Inside an Afterburner - Turbine Engines: A Closer Look

[jyatim]

Very instructive videos, kudos for you and your team. I have a question though: Is there a color code for the hydraulic lines or the fuel lines? I did see some brownish lines under the engine that Walter was converting. Thank you for your response.

[AgentJayZ]

@jyatim We don't paint any colors on the lines. Most of them are stainless steel tubing. Sometimes an oil leak can be cooked on to the steel as a brown color.

The engine was taken from an aircraft and so would be in an uncleaned state as we disassemble it.

[343jonny]

Absolutely love your videos! Just wish I would have found out about your stuff earlier. Good stuff to know as I will be working on GE jet engines this summer. Thanks for putting these up!

[eazyethan187]

great video...very cool!!!

[MrFattyfatfatboy]

what about asbestos

[janssen70]

If walter gets an accident can i work instead of him?????

[stdavross666]

what an interesting job, love the video's

[TheMasiker]

i found walter

[MidShipCivic]

How high is the fuel pressure the fuel is sprayed out at ?

[AgentJayZ]

@MidShipCivic The afterburner fuel is supplied at up to 400 psi.

[jiyouuu]

@MidShipCivic do you have a Category B1 AML?

[nguyentuan1990]

how much to get one of these

[AgentJayZ]

@nguyentuan1990 a quarter mil. A bargain at twice the price !

[For54Ever]

where is the blow off lines XD

[AgentJayZ]

@For54Ever If you mean return lines, there are none. The fuel control "controls" how much fuel is supplied to the fuel nozzles, and all of it then gets fed to the combustors.

[canals22]

..Walter is lucky to work there... you'll take this stuff with you at the end pf the trip... I, would love to work with these engines..

[punisher1990]

Working on the weekends, HELL YEAH WALTER! Harvest the overtime!

[Mastermind2011]

What maintains the continuos torque of the turbine after the APU start the engine ? pressure of the fuel burning ?

[AgentJayZ]

@Mastermind2011 The compressor delivers 150 lbs per second of air at 125 psi to the combustors. 35 gallons per minute of fuel is burned in that air. The resulting heat causes the air to expand and rush through the turbine. The turbine, like a windmill, is designed to take energy out of that stream of hot gases, and convert that energy to torque. Torque on the shaft which turns the compressor. This is how the compressor gets the power to turn and compress all that air.

[rektide]

walter is the man

[tranceaddict704]

Any chance you could do a video on the P&W jt11d-20, better known as the J58?

[AgentJayZ]

@tranceaddict704 Send me one, and I'll be happy to do a whole series on it !

[krbruner]

I am not familiar what is involved in fuel metering for jet turbines, but I know for internal combustion that an overly lean fuel/oxy ratio is a bad thing. My first question is, does a turbine even care about the stoichiometric ratio of fuel/air, followed by, does it try to keep that ratio on the rich side similar to an ICE and thirdly, if the engine is dumping fuel into the afterburner, is it possible that there is just not enough oxygen in the exhaust to keep the afterburner lit?

[AgentJayZ]

@krbruner In the combustion chamber itself, there is a huge excess of available air due to the use of air as the coolant, so the fuel burns as if it was a big candle... it just takes what it needs.

The afterburner was invented because after realizing that about 20% of the air ingested by the engine is actually used to combust the fuel, it was thought a good idea to try and burn the other 80% by burning it in the duct "after" the engine.

[DavidHill333]

Good video. This whole section on Jet Engines is fascinating.

[Ham549]

@daveed793 What are you talking about jet engines are simple in comparison to piston engines. It just takes more precision.

[hunterhalo2]

WALTER!

[InfektedMinds]

@daveed793 join the air force, go open mechanical

[apartjay]

man i love your job! 

[AgentJayZ]

@daveed793

Go to the BCIT.ca homepage ... search for gas turbine, and it's the first hit

[arshdeep125]

@AgentJayZ Lol you live in BC lmao <3 Much love brotha! ^^ I live in Abby :D

[lewandlo]

Way to go Walter ,your the backbone of that place. heheheh Very cool to see up close all the tubes hoses and fuel lines.

[Supermassively]

How the heck can you afford jet engines?

