Flow in Jet Engines

Abstract
The desire purpose of writing this project is to know about the basic working turbojet engine and
also discussed its parts. Main subject of this project is thrust force which is responsible to move
the aircraft in a forward direction. Different calculations are also done for thrust when Mach
number is taken as 0.82 for subsonic conditions. We also discussed the factors that affect the
thrust. Also discussed thrust to weight ratio and derived its relation and discussed its behavior.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 1

Flow in Jet Engines

Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Turbojet Engine ................................................................................................................................ 3
3. Parts................................................................................................................................................... 3
4. Working ............................................................................................................................................ 5
5. Literature Review.............................................................................................................................. 6
6. Thrust Calculations ........................................................................................................................... 8
7. Thrust/ Weight Ratio....................................................................................................................... 10
8. Factors Affecting Thrust ................................................................................................................. 10
9. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 11

Table of figures
1. Figure 1: Turbojet Engine ................................................................................................................ 3
2. Figure 2: Compressor....................................................................................................................... 4
3. Figure 3: Combustor ........................................................................................................................ 4
4. Figure 4: Turbine ............................................................................................................................. 5
5. Figure 5: Nozzle............................................................................................................................... 5
6. Figure 6: Converging diverging nozel ............................................................................................. 7
7. Figure 7: Mach no. of diff Jets ......................................................................................................... 7
8. Figure 8: Flow in jet engine ............................................................................................................. 8
9. Figure 9: Graphs ............................................................................................................................ 11

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 2

Flow in Jet Engines

1. Introduction
Jet engines are IC engines that discharges exhaust gas at very high speed to create thrust. Jet
engines are also being called reactive motors, because reaction forces generated by the engine
propel the vehicle or aircraft. Unlike internal combustion engines, cars and trucks generate
power by moving the piston up and down, but leaving the air in an aircraft engine that generates
a large thrust by sucking air forward.
Basically, a jet engine is used to produce thrust to lift an aero plane. Different types of jet
engines are used, mainly reciprocating and turboprop engines are the right kind for the thrust
required for the jet and it works along with the propeller. The function of turbojet engine is to
produce thrust by increasing the air velocity that flows through the engine. This same principle is
also used in various power plants for power generation. [1]

Names of the aircraft turbo engines:

 Turbojet
 Turboprop
 Turbofan
 Turboshaft

2. Turbojet Engine
The major components that turbojet engine consists are: compressor, combustion chamber,
turbine section, and exhaust. The compressor section allows air to pass through inlet at high
speed to the net chamber i-e combustion. The combustor contains the inlet for the fuel and
ignition plug that became responsible for combustion. The air that expands drives the turbine.
With the help of shaft turbine is connected to the compressor that helps engine perform
operation. The hot gases from the jet engine provide force i-e thrust. [1]. Outer turbine has lover
speed than inner turbine is to reduce the centrifugal stresses at rotor which improves the blade
life. Turbojet engines create tend to produce high level of noise and to over come the noise by
passing air that is mixed with hard air. By doing this it is possible to keep the velocity in limit.
Thus overcomes the noise. Noises depends on exit velocity.

Figure 1: Turbojet Engine

3. Parts
Following are the main parts of turbojet engine;

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 3

Flow in Jet Engines

Compressor
In turbo jet engine compressor is considering the first element. There are certain number of
blades which are mounted on shaft. Compressor compresses the air and which cause in decrease
in volume that results into decrease in volume. Due to compression in volume the potential of the
air increases.

Figure 2: Compressor

Combustor
Compressed air mixed with a fuel at a high pressure causes a combustion in a combustor. Nozzles are
usually used and it ranges from 15-20 and their purpose of used to inject the flow stream into fuel at high
pressure. Due to combustion, temperature of a flow rises which in results increase in a flow energy. In the
presence of oxygen, hot gasses which get exhausted when fuel burn with compressed air. combustor of jet
engine which can absorbed a huge amount of heat or in other words it is temperature resistant material, ad
can absorb up to 2700° degree Fahrenheit[2].

