn with the shaft and some blades remain stationary. The
fan shaft passes through the core shaft for mechanical reasons. This type
of arrangement is called a two spool engine (one "spool" for the fan, one
"spool" for the core.) Some advanced engines have additional spools for
even higher efficiency.

How does a turbofan engine work?

The incoming air is captured by the engine inlet. Some of the incoming
air passes through the fan and continues on into the core compressor and
then the burner, where it is mixed with fuel and combustion occurs. The
hot exhaust passes through the core and fan turbines and then out
the nozzle, as in a basic turbojet. The rest of the incoming air passes
through the fan and bypasses, or goes around the engine, just like the air
through a propeller.The air that goes through the fan has a velocity that is
slightly increased from free stream. So a turbofan gets some of its thrust
from the core and some of its thrust from the fan. The ratio of the air that

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goes around the engine to the air that goes through the core is called
the bypass ratio.

Because the fuel flow rate for the core is changed only a small amount by
the addition of the fan, a turbofan generates more thrust for nearly the
same amount of fuel used by the core. This means that a turbofan is very
fuel efficient. In fact, high bypass ratio turbofans are nearly as fuel
efficient as turboprops. Because the fan is enclosed by the inlet and is
composed of many blades, it can operate efficiently at higher speeds than
a simple propeller. That is why turbofans are found on high speed
transports and propellers are used on low speed transports. Low bypass
ratio turbofans are still more fuel efficient than basic turbojets. Many
modern fighter planes actually use low bypass ratio turbofans equipped
with afterburners. They can then cruise efficiently but still have high
thrust when dogfighting. Even though the fighter plane can fly much
faster than the speed of sound, the air going into the engine must travel
less than the speed of sound for high efficiency. Therefore, the airplane
inlet slows the air down from supersonic speeds.

Early turbofans
Early turbojet engines were very fuel-inefficient, as their overall pressure
ratio and turbine inlet temperature were severely limited by the
technology available at the time. The very first running turbofan was the
GermanDaimler-Benz DB 670 (aka 109-007) which was operated on its
testbed on April 1, 1943. The engine was abandoned later while the war
went on and problems could not be solved. The British
wartime Metrovick F.2axial flow jet was given a fan to create the first
British turbofan.
Improved materials, and the introduction of twin compressors such as in
the Pratt & Whitney JT3C engine, increased the overall pressure ratio and
thus the thermodynamic efficiency of engines, but they also led to a poor
propulsive efficiency, as pure turbojets have a high specific thrust/high
velocity exhaust better suited to supersonic flight.
The original low-bypass turbofan engines were designed to improve
propulsive efficiency by reducing the exhaust velocity to a value closer to
that of the aircraft. The Rolls-Royce Conway, the first production
turbofan, had a bypass ratio of 0.3, similar to the modern General Electric
F404 fighter engine. Civilian turbofan engines of the 1960s, such as

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Turbofan

the Pratt & Whitney JT8D and the Rolls-Royce Spey had bypass ratios
closer to 1, but were not dissimilar to their military equivalents.
The unusual General Electric CF700 turbofan engine was developed as
an aft-fan engine with a 2.0 bypass ratio. This was derived from the T-38
Talon and the Learjet General Electric J85/CJ610 turbojet (2,850 lbf or
12,650 N) to power the larger Rockwell Sabreliner 75/80 model aircraft,
as well as the Dassault Falcon 20 with about a 50% increase in thrust
(4,200 lbf or 18,700 N). The CF700 was the first small turbofan in the
world to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). There
are now over 400 CF700 aircraft in operation around the world, with an
experience base of over 10 million service hours. The CF700 turbofan
engine was also used to train Moon-bound astronauts in Project Apollo as
the powerplant for the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle.

.Low bypass turbofans

Schematic diagram illustrating a 2-spool, low-bypass turbofan engine

with a mixed exhaust, showing the low-pressure (green) and high-
pressure (purple) spools. The fan (and booster stages) are driven by the
low-pressure turbine, whereas the high-pressure compressor is powered
by the high-pressure turbine
A high specific thrust/low bypass ratio turbofan normally has a multi-
stage fan, developing a relatively high pressure ratio and, thus, yielding a
high (mixed or cold) exhaust velocity. The core airflow needs to be large
enough to give sufficient core power to drive the fan. A smaller core
flow/higher bypass ratio cycle can be achieved by raising the (HP)
turbine rotor inlet temperature.
Imagine a retrofit situation where a new low bypass ratio, mixed exhaust,
turbofan is replacing an old turbojet, in a particular military application.
Say the new engine is to have the same airflow and net thrust (i.e. same
specific thrust) as the one it is replacing. A bypass flow can only be

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Turbofan

introduced if the turbine inlet temperature is allowed to increase, to

compensate for a correspondingly smaller core flow. Improvements in
turbine cooling/material technology would facilitate the use of a higher
turbine inlet temperature, despite increases in cooling air temperature,
resulting from a probable increase in overall pressure ratio.
Efficiently done, the resulting turbofan would probably operate at a
higher nozzle pressure ratio than the turbojet, but with a lower exhaust
temperature to retain net thrust. Since the temperature rise across the
whole engine (intake to nozzle) would be lower, the (dry power) fuel flow
would also be reduced, resulting in a better specific fuel
consumption (SFC).
A few low-bypass ratio military turbofans (e.g. F404) have Variable Inlet
Guide Vanes, with piano-style hinges, to direct air onto the first rotor
stage. This improves the fan surge margin (see compressor map) in the
mid-flow range. The swing wing F-111 achieved a very high range /
payload capability by pioneering the use of this engine, and it was also
the heart of the famous F-14 Tomcat air superiority fighter which used the
same engines in a smaller, more agile airframe to achieve efficient cruise
and Mach 2 speed.
Afterburning turbofans
Since the 1970s, most jet fighter engines have been low/medium bypass
turbofans with a mixed exhaust, afterburner and variable area final
nozzle. An afterburner is a combustor located downstream of the turbine
blades and directly upstream of the nozzle, which burns fuel from
afterburner-specific fuel injectors. When lit, prodigious amounts of fuel
are burnt in the afterburner, raising the temperature of exhaust gases by a
significant amount, resulting in a higher exhaust velocity/engine specific
thrust. The variable geometry nozzle must open to a larger throat area to
accommodate the extra volume flow when the afterburner is lit.
Afterburning is often designed to give a significant thrust boost for take
off, transonic acceleration and combat maneuvers, but is very fuel
intensive. Consequently afterburning can only be used for short portions
of a mission. However the Mach 3 SR-71 was designed for continuous
operation and to be efficient with the afterburner lit.
Unlike the main combustor, where the downstream turbine blades must
not be damaged by high temperatures, an afterburner can operate at the