[aztecwarrior608]

bad ass video man i got chills watching it juz thinking that in a yr when im done wit school n get my associates in a&p ill be able to work on those engines.

[jdubincali]

Awesome video, thanks for posting...I'm in a aviation tech school earning my A&P with 4.5 months left! Amazing piece of engineering! I appreciate your video, thanks again!

[MusicMan20061210]

Great videos,very interesting stuff to learn about!

Just a thought,You said:In a jet fighter, this engine has the shit beat out of it, and it has a service life of 400 hours between overhaul, which takes thousands of man-hours.

If the planes on an aircraft carrier were to be used at an average rate of 5 hrs/day,the ship could stay out approx. 2½ months. Unless they have spare engines in storage,but that doesn't seem likely.

And doing a major overhaul onboard sounds too resource intensive.

[AgentJayZ]

@MusicMan20061210 An aircraft carrier has many engines in spares for replacements. In the field, engines are swapped out whole and shipped back home.

All overhauls of turbine engines for the US Military ( as far as I know...) are done at a giant, gigantic, huge facility at a Naval shipyard/base, the location of which I'm not sure of right now.

Each engine model has its own specified time between overhauls, and I'm not familiar with the specs of the newer, current engines.

[TalksWithDirt]

When you convert a J-79 to a LM-1500 how many extra rows of turbines do you add? An aircraft only takes as much power from the exhaust to drive the compressors, pumps and aux power needs. The rest is used for thrust. I would imagine industrial use means electricity generation, so I would imagine you add extra rows of turbines. Or does the engine simply blow onto a external turbine/dynamo ensemble?

[AgentJayZ]

@TalksWithDirt We don't add any stages.

The power is extracted by a "power turbine" which is another piece of equipment.

[zayres29]

i would love your job

[basimpsn]

Alot bigger than my single stage turbine for my RC plane lol. Are there 4 seperate holes on each spray bar?. I'm guessing each ring is pressurized buy a pump and controlling AB stages by a fuel solenoids?. I'm thinking of adding AB to my jet engine lol.

[AgentJayZ]

@basimpsn Have you seen my afterburner spraybar test video?

[basimpsn]

@AgentJayZ Found the video, thats some good information. Surprisingly thats how I test my fuel injector ring.

[monimstarfox]

we do the same thing in our aviation high school :D we wear the coveralls has well

i love test cell

[hubzcaps]

walter has my dream jub...wrenchn all day (:::

[chazkez07]

its amazing that those four little lines are responsible for so much extra power.

[AgentJayZ]

@chazkez07 400 psi

[chazkez07]

@AgentJayZ

dang. how long you been workin on turbines?

[AgentJayZ]

@chazkez07 Long enough to not be scared to stand next to one, but not long enough to lose my excitement at just seeing them run!

Yeeeeee Haaaa!

Only thing close is to be live at the start of an indy car race... and that's only close!

[jamestexas244]

Good god that thing has wayyyy too much tubing. I'll stick to my P&W F119

[madbeast302]

you must get a bonner going to work 'eh

i sell cheese in a grocery store!

[AgentJayZ]

@madbeast302 Mmmm, I just bought some extra old cheddar...

I think cheese is a far more important invention in the grand scheme of things than is the jet engine...

There are so many kinds I like, but also so many kinds I have not yet tried.

I like the taste of bleu, but looking at it makes me a bit woozy.

What's the strangest and rarest cheese you know of?

What's your fave?

[andytaggart]

@AgentJayZ Pretty impressive stuff mate. I take it you buy these beasts from airlines because they are past their sell-by date. How much to buy, to recondition and to sell on?

[AgentJayZ]

@andytaggart We buy some surplus aircraft engines, but our main business is in the overhaul and repair of industrial turbine engines owned by other businesses.

[agviator]

Saved to favorites. . .

[silver760]

Are these aircraft engines converted into industrial power plants when the engines run out of flying hours? From what I understand all aircraft components have a set number of hours flight before they must be replaced with a new unit.So despite the engine running out of flying hours they still have a considerable amount of life in them before they are considered to be worn out,making them suitable for conversion to generators.

[AgentJayZ]

@silver760 Sometimes, with some engines, it's something like that.

