Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff Works dot com where smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, how does an afterburner work on a jet engine? A jet engine, like a rocket engine, is a reaction engine. It works by throwing mass in one direction and taking advantage of the reaction in the opposite direction. In the case of a jet engine, the engine bird's fuel like kerosene with
error from the atmosphere. The burning fuel heats and expands the air, and this hot air shoots out the exhaust end of the engine to create thrust. Most modern jet engines use a turbine to improve the efficiency of the engine and allow the engine to work at low speeds. One part of the turbine sucks in airror and compresses
it before the fuel is injected. The back portion of the turbine acts like a windmill, extracting entered from the exhaust gases and using the energy to spin the compressor portion. A modern turbine engine is extremely efficient and there's still a lot of oxygen available in the exhaust stream. The idea behind an afterburner is to inject fuel directly into that exhaust stream and burn it using the remaining oxygen.
This heats and expands the exhaust gases further, and it can increase the thrust of a jet engine by fifty or more. The big advantage of an afterburner is that you can significantly increase the thrust of the engine without adding much weight or complexity to the engine. And afterburner is nothing but a set of fuel injectors, a tube and flame holder that the fuel burns in, and an
adjustable nozzle. A jet engine with an afterburner needs that adjustable nozzle so that it can work with and without the afterburners on the disadvantage of an afterburner is that it uses a ton of fuel for the power it generates. Therefore, most planes use afterburners sparingly. For example, a military jet would use its afterburners when taking off from a short runway on an aircraft carrier or during a high speed maneuver in a dog fight. Do you have any ideas
or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com and be sure to check out the brain stuff blog on the how stuff works dot Com home page,