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ideal maximum (stoichiometric) temperature (i.e. about

2100K/3780Ra/3320F). At a fixed total applied fuel:air ratio, the total
fuel flow for a given fan airflow will be the same, regardless of the dry
specific thrust of the engine. However, a high specific thrust turbofan
will, by definition, have a higher nozzle pressure ratio, resulting in a
higher afterburning net thrust and, therefore, a lower afterburning specific
fuel consumption. However, high specific thrust engines have a high dry
SFC. The situation is reversed for a medium specific thrust afterburning
turbofan: i.e. poor afterburning SFC/good dry SFC. The former engine is
suitable for a combat aircraft which must remain in afterburning combat
for a fairly long period, but only has to fight fairly close to the airfield
(e.g. cross border skirmishes) The latter engine is better for an aircraft
that has to fly some distance, or loiter for a long time, before going into
combat. However, the pilot can only afford to stay in afterburning for a
short period, before his/her fuel reserves become dangerously low.
Modern low-bypass military turbofans include the Pratt & Whitney F119,
the Eurojet EJ200 and the General Electric F110 and F414, all of which
feature a mixed exhaust, afterburner and variable area propelling nozzle.
Non-afterburning engines include the Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca
Adour (afterburning in the SEPECAT Jaguar) and the unmixed, vectored
thrust, Rolls-Royce Pegasus.
High-bypass turbofan engines

.
A. Low pressure spool
B. High pressure spool
C. Stationary components
1. Nacelle

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Turbofan

2. Fan
3. Low pressure compressor
4. High pressure compressor
5. Combustion chamber
6. High pressure turbine
7. Low pressure turbine
8. Core nozzle
9. Fan nozzle

Schematic diagram illustrating a 2-spool, high-bypass turbofan engine

with an unmixed exhaust. Again, the fan (and booster stages) are driven
by the low-pressure turbine, but more stages are required. A mixed
exhaust is often employed nowadays
The low specific thrust/high bypass ratio turbofans used in today's civil
jetliners (and some military transport aircraft) evolved from the high
specific thrust/low bypass ratio turbofans used in such aircraft back in the
1960s.
Low specific thrust is achieved by replacing the multi-stage fan with a
single stage unit. Unlike some military engines, modern civil turbofans
do not have any stationary inlet guide vanes in front of the fan rotor. The
fan is scaled to achieve the desired net thrust.
The core (or gas generator) of the engine must generate sufficient Core
Power to at least drive the fan at its design flow and pressure ratio.
Through improvements in turbine cooling/material technology, a higher
(HP) turbine rotor inlet temperature can be used, thus facilitating a
smaller (and lighter) core and (potentially) improving the core thermal
efficiency. Reducing the core mass flow tends to increase the load on the
LP turbine, so this unit may require additional stages to reduce the
average stage loading and to maintain LP turbine efficiency. Reducing
core flow also increases bypass ratio (5:1, or more, is now common).
Further improvements in core thermal efficiency can be achieved by
raising the overall pressure ratio of the core. Improved blade
aerodynamics reduces the number of extra compressor stages required.
With multiple compressors (i.e. LPC, IPC, HPC) dramatic increases in
overall pressure ratio have become possible. Variable geometry
(i.e. stators) enable high pressure ratio compressors to work surge-free at
all throttle settings.

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Turbofan

Cutaway diagram of the General Electric CF6-6 engine

The first high-bypass turbofan engine was the General Electric TF39,
designed in mid 1960s to power the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy military
transport aircraft. The civil General Electric CF6 engine used a derived
design. Other high-bypass turbofans are the Pratt & Whitney JT9D, the
three-shaft Rolls-Royce RB211 and theCFM International CFM56. More
recent large high-bypass turbofans include the Pratt & Whitney PW4000,
the three-shaft Rolls-Royce Trent, the General Electric GE90/GEnx and
the GP7000, produced jointly by GE and P&W.
High-bypass turbofan engines are generally quieter than the earlier low
bypass ratio civil engines. This is not so much due to the higher bypass
ratio, as to the use of a low pressure ratio, single stage, fan, which
significantly reduces specific thrust and, thereby, jet velocity. The
combination of a higher overall pressure ratio and turbine inlet
temperature improves thermal efficiency. This, together with a lower
specific thrust (better propulsive efficiency), leads to a lower specific fuel
consumption.
For reasons of fuel economy, and also of reduced noise, almost all of
today's jet airliners are powered by high-bypass turbofans. Although
modern combat aircraft tend to use low bypass ratio turbofans, military
transport aircraft (e.g. C-17 ) mainly use high bypass ratio turbofans
(or turboprops) for fuel efficiency.
Because of the implied low mean jet velocity, a high bypass ratio/low
specific thrust turbofan has a high thrust lapse rate (with rising flight
speed). Consequently the engine must be over-sized to give sufficient
thrust during climb/cruise at high flight speeds (e.g. Mach 0.83). Because
of the high thrust lapse rate, the static (i.e. Mach 0) thrust is consequently
relatively high. This enables heavily laden, wide body aircraft to
accelerate quickly during take-off and consequently lift-off within a
reasonable runway length.

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Turbofan

The turbofans on twin engined airliners are further over-sized to cope

with losing one engine during take-off, which reduces the aircraft's net
thrust by 50%. Modern twin engined airliners normally climb very
steeply immediately after take-off. If one engine is lost, the climb-out is
much shallower, but sufficient to clear obstacles in the flightpath.
The Soviet Union's engine technology was less advanced than the West's
and its first wide-body aircraft, the Ilyushin Il-86, was powered by low-
bypass engines. The Yakovlev Yak-42, a medium-range, rear-engined
aircraft seating up to 120 passengers introduced in 1980 was the first
Soviet aircraft to use high-bypass engines.
Turbofan configurations
Turbofan engines come in a variety of engine configurations. For a given
engine cycle (i.e. same airflow, bypass ratio, fan pressure ratio, overall
pressure ratio and HP turbine rotor inlet temperature), the choice of
turbofan configuration has little impact upon the design point
performance (e.g. net thrust, SFC), as long as overall component
performance is maintained. Off-design performance and stability is,
however, affected by engine configuration.
As the design overall pressure ratio of an engine cycle increases, it
becomes more difficult to throttle the compression system, without
encountering an instability known as compressor surge. This occurs when
some of the compressor aerofoils stall (like the wings of an aircraft)
causing a violent change in the direction of the airflow. However,
compressor stall can be avoided, at throttled conditions, by progressively:
1) opening interstage/intercompressor blow-off valves (inefficient)
and/or
2) closing variable stators within the compressor
Most modern American civil turbofans employ a relatively high pressure
ratio High Pressure (HP) Compressor, with many rows of variable stators
to control surge margin at part-throttle. In the three-
spool RB211/Trent the core compression system is split into two, with the
IP compressor, which supercharges the HP compressor, being on a
different coaxial shaft and driven by a separate (IP) turbine. As the HP
Compressor has a modest pressure ratio it can be throttled-back surge-
free, without employing variable geometry. However, because a shallow

