Turbine engine

[zeigs spud]

okay so i was wondering if anyone had a good diagram of how a turbine engine worked and could explain it SIIMPLEY.

[paaiyan]

Have I a diagram? No. I do, however, have a question. Why?

[imablackskater]

is this what your looking for, if not go to http://www.keveney.com/Engines.html

[Freefall]

Simple explanation? Here goes...

A turbine engine is a simple machine.

Starting from the inlet, the air enters the compressor, and is compressed (imagine that!). Pressure and temperature go up.

Next is the combustor. Fuel is added to this hot, high pressure air. As the fuel burns, the air gets much hotter. Note that, unlike a piston engine, the pressure is NOT increased by combustion.

Finally, the VERY hot, high pressure gas passes through the turbine, where some of the energy is extracted and used to drive the compressor. Whatever excess energy is left over is converted to thrust, or in the case of a torque turbine (aka turboshaft) engine, passed through a second turbine to extract more energy to drive an output shaft.


Here's a visual model for you:
Imagine, if you will, a perfect lossless world. Take two fans, positioned so that one blows into the other. Imagine that the front fan has a motor at the hub (call this one the compressor), and the second has a generator (call this one the turbine).
Spin the first fan. As the first fan blows into the second fan, the second fan turns. When this happens, the generator in the second fan produces electricity by extracting the energy that the first fan added to the air.
Now plug the first fan into the second, so that the first fan is powered by the output of the second.
In our perfect lossless world, we'd now have a perpetual motion machine. But we can't do anything with it, because it would slow down as soon as we tried to extract more energy. So we have to add energy somewhere.
So let's burn some fuel in between the two fans. Remember what I said earlier, this is not a pressurizing process. Temperature goes up, but pressure does not. Instead of a pressure increase, we get a volume increase.
For ease of illustration, let's say that our heated gas is now twice the volume that it originally was. In order to get it out of the engine as fast as it's coming in, we either have to move it twice as fast, or we have to make the duct twice as wide.

Let's say for now, we make the duct twice as wide. Strike that, let's split it into two equal-size ducts. We've now got room for a second turbine.

Since the power from the original turbine is still enough to drive our compressor, and we've still got the excess volume passing through the second branch of our split duct, we have a choice. We can either pass that excess volume through a nozzle and make thrust, or we can pass it through another turbine and make more power to drive a propeller (turboprop), a big ducted fan (turbofan), a generator (ground-based turbine power station or turbine locomotive), or whatever else you can imagine.

Again, this is in an ideal world, and there are losses involved (you don't get back all the energy you put in), but that should give you a reasonable idea of how a turbine engine works. If you're still confused, I'll answer specific points in more detail.

[paaiyan]

Very good explanation. I had neither the time nor the patience to do it, haha. Anyhow, hooray for fire!

[zeigs spud]

hmk the first pic helped and that very long explanation helped it help alot more! thanks!

[cannon freak]

If you want to ask some questions from some really experienced people I would suggest going here
here
http://www.pulse-jets.com/phpbb2/index. ... 0df0f0ef62
many of the members there have built all kinds or turbine engines, valveless pulse jets, valved pulse jets ect...

Just incase you were interested.


Cannon Freak.

[spuzi14]

Did you try www.howstuffworks.com? I didn't look but it's probably on there.

[COD_FILLETS]

Eh, if you want a super simple jet engine, try a ramjet. Only problem, you need to have the engine moving or force air through it, it is after, designed to work near the speed of sound.

[spuzi14]

I forget who it was at Spudtech that tinkered with pulse jets. I want to say SweezMyCheez but I'm not sure. Truthfully, I barely remember what a pulse jet is.

[COD_FILLETS]

A pulse jets work in bursts. They suck in air, combust and push the air out.

[spudthug]

AHHHHHH!!!!! DEAD TPIC STOP POSTING!!!!!!!! this psot is over a year old mmkay dont bring up dead stuff... its like didgging up a dead animal along the road just to throw it back down...and not eat it...for fun...

[Killjoy]

How is it spudthug, that lately when you post, it feels like you suck every smart thing out of the thread. The topic was posted yesterday and it aint a year old.
I can only hope you meant to post your usueless dead topic post in another thread. And would you please stop saying mmkay, you sound like mr. mackey from south park, and thats not a good thing.

Freefall, that was one of the best explanations i've ever heard, and its rather impressive that someone so new could make such a valuable contribution. Good job, hope you stick around.

[iknowmy3tables]

uhm this topic was made yesterday wtf... and learn too spell, if you suck at spelling type your post in your word program and read the thread more no one likes a post whore

[noname]

I also nominate the notion for spudthug to shut up. How did you manage to figure it's a year old topic. And you do know the Spellcheck button is there for a reason, and not just for kicks, right?