Figure 3: Combustor

Turbine
After leaving the combustion chamber hot exhaust gases flows inside the turbine, can make the rotation
of blades. Linkage of turbines and shaft is responsible to rotate the blades inside the compressor and to
rotate the inlet fan at the frontal part. This angular rotation requires sort of power from the concentration
of high-energy flow that are used to be drive compressor and the fan. Inside the turbine hot gases are

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 4

Flow in Jet Engines

generated inside the combustion chamber flows through the turbine and make its blades to rotate. The jet
engine in turbine rotates around for large no of times. There are certain amount of ball bearings which is
mounted on shaft and they are fixed [2].

Figure 4: Turbine

Nozzle
Engines exhaust duct is known as nozzle. Basically, nozzle of the engine are the main
component to produces the thrust for the jet to flew off. For cooling purpose the air which are
being sucked from open air are first through different component of jet engine and then passed
through nozzle and then to core of jet engine and then finally passed through diverging part of jet
engine and then finally leave the exit of nozzle, but there is a lot of other phenomena such as the
mixing of fuel to air or fuel to air ratio and decreasing down the back pressure and such type of
other phenomena, which is basically discussed down are also important discussion. An exhaust is
produced by combining the set of hot and cold air that are exposed from the propeller, which as
result causes forwardness in thrust. The mixer helps the nozzle to be preceded, which mix with
hot gasses or too much high temperature sucked air from the core of engine with the bypassed
lower temperature air in the fan.

Figure 5: Nozzle

4. Working
Airflow enters from inlet of compressor which squeezes it. This squeezed air is then moved into
combustor. With the help of multiple nozzles fuel is injected into the air & spark plug ignites air

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 5

Flow in Jet Engines

that catches fire. The fuel burns in the presence of oxygen which was present in squeezed air
results in generating hot exhaust gases. Now the compressed air passes through the turbine
chamber which causes the turbines to rotate. Rotating of turbine happen to help the shaft to rotate
along with it on which it was mounted. Then this same shaft became reason to rotate the
compressor. This is the main purpose that we need turbine just after the combustor. After leaving
of this chamber, then the hot exhaust gases are allowed to exit from the engine from nozzle. The
force that the exhaust gases produce push backward results into producing equal & opposite
forward force i-e thrust[3].

5. Literature Review
A jet engine is able to move the aircraft in a forward direction with the force that poke the plane
in forward direction. This force is called thrust force. Thrust force is produced due to change of
momentum of air between the inlet and outlet section of aircraft engine [4].

The force acts upon the aircraft engines during flight:

 Drag
 Lift
 Weight
 Thrust

What is thrust?
Thrust is force that is responsible for aircraft to move forward it is the force that propel and
pushed forward to the engine in forward direction and, therefore, the airplane moves in
forward. As it is known from Newton third law that for " there is and will be a reaction of
everything which is done in action." As of Engines works which is basically based on the similar
principle. The engine inhales a very large amount of air. Then the air is squeezed and heated at
very high temperature. Then the air passes through many blades that results in spinning of them.
Then this air is combined with the fuel of jet and ignition happens. Due to this ignition the
temperature of the air rose. For the rotation of the turbine air power is required. When air exits
from the outlet of the blade it gives a back pressure which pushes the plane in forward
direction..[2]
The production of huge amount of thrust and propulsion of aircraft while it moving with mach
number < 1 or > 1 is basically depends on the converging diverging nozzle.[5] It is used to
accelerate hot and compressed gases that convert the flow heat into kinetic energy when it passes
through supersonic speed. In some types of steam turbines and rocket engines this nozzle is
widely used because of reason discussed previously.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 6

Flow in Jet Engines

Figure 6: Converging diverging nozzle

As an aircraft moves, the particles of air near the aircraft are disturbed in such a way that air
starts to move around the aircraft. If the speed of aircraft is low, density of air remains constant.
Air craft with high-speed, compress the air and as a result some of the energy of the aircraft goes
in it and also changing the density of the air. This compressibility effect of air changes the
amount of resulted force on the aircraft, and then it became more essential as increasing speed.
As it is quite obvious that disturbance can be produced a shock wave that is basically a
responsible factor and effect both the lift and drag force of an aircraft. The sound to speed ratio
in the air or gasses determines the strength of lot of compressibility effect. And all of the credit
goes to sir Ernst Mach who work such a phenomenal to introduces Mach number which is
basically equal to speed of sound when Mach number is equal to 1

Figure 7: Mach no. of diff Jets

 When mach numbers is short of what one, M < 1 subsonic conditions happen.
Compressibility can be disregarded for the most reduced subsonic conditions.