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Turbofan

IP compressor working line is inevitable, the IPC requires at least one

stage of variable geometry.
[edit]Single shaft turbofan
Although far from common, the Single Shaft Turbofan is probably the
simplest configuration, comprising a fan and high pressure compressor
driven by a single turbine unit, all on the same shaft. The SNECMA M53,
which powers Mirage fighter aircraft, is an example of a Single Shaft
Turbofan. Despite the simplicity of the turbomachinery configuration, the
M53 requires a variable area mixer to facilitate part-throttle operation.
Aft fan turbofan
One of the earliest turbofans was a derivative of the General Electric
J79 turbojet, known as the CJ805, which featured an integrated aft
fan/low pressure (LP) turbine unit located in the turbojet exhaust jetpipe.
Hot gas from the turbojet turbine exhaust expanded through the LP
turbine, the fan blades being a radial extension of the turbine blades. This
Aft Fan configuration was later exploited in the General Electric GE-
36 UDF (propfan) Demonstrator of the early 80's. One of the problems
with the Aft Fan configuration is hot gas leakage from the LP turbine to
the fan.

Because the fuel flow rate for the core is changed only a small amount by
the addition of the fan, a turbofan generates more thrust for nearly the
same amount of fuel used by the core. This means that a turbofan is very
fuel efficient. In fact, high bypass ratio turbofans are nearly as fuel
efficient as turboprops. Because the fan is enclosed by the inlet and is
composed of many blades, it can operate efficiently at higher speeds than
a simple propeller. That is why turbofans are found on high
speed transports and propellers are used on low speed transports. Low
bypass ratio turbofans are still more fuel efficient than basic turbojets.
Many modern fighter planes actually use low bypass ratio turbofans
equipped with afterburners. They can then cruise efficiently but still have
high thrust when dogfighting. Even though the fighter plane can fly
much faster than the speed of sound, the air going into the engine must
travel less than the speed of sound for high efficiency. Therefore, the
airplane inlet slows the air down from supersonic speeds.

You can explore the design and operation of an afterburning turbojet

engine by using the interactive EngineSim Java applet. Set the Engine
Type to "Turbofan" and you can vary any of the parameters which affect
thrust and fuel flow.

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Turbofan

Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas

turbine engines, which are also called jet engines. There are several
different types of gas turbine engines, but all turbine engines have
some parts in common. All turbine engines have an inlet to bring free
stream air into the engine. The inlet sits upstream of the compressor and,
while the inlet does no work on the flow, inlet performance has a strong
influence on engine net thrust. As shown in the figures above, inlets come
in a variety of shapes and sizes with the specifics usually dictated by the
speed of the aircraft.

SUBSONIC INLETS

For aircraft that cannot go faster than the speed of sound, like large
airliners, a simple, straight, short inlet works quite well. On a
typical subsonic inlet, the surface of the inlet from outside to inside is a
continuous smooth curve with some thickness from inside to outside. The
most upstream portion of the inlet is called the highlight, or the
inlet lip. A subsonic aircraft has an inlet with a relatively thick lip.

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SUPERSONIC INLETS

An inlet for a supersonic aircraft, on the other hand, has a relatively sharp
lip. The inlet lip is sharpened to minimize the performance losses
from shock waves that occur during supersonic flight. For a supersonic
aircraft, the inlet must slow the flow down to subsonic speeds before the
air reaches the compressor. Some supersonic inlets, like the one at the
upper right, use a central cone to shock the flow down to subsonic speeds.
Other inlets, like the one shown at the lower left, use flat hinged plates to
generate the compression shocks, with the resulting inlet geometry
having a rectangular cross section. This variable geometry inlet is used
on the F-14 and F-15 fighter aircraft. More exotic inlet shapes are used on
some aircraft for a variety of reasons. The inlets of the Mach 3+ SR-71
aircraft are specially designed to allow cruising flight at high speed. The
inlets of the SR-71 actually produce thrust during flight.

HYPERSONIC INLETS

Inlets for hypersonic aircraft present the ultimate design challenge.

For ramjet-powered aircraft, the inlet must bring the high speed external
flow down to subsonic conditions in the burner. High stagnation
temperatures are present in this speed regime and variable geometry may
not be an option for the inlet designer because of possible flow leaks
through the hinges. For scramjet-powered aircraft, the heat environment
is even worse because the flight Mach number is higher than that for a
ramjet-powered aircraft. Scramjet inlets are highly integrated with the
fuselage of the aircraft. On the X-43A, the inlet includes the entire lower
surface of the aircraft forward of the cowl lip. Thick, hot boundary
layers are usually present on the compression surfaces of hypersonic
inlets. The flow exiting a scramjet inlet must remain supersonic.

INLET EFFICIENCY

An inlet must operate efficiently over the entire flight envelope of the
aircraft. At very low aircraft speeds, or when just sitting on the runway,
free stream air is pulled into the engine by the compressor. In England,
inlets are called intakes, which is a more accurate description of their
function at low aircraft speeds. At high speeds, a good inlet will allow the
aircraft to maneuver to high angles of attack and sideslip without
disrupting flow to the compressor. Because the inlet is so important to
overall aircraft operation, it is usually designed and tested by the airframe
company, not the engine manufacturer. But because inlet operation is so
important to engine performance, all engine manufacturers also employ

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inlet aerodynamicists. The amount of disruption of the flow is

characterized by a numerical inlet distortion index. Different airframers
use different indices, but all of the indices are based on ratios of the local
variation of pressure to the average pressure at the compressor face.

The ratio of the average total pressure at the compressor face to the free
stream total pressure is called the total pressure recovery.

Pressure recovery is another inlet performance index; the higher the

value, the better the inlet. For hypersonic inlets the value of pressure
recovery is very low and nearly constant because of shock losses, so
hypersonic inlets are normally characterized by their kinetic energy
efficiency. If the airflow demanded by the engine is much less than the
airflow that can be captured by the inlet, then the difference in airflow is
spilled around the inlet. The airflow mis-match can producespillage
drag on the aircraft.

Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas

turbine engines, which are also called jet engines. There are several
different types of jet engines, but all jet engines have some parts in

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Turbofan

common. All jet engines have a compressorto increase the pressure of the
incoming air before it enters the burner. Compressor performance has a
large influence on total engine performance.

