Monday, May 21, 2018

Understanding The Operation And Functions Of Aircraft Engine Accessories

By Paul Robinson


An aircraft engine is a mechanical component used by planes to produce a thrust force. A plane can stay in the air due to four forces. These are drag, thrust, lift and gravity. A balance of these forces is necessary to keep the craft in the air. The thrust force gets produced by the plane and part of it is used to provide lift. The following is a general guide on aircraft engine accessories.

The earliest engines to be used were the piston or reciprocating combustion engines. They were relatively heavy and bigger. With more research, better designs were made which led to the birth of jet engines. These weighed way less and were capable of producing even more power. The research has progressively grown over time with much better options being made available for different flight conditions.

Other types of aircraft engines are the Wankel and electric engines, rocket and pulse jets, turboshaft and radial engines. They are still upcoming and undergoing consistent improvements. The goal of aeronautical designers and engineers is to be able to fly at higher heights with minimum fuel consumption. These have been met with a massive growth of cutting-edge engineering designs and better alternatives for attaining efficient flights.

Turbojets and turboprops are grouped under reaction engines. Their cycle begins at the air inlet where the air is inhaled and compressed through multistage compressors. The inlet duct is an essential accessory that optimizes the air flow to prevent energy losses. After compression, the air is combined with fuel and delivered to the combustion zone. This is assisted through the use of pipes and carburetors. A spark plug or burner ignites the mixture to give out streams of gases.

A basic aeroplane engine has three distinct parts namely the compressors, the combustion zone and the turbines. Other components include the nozzle and afterburners. Several systems are used to assist in the optimum functioning of the machine with some like the ignition, control, lubrication systems and many more. A turbojet uses fans to draw in air, and the exit jet provides thrust while a turboprop has a propeller or rotor attached to the drive shaft and provides the required thrust.

In the first region, you will find components that relate to compressors. These include blades, rotors, suction ducts, intercoolers and many more. Air compression is done at several stages. There are also gears and bearings that help in transmitting and receiving mechanical motion. Due to compression, the air tends to become very hot, and a cooling system is used to reduce the intake air temperature. The combustion zone is the next stage from there.

The turbines are made up of numerous rotating blades that expand the gases while extracting some of the energy. This energy is used to power the compressors or drive the rotor or propeller. At the turbine exits, there are the afterburners which combust the remaining air-fuel mixture to produce more power. The nozzle converts the energy from the exhaust gases into thrust force. Numerous accessories assist the entire process.

The list of all accessories for each engine can be found in the purchase manual. They differ from each type to even the brand. Finding the spare parts can be done online or by consulting the manufacturer. Some components are universal which means they are interchangeable for different engines.




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