 As protest speed approaches the sound speed, mach number is about equivalent to one,

M = 1 and the stream is said to be transonic. At a few conditions, the nearby speed
surpasses the speed of sound.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 7

Flow in Jet Engines

 If mach number is more prominent than one, 1 < M < 3 supersonic conditions happen.
For supersonic air ship compressibility impacts are critical, and by the surface of the
protest stun waves are created.

 If mach number M > 5, the stream is said to be hypersonic[6].

6. Thrust Calculations
Assumptions
 Ae(Pe – Pa) = 0 because of commercial aircraft nozzle.
 F is negligible.
 ṁf is negligible velocity of fuel is less than velocity of fuel.

Figure 8: Flow in jet engine

Derivations
Mass= ʃsʃ ƿv. ds = 0

Mass flow rate equation

-ƿuA - ƿu(A-Ai) + ƿeueAe + ƿu(A-Ae) - ṁF + ṁs = 0

ṁa = ƿi × ui × Ai

ṁe = ƿe × ue × Ae

ṁs = ṁa + ṁf + ƿu(Ae-Ai)- ṁe *

Momentum= ʃʃ ƿv (v. ds) + ʃʃ ƿ ds = 0

By simplifying thrust equation we get

T = -ƿa(A - Ai) + ƿeAe + ƿa(A – Ae) - ƿuAiu - ƿu2(A – Ai) + ƿeueAe + Ƿu2(A – Ai)+ ṁsu

By simplifying and from eq * put value of ṁs

We get;

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 8

Flow in Jet Engines

T= -ṁau + ṁeue + Ae(Pe – Pa)

ṁe = ṁa + ṁf

Fuel to air ratio

F = ṁf / ṁa

T= ṁa[ue (1 + F) – u] + Ae(Pe – Pa)

Calculations
T= ṁa × ue 1
Where
T = thrust force
ṁa = mass flow rate of air
ue = outlet velocity
As we know that;
ue = Ma×√RTK 2
Where;
R= 286.9 J/Kg. K
T= 349 K
K = 1.4
Ma= 0.82
Put values in equation 2
ue = 0.82 × √286.9 × 349 × 1.4
ue= 307.01 m/s
As we know;
ṁa = ƿ × u × A e 3
At 10000m height » ƿ = 4.135 × 10-1
U = 120m/s
D = 1836mm » 1.8m
As we know that;
Ae = πD2/4
= π × 1.82/4
= 2.5434m2
Put
ṁa = 4.135 × 10-1 × 120 × 2.5434
ṁa = 126.203 Kg/sec
Now put values in equation 1 i-e;
T = ṁa × u e
= 126.203 × 307.01
T = 38 KN

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 9

Flow in Jet Engines

7. Thrust/ Weight Ratio

As we know from 2nd law of motion proposed by Newton;

<F = m × a>

In case of sideways acceleration drag is negligible and thrust is taken as net force. From the weight
equation:

<W = m × g>

Where

W = weight;

g = acceleration due to gravity

Solving for the mass,

m=W/g

Putting in the force equation:

F=W×a/g

F/W=a/g

F/W is the thrust to weight ratio and it has direct relation to the acceleration of the aircraft which
means that increase in one factor results in increase in other factor and vice versa. So a jet with a
high thrust to weight ratio also has high acceleration. For most flight conditions, an aircraft with
a high thrust to weight ratio will also have a high value of excess thrust. High excess thrust
results in a high rate of climb. If the thrust to weight ratio of jet is greater than 1 and the drag
force is small, the jet will move straight up like a rocket. Similarly, rockets must have thrust
greater than the weight of it in order to lift off.[7]

8. Factors Affecting Thrust

Following are the factors that affect jet thrust force;

Air Velocity
The thrust force of jet engine is affected by inlet velocity. When the aircraft is at rest, and engine
turn on to take flight at the end of a runway, momentum drag becomes equal to 0, because
velocity of jet is 0. However, when the jet is in motion, as the speed of jet increase, the velocity
of air that enters in engine also increases. Therefore, the final and initial difference between
velocities will become less as speed of air[7].