There are two main types of compressors used in modern jet engines;

axial compressors , and centrifugal compressors .

In the axial compressor, the air flows parallel to the axis of rotation. The
compressor is composed of several rows of airfoil cascades. Some of the
rows, called rotors, are connected to the central shaft and rotate at high
speed. Other rows, called stators, are fixed and do not rotate. The job of
the stators is to increase pressure and keep the flow from spiraling around
the axis by bringing the flow back parallel to the axis. In the figure on the
right, we see a picture of the rotors of an axial compressor. The stators of
this compressor are connected to the outer casing, which has been
removed and is not shown. At the upper left is a picture of a single rotor
stage for a different compressor so that you can see how the individual
blades are shaped and aligned. At the bottom of the figure is a computer
generated figure of an entire axial compressor with both rotors and
stators. The compressor is attached to a shaft which is connected to
the power turbine on the right end of the blue shaft. Here is an animated
version of the axial compressor:

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Turbofan

How does an axial compressor work?

The details are quite complex because the blade geometries and the
resulting flows are three dimensional, unsteady, and can have
important viscous and compressibility effects. Each blade on a rotor or
stator produces a pressure variation much like the airfoil of a
spinning propeller. But unlike a propeller blade, the blades of an axial
compressor are close to one another, which seriously alters the flow
around each blade. Compressor blades continuously pass through the
wakes of upstream blades that introduce unsteady flow variations.
Compressor designers must rely on wind tunnel testing and
sophisticated computational models to determine the performance of an
axial compressor. The performance is characterized by the pressure ratio
across the compressor CPR, the rotational speed of the shaft necessary to
produce the pressure increase, and an efficiency factor that indicates how
much additional work is required relative to an ideal compressor. There
are additional important compressor topics, like stall and surge, that will
be added to these pages in the future.

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Turbofan

Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas

turbine engines, which are also called jet engines. There are several
different types of gas turbine engines, and all turbine engines have
some parts in common. All turbine engines have a combustor,
or burner, in which the fuel is combined with high pressure air
and burned. The resulting high temperature exhaust gas is used to turn
the power turbine and produce thrust when passed through a nozzle.

Burners are also used on ramjet and scramjet propulsion systems. The
design of ramjet and scramjet burners are slightly different than the
burners used on gas turbine engines, although the basic thermodynamic
principles are the same.

On this page, we discuss the operation of a gas turbine burner. The burner
is shown in red on the computer graphic at the lower right of the figure.
The burner sits between the compressor and the power turbine. The
burner is arranged like anannulus, or a doughnut, as shown by the three
burner configurations at the lower left. The central shaft that connects the
turbine and compressor passes through the center hole. Burners are made
from materials that can withstand the hightemperatures of combustion. A
burner usually has an outer casing, shown in red, and an inner liner,
shown in orange. The liner is often perforated to enhance mixing of the
fuel and air, as shown in the photo at the upper right.

There are three main types of combustors, and all three designs are found
in modern gas turbines:

1. The burner at the left is an annular combustor with the liner sitting
inside the outer casing which has been peeled open in the drawing.
Many modern burners have an annular design.
2. The burner in the middle is an older can or tubular design. The
photo at the top left shows some actual burner cans. Each can has
both a liner and a casing, and the cans are arranged around the
central shaft.
3. A compromise design is shown at the right. This is a can-
annular design, in which the casing is annular and the liner is can-
shaped. The advantage to the can-annular design is that the
individual cans are more easily designed, tested, and serviced.

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Turbofan

The details of mixing and burning the fuel are quite complex and require
extensive testing for a new burner. For our purposes, we can consider
the burner as simply the place where combustion occurs and where the
working fluid (air) temperature is raised with a slight decrease in
pressure.

Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas

turbine engines, which are also called jet engines. There are several
different types of gas turbine engines, but all turbine engines have
some parts in common. All gas turbine engines have a power
turbine located downstream of the burner to extract energy from the hot
flow and turn thecompressor. Work is done on the power turbine by the
hot exhaust flow from the burner.

Description of Images

The bottom of the figure shows:

• computer drawings of a turbojet with the location of the turbine

relative to the other engine components, on the right

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Turbofan

• the turbine section alone with the central shaft attached to the
turbine, on the left.

In both drawings, the turbine is magenta in color and the shaft is colored
blue. The left end of the shaft would be attached to the compressor, which
is colored cyan in the drawing on the right. Here is an animated version
of the turbine section:

The upper left of the figure shows an actual power turbine. The turbine,
like the compressor, is composed of several rows of airfoil cascades.
Some of the rows, called rotors, are connected to the central shaft and
rotate at high speed. Other rows, called stators, are fixed and do not
rotate. The job of the stators is to keep the flow from spiraling around the
axis by bringing the flow back parallel to the axis.

Depending on the engine type, there may be multiple turbine stages

present in the engine. Turbofan and turboprop engines usually employ a
separate turbine and shaft to power the fan and gear box respectively.
Such an arrangement is termed atwo spool engine. For some high
performance engines, an additional turbine and shaft is present to power
separate parts of the compressor. This arrangement produces a three
spool engine. The power turbine shown on the upper left of the figure is
for a two spool, turbofan engine.

Design Details

19
Turbofan

There are several interesting turbine design details present on this slide.
Since the turbine extracts energy from the flow, the
pressure decreases across the turbine. The pressure gradient helps keep
the boundary layer flow attached to the surface of the turbine blades.
Since the boundary layer is less likely to separate on a turbine blade than
on a compressor blade, the pressure drop across a single turbine stage can
be much greater than the pressure increase across a corresponding
compressor stage. A single turbine stage can be used to drive multiple
compressor stages. Because of the high pressure change across the
turbine, the flow tends to leak around the tips of the blades. The tips of
turbine blades are often connected by a thin metal band to keep the flow
from leaking, as shown in the picture at the upper left.

Turbine blades exist in a much more hostile environment than compressor

blades. Sitting just downstream of the burner, the blades experience flow
temperatures of more than a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Turbine blades
must be made of special materials that can withstand the heat, or they
must be actively cooled. At the upper right of the figure, we show a
picture of a single, actively cooled turbine blade. The blade is hollow and
cool air, which is bled off the compressor, is pumped through the blade
and out through the small holes on the surface to keep the surface cool.

20
Turbofan

Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas

turbine engines, which are also called jet engines. There are several
different types of gas turbine engines, but all turbine engines have
some parts in common. All gas turbine engines have a nozzle to
produce thrust, to conduct the exhaust gases back to the free stream, and
to set the mass flow rate through the engine. The nozzle sits downstream
of the power turbine.

