The Turbofan Engine

 

For this week’s blog, I’d like to discuss the turbofan engine that is popularly used in passenger aircrafts today. The turbofan was developed to combine the advantages of the turbojet and the turboprop into one do all engine. The turbojet produces thrust by ejecting a high energy gas stream from the engine exhaust nozzle which leads to accelerating a relatively small mass of air to a high speed. A turboprop adds a propeller through a reduction gear and is great at slower speeds. When you combine the two you get the turbofan, it creates additional thrust by diverting a secondary airflow around the combustion chamber. The turbofan bypass air generates increased thrust, cools the engine, and aids in exhaust noise suppression. This provides turbojet-type cruise speed and lower fuel consumption (FAA, 2003).

As we can see, the engine is one of the most important parts of the aircraft. An example of a turbofan not functioning correctly was recently in the news, this is definitely something you don’t want to see and if I was a passenger looking out the window mid flight and see the engine go out, I’d know this is a serious problem. On February 20^th, a Boeing 777 was in route to Hawaii from Denver and suffered an engine failure that rained falling parts into a neighborhood and required an emergency landing, luckily no one was injured. After a safe landing, investigators found the turbofan engine had two blades that have fractured due to metal fatigue which led to the damage of the engine’s containment unit. The turbofan has its advantages but can only work so well until it’s parts fail. The materials used weren’t able to withstand the test of time. Better mechanical practices need to be in place to be able to test for things like this.

 

Engine failure on a Boeing 777 plane this weekend turned out OK. Here’s why. (n.d.). Retrieved                from February 26, 2021, from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/engine-failure-boeing-777-plane130005085.html.  

Pilot’s handbook of aeronautical knowledge. (2003). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of    Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration FAA.