Air Temperature
The thrust that is generated by an aircraft engine is inverse in relation with the air temperature, so
increase in one factors result in decrease in other. So the value of thrust decreases as the

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 10

Flow in Jet Engines

temperature of air increases, so at lower temperature of air the jet engine produce higher values
of thrust. Higher values of thrust can be dangerous for the jet engine. So the reason stated
previously jet engines are not allowed to have thrust more than the given limit. Temperatures
has no specific effect on engine thrust at the time of takeoff at given pressure altitudes [7].

Figure 9: Graphs

9. Conclusions
As all know the invention of engine is individually a giant mystery which being an engineer is a
great achievement. And inventing such a phenomenal invention of engine and then dynamically
high rpm jet engine is just an initiative. The overall journey of plane is based from a simple
Model of Wright Brother’s to the modern day complex structural Jet fighters. The theme was to
analyze the Consumption of Fuel, The pressure ratios of different engine component, propulsive
efficiency and Thermal efficiency, Performance of engine parameters and most importantly the
Thrust of engine.

As already mentioned The production of huge amount of thrust and propulsion of aircraft while
it moving with a less then Mach number of 1 or greater than 1 is basically depends on a lot of
parameters which were considered related to flow behavior leaving and entering to jet engine
using different techniques i.e. manipulating back pressure inside diverging and converging
portion of jet engine due to changing of back pressure It can affect the speed of plane have to
check out either it is moving with Mach number 1 or not. in fluid dynamic number of unknown
in an equation is greater than the number of variables in equation that’s why a lot of assumption
should be considered during just like in flow when it flowing through converging diverging part
of jet engine. the flow pattern or wave pattern when it is large enough to exit out from engine or
we reduce the backpressure so much that the flow leaving the nozzle exceed from Mach number
1 Then the plane will be moving supersonically.

actually, the reaching/achieving supersonic nature of plane depends upon the force/thrust
generated by jet engine and as already mentioned above that the thrust generated by plane in

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 11

Flow in Jet Engines

actual depends on also of parameters like fuel consumption, Design parameters, material used,
flow behavior but one of the most important one is the designing of nozzle i.e. converging
diverging portion of jet engine. because it totally depends on the backpressure, either it is much
enough low that the flow leaving the nozzle can reach to Mach number 1 or either the wave
pattern which depends on backpressure is as long as exit of engine/nozzle or not. If yes then the
plane is supersonically moving if equal to Mach number 1 then jet is moving sonic, and if it is
less then Mach number 1 then it is moving sub sonically as like as commercial aircraft. And at
one side the invention of engine is a great mystery similarly t other side there is some flaws and
defects of engine too. As this is the law of nature that nothing is 100 percent perfect Except
Almighty Allah. Everything thing in this universe having some sort of flaws. So, some flaws of
jet engines are their huge amount of sound generation and it is due high magnitude of exhaust
velocity. as the ambient air is not as much hot as that of core air velocity so when it is mixed
with ambient air is basically the main reason of production of noise. Beside this there is much
more other flaws like weight of jet relative to thrust of jet and so on but that is actually not a part
of our report.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 12

Flow in Jet Engines

References

[1] “*****ENGINEERING*****: Introduction to Jet Engines.” .

[2] “Engines.” [Online]. Available: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-
12/UEET/StudentSite/engines.html. [Accessed: 02-Jan-2018].
[3] “How do Gas turbines/Jet propulsion engines work ? | MechStuff.” [Online]. Available:
http://mechstuff.com/how-do-gas-turbinesjet-engines-of-aircraft-work/. [Accessed: 02-
Jan-2018].
[4] “Literature Review | Jet Engine | Turbine.” [Online]. Available:
https://www.scribd.com/document/339939606/Literature-Review. [Accessed: 02-Jan-
2018].
[5] “Converging Diverging Nozzle.” [Online]. Available:
http://www.engapplets.vt.edu/fluids/CDnozzle/cdinfo.html. [Accessed: 02-Jan-2018].
[6] “Mach Number.” [Online]. Available: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-
12/airplane/mach.html. [Accessed: 02-Jan-2018].
[7] Onkar patel1, Prakash Kumar Sen2, Gopal Sahu3, Ritesh Sharma4, and Shailendra
Bohidar, “A REVIEW ON TURBO JET ENGINE,” IPASJ Int. J. Mech. Eng., vol. 3, no.
11, 2015.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Page 13