A nozzle is a relatively simple device, just a specially shaped tube

through which hot gases flow. However, the mathematicswhich describe
the operation of the nozzle takes some careful thought. As shown above,
nozzles come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on the mission of
the aircraft. Simple turbojets, and turboprops, often have a fixed
geometryconvergent nozzle as shown on the left of the
figure. Turbofan engines often employ a co-annular nozzle as shown at
the top left. The core flow exits the center nozzle while the fan flow exits
the annular nozzle. Mixing of the two flows provides some thrust
enhancement and these nozzles also tend to be quieter than convergent

21
 Turbofan

nozzles. Afterburning turbojets and turbofans require a variable

geometry convergent-divergent - CD nozzle as shown on the left. In this
nozzle, the flow first converges down to the minimum
area or throat, then is expanded through the divergent section to the exit
at the right. The variable geometry causes these nozzles to be heavier
than a fixed geometry nozzle, but variable geometry provides efficient
engine operation over a wider airflow range than a simple fixed nozzle.

Rocket engines also use nozzles to accelerate hot exhaust to produce

thrust. Rocket engines usually have a fixed geometry CD nozzle with a
much larger divergent section than is required for a gas turbine. You can
explore the design and operation of nozzles with our interactive nozzle
simulator program which runs on your browser.

All of the nozzles we have discussed thus far are round tubes. Recently,
however, engineers have been experimenting with nozzles with
rectangular exits. This allows the exhaust flow to be easily deflected,
or vectored, as shown in the middle of the figure. Changing the direction
of the thrust with the nozzle makes the aircraft much more maneuverable.

Because the nozzle conducts the hot exhaust back to the free stream, there
can be serious interactions between the engine exhaust flow and the
airflow around the aircraft. On fighter aircraft, in particular, large drag
penalties can occur near the nozzle exits. A typical nozzle-
afterbody configuration is shown in the upper right for an F-15 with
experimental maneuvering nozzles. As with the inlet design, the external
nozzle configuration is often designed by the airframer. The internal
nozzle is usually the responsibility of the engine manufacturer.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Introduction

• 2 Early turbofans

• 3 Low bypass turbofans

• 4 Afterburning turbofans

• 5 High-bypass turbofan engines

• 6 Turbofan configurations

o 6.1 Single shaft turbofan

o 6.2 Aft fan turbofan

22
 Turbofan

o 6.3 Basic two spool

o 6.4 Boosted two spool

o 6.5 Three spool

o 6.6 Geared fan

o 6.7 Military turbofans

o 6.8 High Pressure Turbine

o 6.9 Low Pressure Turbine

• 7 Cycle improvements

• 8 Thrust growth

• 9 Technical Discussion

• 10 Recent developments in blade technology

• 11 Turbofan engine manufacturers

o 11.1 General Electric

o 11.2 CFM International

o 11.3 Rolls-Royce

o 11.4 Pratt & Whitney

o 11.5 Aviadvigatel

• 12 Extreme bypass jet engines

• 13 Terminology

• 14 Other meanings

• 15 Notes and references

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to

Propulsion

23
Turbofan

What is propulsion? The word is

derived from two Latin
words: pro meaning before or
forwards andpellere meaning to
drive. Propulsion means to push
forward or drive an object
forward. A propulsion system is a
machine that producesthrust to
push an object forward. On
airplanes, thrust is usually
generated through some
application of Newton's third
law of action and reaction. A gas,
or working fluid, is accelerated
by the engine, and the reaction to
this acceleration produces a
force on the engine.

24
Turbofan

A general derivation of the thrust equation shows that the amount of thrust generated
depends on the mass flow through the engine and the exit velocity of the gas. Different
propulsion systems generate thrust in slightly different ways. We will discuss four principal
propulsion systems: the propeller, the turbine (or jet) engine, the ramjet, and the rocket.

Why are there different types of engines? If we think about Newton's first law of motion, we
realize that an airplane propulsion system must serve two purposes. First, the thrust from
the propulsion system must balance the drag of the airplane when the airplane is cruising.
And second, the thrust from the propulsion system must exceed the drag of the airplane
for the airplane to accelerate. In fact, the greater the difference between the thrust and the
drag, called theexcess thrust, the faster the airplane will accelerate.

Some aircraft, like airliners and cargo planes, spend most of their life in a cruise condition.
For these airplanes, excess thrust is not as important as high engine efficiency and
low fuel usage. Since thrust depends on both the amount of gas moved and the velocity,
we can generate high thrust by accelerating a large mass of gas by a small amount, or by
accelerating a small mass of gas by a large amount. Because of the aerodynamic
efficiency of propellers and fans, it is more fuel efficient to accelerate a large mass by a
small amount. That is why we find high bypass fans and turboprops on cargo planes and
airliners.

Some aircraft, like fighter planes or experimental high speed aircraft, require very high
excess thrust to accelerate quickly and to overcome the high drag associated with high
speeds. For these airplanes, engine efficiency is not as important as very high thrust.
Modern military aircraft typically employ afterburners on a low bypass turbofan core.
Future hypersonic aircraft will employ some type of ramjet or rocket propulsion.

The site was prepared at NASA Glenn by the Learning Technologies Project (LTP) to
provide background informationon basic propulsion for secondary math and science
teachers. The pages were originally prepared as teaching aidsto support EngineSim, an
interactive educational computer program that allows students to design and test jet
engines on a personal computer. Other slides were prepared to support LTP
videoconferencing workshops(http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/CoE/Coemain.html) for
teachers and students. And other slides were prepared as part of Power Point
Presentations for the Digital Learning Network.

There is a special section of the Beginner's Guide which deals with compressible, or high
speed, aerodynamics. This section is intended for undergraduates who are
studying shock waves or isentropic flows and contains severalcalculators and
simulators for that flow regime.

Common types
There are two types of jet engine that are seen
commonly today, the turbofan which is used on almost
all commercial airliners, and rocket engines which are
used for spaceflight and other terrestrial uses such as
ejector seats, flares, fireworks etc.

25
Turbofan

[edit]Turbofan engines
Main article: Turbofan
Most modern jet engines are actually turbofans, where
the low pressure compressor acts as a fan, supplying
supercharged air not only to the engine core, but to a
bypass duct. The bypass airflow either passes to a
separate 'cold nozzle' or mixes with low pressure turbine
exhaust gases, before expanding through a 'mixed flow
nozzle'.
Turbofans are used for airliners because they give an
exhaust speed that is better matched for subsonic
airliners, at airliners flight speed conventional turbojet
engines generate an exhaust that ends up travelling
very fast backwards, and this wastes energy. By emitting
the exhaust so that it ends up travelling more slowly,
better fuel consumption is achieved as well as higher
thrust at low speeds. In addition, the lower exhaust
speed gives much lower noise.
In the 1960s there was little difference between civil and
military jet engines, apart from the use
of afterburning in some (supersonic) applications. Civil
turbofans today have a low exhaust speed (low specific
thrust -net thrust divided by airflow) to keep jet noise to
a minimum and to improve fuel efficiency. Consequently
the bypass ratio (bypass flow divided by core flow) is
relatively high (ratios from 4:1 up to 8:1 are common).
Only a single fan stage is required, because a low
specific thrust implies a low fan pressure ratio.
Today's military turbofans, however, have a relatively
high specific thrust, to maximize the thrust for a given
frontal area, jet noise being of less concern in military
uses relative to civil uses. Multistage fans are normally
needed to reach the relatively high fan pressure ratio
needed for high specific thrust. Although high turbine
inlet temperatures are often employed, the bypass ratio
tends to be low, usually significantly less than 2.0.

26
Turbofan

[edit]Rocket engines
Main article: Rocket engine
A common form of jet engine is the rocket engine.
Rocket engines are used for high altitude flights because
they give very high thrust and their lack of reliance on
atmospheric oxygen allows them to operate at arbitrary
altitudes.
This is used for launching satellites, space
exploration and manned access, and permitted landing
on the moon in 1969.
However, the high exhaust speed and the heavier,
oxidiser-rich propellant results in more propellant use
than turbojets, and their use is largely restricted to very
high altitudes, very high speeds, or where very high
accelerations are needed as rocket engines themselves
have a very high thrust-to-weight ratio.
An approximate equation for the net thrust of a rocket
engine is:

Where F is the thrust, Isp(vac) is the specific

impulse, g0 is a standard gravity, is the propellant
flow in kg/s, Ae is the area of the exhaust bell at the
exit, and P is the atmospheric pressure.

[edit]General physical principles

All jet engines are reaction engines that generate
thrust by emitting a jet of fluid rearwards at relatively
high speed. The forces on the inside of the engine
needed to create this jet give a strong thrust on the
engine which pushes the craft forwards.
Jet engines make their jet from propellant from
tankage that is attached to the engine (as in a
'rocket') as well as in duct engines (those
commonly used on aircraft) by ingesting an external

27
Turbofan

fluid (very typically air) and expelling it at higher

speed.
[edit]Thrust
The motion impulse of the engine is equal to the fluid
mass multiplied by the speed at which the engine
emits this mass:
I=mc
where m is the fluid mass per second and c is the
exhaust speed. In other words, a vehicle gets the
same thrust if it outputs a lot of exhaust very
slowly, or a little exhaust very quickly. (In practice
parts of the exhaust may be faster than others,
but it's the average momentum that matters, and
thus the important quantity is called
the effective exhaust speed - c here.)
However, when a vehicle moves with certain
velocity v, the fluid moves towards it, creating an
opposing ram drag at the intake:
mv
Most types of jet engine have an intake, which
provides the bulk of the fluid exiting the
exhaust. Conventional rocket motors,
however, do not have an intake, the oxidizer
and fuel both being carried within the vehicle.
Therefore, rocket motors do not have ram
drag; the gross thrust of the nozzle is the net
thrust of the engine. Consequently, the thrust
characteristics of a rocket motor are different
from that of an air breathing jet engine, and
thrust is independent of speed.
The jet engine with an intake duct is only
useful if the velocity of the gas from the
engine, c, is greater than the vehicle velocity,
v, as the net engine thrust is the same as if
the gas were emitted with the velocity c-v. So
the thrust is actually equal to

28
Turbofan

S = m (c-v)
This equation implies that as v approaches
c, a greater mass of fluid must go through
the engine to continue to accelerate at the
same rate, but all engines have a designed
limit on this. Additionally, the equation
implies that the vehicle can't accelerate
past its exhaust velocity as it would have
negative thrust.
[edit]Energy efficiency

Dependence of the energy efficiency (η) upon the

vehicle speed/exhaust speed ratio (v/c) for air-
breathing jet and rocket engines
Energy efficiency (η) of jet engines installed
in vehicles has two main
components, cycle efficiency (ηc)- how
efficiently the engine can accelerate the
jet, and propulsive efficiency(ηp)-how much
of the energy of the jet ends up in the
vehicle body rather than being carried
away as kinetic energy of the jet.
Even though overall energy efficiency η is
simply:
η = η pη c
For all jet engines the propulsive
efficiency is highest when the engine
emits an exhaust jet at a speed that is
the same as, or nearly the same as, the
vehicle velocity as this gives the
smallest residual kinetic

29
Turbofan

energy.(Note:[20]) The exact formula for

air-breathing engines moving at
speed v with an exhaust velocity c is
given in the literature as:[21] is

And for a rocket:

[22]

In addition to propulsive
efficiency, another factor is cycle
efficiency; essentially a jet
engine is typically a form of heat
engine. Heat engine efficiency is
determined by the ratio of
temperatures that are reached in
the engine to that they are
exhausted at from the nozzle,
which in turn is limited by
the overall pressure ratio that
can be achieved. Cycle efficiency
is highest in rocket engines
(~60+%), as they can achieve
extremely high combustion
temperatures and can have very
large, energy efficient nozzles.
Cycle efficiency in turbojet and
similar is nearer to 30%, the
practical combustion
temperatures and nozzle
efficiencies are much lower.

30
Turbofan

Specific impulse as a function of speed

for different jet types with kerosene
fuel (hydrogen Isp would be about twice
as high). Although efficiency plummets
with speed, greater distances are
covered, it turns out that efficiency per
unit distance (per km or mile) is
roughly independent of speed for jet
engines as a group; however airframes
become inefficient at supersonic
speeds
[edit]Fuel/propellant
consumption
A closely related (but different)
concept to energy efficiency is
the rate of consumption of
propellant mass. Propellant
consumption in jet engines is
measured by Specific Fuel
Consumption, Specific
impulse or Effective exhaust
velocity. They all measure the
same thing, specific impulse and
effective exhaust velocity are
strictly proportional, whereas
specific fuel consumption is
inversely proportional to the
others.
For airbreathing engines such as
turbojets energy efficiency and
propellant (fuel) efficiency are
much the same thing, since the
propellant is a fuel and the
source of energy. In rocketry, the
propellant is also the exhaust,
and this means that a high
energy propellant gives better

31
Turbofan

propellant efficiency but can in

some cases actually can
give lower energy efficiency.

SFC Effective
SFC in
Engine scenari in Isp i exhaust
lb/(lbf·
type o g/(kN· n s velocity (
h)
s) m/s)

NK-33 roc vacuu

10.9 309 330 3,240
ket engine m

Space
SSME roc Shuttle
7.95 225 453 4,423
ket engine vacuu
m

Ramjet M1 4.5 127 800 7,877

SR-71
J-58 turboj
at M3.2 1.9 53.8 1,900 18,587
et
(wet)

Rolls-
Concor
Royce/Sne
de M2 1.195[2
cma 33.8 3,012 29,553
cruise 3]
Olympus
(dry)
593

Boeing
CF6-
747- 0.605[2
80C2B1F 3] 17.1 5,950 58,400
400
turbofan
cruise

General
Electric sea 11,70
0.307 8.696 115,000
CF6 turbo level 0
fan

[23]

32
Turbofan

[edit]Thrust-to-weight
ratio
Main article: Thrust-to-weight
ratio
The thrust to weight ratio of jet
engines of similar principles
varies somewhat with scale, but
mostly is a function of engine
construction technology. Clearly
for a given engine, the lighter the
engine, the better the thrust to
weight is, the less fuel is used to
compensate for drag due to the
lift needed to carry the engine
weight, or to accelerate the mass
of the engine.
As can be seen in the following
table, rocket engines generally
achieve very much higher thrust
to weight ratios than duct
engines such as turbojet and
turbofan engines. This is
primarily because rockets almost
universally use dense liquid or
solid reaction mass which gives a
much smaller volume and hence
the pressurisation system that
supplies the nozzle is much
smaller and lighter for the same
performance. Duct engines have
to deal with air which is 2-3
orders of magnitude less dense
and this gives pressures over
much larger areas, and which in
turn results in more engineering
materials being needed to hold

33
Turbofan

the engine together and for the

air compressor.

Thrust-to-
Engine
weight ratio

Concorde's Rolls-Royce/Snecma 4.0 with

Olympus 593 turbojet reheat[24]

J-58 (SR-71 Blackbird jet engine) 5.2[25]

Space shuttle's SSME rocket

73.12[26]
engine

RD-180 rocket engine 73.4

NK-33 rocket engine 136.66[27]

[edit]Comparison of
types

Comparative suitability for (left to

right) turboshaft, low
bypass andturbojet to fly at 10 km
altitude in various speeds. Horizontal
axis - speed, m/s. Vertical axis displays
engine efficiency.
Turboprops obtain little thrust
from jet effect, but are useful for
comparison. They are gas turbine

34
Turbofan

engines that have a rotating fan

that takes and accelerates the
large mass of air but by a
relatively small change in speed.
This low speed limits the speed of
any propeller driven airplane.
When the plane speed exceeds
this limit, propellers no longer
provide any thrust (c-v < 0).
However, because they
accelerate a large mass of air,
turboprops are very efficient.
turbojets and other similar
engines accelerate a much
smaller mass of the air and
burned fuel, but they emit it at
the much higher speeds possible
with a de Laval nozzle. This is
why they are suitable for
supersonic and higher speeds.
Low bypass turbofans have the
mixed exhaust of the two air
flows, running at different speeds
(c1 and c2). The thrust of such
engine is
S = m1 (c1 - v) + m2 (c2 - v)
where m1 and m2 are the air
masses, being blown from the
both exhausts. Such engines
are effective at lower speeds,
than the pure jets, but at
higher speeds than the
turboshafts and propellers in
general. For instance, at the
10 km altitude, turboshafts
are most effective at
about Mach 0.4 (0.4 times the

35
Turbofan

speed of sound), low bypass

turbofans become more
effective at about Mach 0.75
and turbojets become more
effective than mixed exhaust
engines when the speed
approaches Mach 2-3.
Rocket engines have
extremely high exhaust
velocity and thus are best
suited for high speeds
(hypersonic) and great
altitudes. At any given
throttle, the thrust and
efficiency of a rocket motor
improves slightly with
increasing altitude (because
the back-pressure falls thus
increasing net thrust at the
nozzle exit plane), whereas
with a turbojet (or turbofan)
the falling density of the air
entering the intake (and the
hot gases leaving the nozzle)
causes the net thrust to
decrease with increasing
altitude. Rocket engines are
more efficient than even
scramjets above roughly Mach
15.[28]
[edit]Altitude and
speed
With the exception
of scramjets, jet engines,
deprived of their inlet systems
can only accept air at around
half the speed of sound. The

36
Turbofan

inlet system's job for

transonic and supersonic
aircraft is to slow the air and
perform some of the
compression.
The limit on maximum
altitude for engines is set by
flammability- at very high
altitudes the air becomes too
thin to burn, even after
compression. This can be
eased by flying faster which
helps compress the air in at
the front of the engine, but
ultimately the engine cannot
go any faster without melting.
For turbojet engines altitudes
of about 40km appear to be
possible, whereas for ramjet
engines 55km may be
achievable. Scramjets may
theoretically manage
75km.[29] Rocket engines of
course have no upper limit.
[edit]Noise
Noise is due to shockwaves
that form when the exhaust
jet interacts with the external
air. The intensity of the noise
is proportional to the thrust as
well as proportional to the
fourth power of the jet
velocity.Generally then, the
lower speed exhaust jets
emitted from engines such as
high bypass turbofans are the

37
Turbofan

quietest, whereas the fastest

jets are the loudest.
Although some variation in jet
speed can often be arranged
from a jet engine (such as by
throttling back and adjusting
the nozzle) it is difficult to
vary the jet speed from an
engine over a very wide
range. Therefore since
engines for supersonic
vehicles such as Concorde,
military jets and rockets
inherently need to have
supersonic exhaust at top
speed, so these vehicles are
especially noisy even at low
speeds.

[edit]Advanced
designs
[edit]J-58
combined
ramjet/turbojet
The SR-71 Blackbird's Pratt &
Whitney J58 engines were
rather unusual. They could
convert in flight from being
largely a turbojet to being
largely a compressor-assisted
ramjet. At high speeds (above
Mach 2.4), the engine used
variable geometry vanes to
direct excess air through 6
bypass pipes from
downstream of the fourth
compressor stage into the

38
Turbofan

afterburner.[30] 80% of the SR-

71's thrust at high speed was
generated in this way, giving
much higher thrust,
improving specific impulse by
10-15%, and permitting
continuous operation at Mach
3.2. The name coined for this
setup is turbo-ramjet.
[edit]Hydrogen
fuelled air-breathing
jet engines
Jet engines can be run on
almost any fuel. Hydrogen is a
highly desirable fuel, as,
although the energy
per mole is not unusually
high, the molecule is very
much lighter than other
molecules. The energy per kg
of hydrogen is twice that of
more common fuels and this
gives twice the specific
impulse. In addition, jet
engines running on hydrogen
are quite easy to build—the
first ever turbojet was run on
hydrogen. Also, although not
duct engines, hydrogen-fueled
rocket engines have seen
extensive use.
However, in almost every
other way, hydrogen is
problematic. The downside of
hydrogen is its density; in
gaseous form the tanks are
impractical for flight, but even

39
Turbofan

in the form of liquid

hydrogen it has a density one
fourteenth that of water. It is
also deeply cryogenic and
requires very significant
insulation that precludes it
being stored in wings. The
overall vehicle would end up
being very large, and difficult
for most airports to
accommodate. Finally, pure
hydrogen is not found in
nature, and must be
manufactured either via
steam reforming or expensive
electrolysis. Nevertheless,
research is ongoing and
hydrogen-fueled aircraft
designs do exist that may be
feasible.
[edit]Precooled jet
engines
Main article: Precooled jet
engine
An idea originated by Robert
P. Carmichael in 1955[31] is
that hydrogen-fueled engines
could theoretically have much
higher performance than
hydrocarbon-fueled engines if
a heat exchanger were used
to cool the incoming air. The
low temperature allows lighter
materials to be used, a higher
mass-flow through the
engines, and permits
combustors to inject more fuel

40
Turbofan

without overheating the

engine.
This idea leads to plausible
designs like Reaction Engines
SABRE, that might
permit single-stage-to-orbit
launch vehicles,[32] and ATREX,
which could permit jet
engines to be used up to
hypersonic speeds and high
altitudes for boosters for
launch vehicles. The idea is
also being researched by the
EU for a concept to achieve
non-stop antipodal supersonic
passenger travel at Mach 5
(Reaction Engines A2).
[edit]Nuclear-
powered ramjet
Project Pluto was a nuclear-
powered ramjet, intended for
use in a cruise missile. Rather
than combusting fuel as in
regular jet engines, air was
heated using a high-
temperature, unshielded
nuclear reactor. This
dramatically increased the
engine burn time, and the
ramjet was predicted to be
able to cover any required
distance at supersonic speeds
(Mach 3 at tree-top height).
However, there was no
obvious way to stop it once it
had taken off, which would be
a great disadvantage in any

41
Turbofan

non-disposable application.
Also, because the reactor was
unshielded, it was dangerous
to be in or around the flight
path of the vehicle (although
the exhaust itself wasn't
radioactive). These
disadvantages limit the
application to warhead
delivery system for all-out
nuclear war, which it was
being designed for.
[edit]Scramjets
Main article: Scramjet
Scramjets are an evolution of
ramjets that are able to
operate at much higher
speeds than any other kind of
airbreathing engine. They
share a similar structure with
ramjets, being a specially-
shaped tube that compresses
air with no moving parts
through ram-air compression.
Scramjets, however, operate
with supersonic airflow
through the entire engine.
Thus, scramjets do not have
the diffuser required by
ramjets to slow the incoming
airflow to subsonic speeds.
Scramjets start working at
speeds of at least Mach 4, and
have a maximum useful
speed of approximately Mach
17.[33] Due to aerodynamic
heating at these high speeds,

42
Turbofan

cooling poses a challenge to

engineers.

[edit]Environmenta
l considerations
Jet engines are usually run on
fossil fuel propellant, and in
that case, are a net source of
carbon to the atmosphere.
Some scientists believe that
jet engines are also a source
of global dimming due to the
water vapour in the exhaust
causing cloud formations.
Nitrogen compounds are also
formed from the combustion
process from atmospheric
nitrogen. At low altitudes this
is not thought to be especially
harmful, but for supersonic
aircraft that fly in the
stratosphere some destruction
of ozone may occur.
Sulphates are also emitted if
the fuel contains sulphur.

[edit]Safety and
reliability
Main article: Air safety
Jet engines are usually very
reliable and have a very good
safety record. However,
failures do sometimes occur.

43
Turbofan

[edit]Compressor
blade containment
Main article: Blade off testing
The most likely failure is
compressor blade failure, and
modern jet engines are
designed with structures that
can catch these blades and
keep them contained within
the engine casing. Verification
of a jet engine design involves
testing that this system works
correctly.
[edit]Bird strike
Bird strike is an aviation term
for a collision between a bird
and an aircraft. It is a common
threat to aircraft safety and
has caused a number of fatal
accidents. In 1988
an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing
737 sucked pigeonsinto both
engines during take-off and
then crashed in an attempt to
return to the Bahir Dar airport;
of the 104 people aboard, 35
died and 21 were injured. In
another incident in 1995,
a Dassault Falcon 20 crashed
at aParis airport during an
emergency landing attempt
after sucking lapwings into an
engine, which caused an
engine failure and a fire in the
airplane fuselage; all 10
people on board were killed. A
US Airways Airbus A320

44
Turbofan

aircraft sucked in one bird in

each engine. The plane
landed in the Hudson River
after taking off from
LaGuardia International
Airport in New York City. There
were no fatalities. [34]
Modern jet engines have the
capability of surviving an
ingestion of a bird. Small fast
planes, such as military jet
fighters, are at higher risk
than big heavy multi-engine
ones. This is due to the fact
that the fan of a high-
bypass turbofan engine,
typical on transport aircraft,
acts as a centrifugal separator
to force ingested materials
(birds, ice, etc.) to the outside
of the fan's disc. As a result,
such materials go through the
relatively
unobstructed bypass duct,
rather than through the core
of the engine, which contains
the smaller and more delicate
compressor blades. Military
aircraft designed for high-
speed flight typically have
pure turbojet, or low-bypass
turbofan engines, increasing
the risk that ingested
materials will get into the core
of the engine to cause
damage.
The highest risk of the bird
strike is during the takeoff

45
Turbofan

and landing, in low altitudes,

which is in the vicinity of
the airports.
[edit]Uncontained
failures
One class of failures that has
caused accidents in particular
is uncontained failures, where
rotary parts of the engine
break off and exit through the
case. These can cut fuel or
control lines, and can
penetrate the cabin. Although
fuel and control lines are
usually duplicated for
reliability, the crash of United
Airlines Flight 232 was caused
when hydraulic fluid lines for
all three independent
hydraulic systems were
simultaneously severed by
shrapnel from an uncontained
engine failure. Prior to the
United 232 crash, the
probability of a simultaneous
failure of all three hydraulic
systems was considered as
high as a billion-to-one.
However, the statistical
models used to come up with
this figure did not account for
the fact that the number-two
engine was mounted at the
tail close to all the hydraulic
lines, nor the possibility that
an engine failure would
release many fragments in

46
Turbofan

many directions. Since then,

more modern aircraft engine
designs have focused on
keeping shrapnel from
penetrating the cowling or
ductwork, and have
increasingly utilized high-
strengthcomposite
materials to achieve the
required penetration
resistance while keeping the
weight low.

[edit]

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