There are very few engines that are currently or recently used in aircraft, that are also the basis of an industrial engine.

Very few.

One example is the P&W JT8-D, used on DC-9s and 737-200s, which is the basis for the FT8 industrial powerplant.

Most aircraft engines have no industrial application, and most industrial gas generators have no current aircraft counterpart.

[prandtl002]

Dude...I love this video, thanks!

[TheArfdog]

How is are jet engines used in industry? I don't see a shaft or anything to transmit the power.

[AgentJayZ]

@TheArfdog The power is transmitted by hot air...to a separate piece of equipment called a power turbine, which turns a shaft, which drives the load.

We only test the engines... technically they are called gas generators, because they generate a stream of high-velocity gas that the power turbine can use.

[TheArfdog]

@AgentJayZ Thanks. That makes sense, since i suppose a jet engine is designed to produce a "jet", which has a high amount of kinetic energy. The power turbine (I would guess) would further diffuse and slow down the jet of air, converting it to mechanical power. A dedicated shaft turbine engine probably has a more extensive diffuser (performing the power turbine role) than a jet engine. Am I right?

[AgentJayZ]

@TheArfdog No. you are getting caught in the gap between popular meanings of words and their technical meanings.

Diffusion is one word that does not apply here.

And what do you mean by a dedicated shaft turbine engine?

An engine that includes a power turbine in its design?

Such engines do exist; the GE LM6000 is one of them.

They are no more or less efficient in turning fuel into power then the usual gas-generator and separate power turbine arrangement.

[TheArfdog]

@AgentJayZ Actually I was using the technical meaning of diffuser. The device which expands exhaust gas in order to extract more work from it. A shaft-turbine (or turboshaft) drives something directly with its own shaft. Like a turbo-prop plane. I believe it has a more extensive, diffusing turbine, which extracts more energy from the exhaust gas to turn the shaft. Without an extensive diffuser, the energy goes into shooting a jet of air backwards.

[TheArfdog]

@AgentJayZ Like wouldn't a turboshaft have many more turbine stages than a jet engine's 2 or 3?

[AgentJayZ]

@TheArfdog There are many different turboshaft engines.

Typically the term turboshaft refers to what is used in a helicopter.

The most popular turboshaft engine out there has 2 gas generator turbine stages and 2 power turbine stages.

The CF6 large turbofan has a 6 stage turbine driving its fan, and the LM2500 which is almost the same engine, but with a shaft output also has a 6-stage free power turbine.

[klusmanp]

Kind of makes me sad. These beautiful engines once screaming through the wild blue now stuck in some industrial facility as GPUs. I am an aerospace engineer and I own an aerobatic biplane called a Pitts. I spend every day chained to a computer in some industrial facility working as an engineer but on the weekends I scream (well... buzz) through the wild blue in my Pitts. Awesome videos!!

[AgentJayZ]

@klusmanp Don't feel too bad.

In a jet fighter, this engine has the shit beat out of it, and it has a service life of 400 hours between overhaul, which takes thousands of man-hours.

In an industrial application, the engine is pampered, with gradual changes in throttle, and a service life of about 20,000 hours between overhaul.

It will live a long and happy life.

[klusmanp]

@AgentJayZ I suppose I'll want the same pampered treatment when I'm old...

[krisraps]

It Looks So Dangerous

[jdmk20aek]

awesome video man ! these engines are just incredible

[AXHEJAZ]

AWESOME! LOVE THE VIDEOS!

[Antagraber]

Thanks for this video. Now I know a bit more on jet engines. 

[102trafalgar]

Fascinating video. Even at my age I don't stop learning. The CF6-6 you mention in the back groung had 1 1/2 fans I think similar to the Galaxy engines? Have to confess I thought it was an old JT9D. Thanks yet again.

[AgentJayZ]

@102trafalgar Yes, the CF-6 has what GE calls a "core booster" - a smaller second stage to the LP compressor. The first stage of the LPC is what we call the "fan", because most of its output is passed around the core engine.

The second stage is the size of the inlet of the "core" or fuel-burning part of the engine.

The TF-39 was the engine developed for the C5 Galaxy, and it led to the civilian CF6.

The TF-39 had a small 1st stage LP, and a large fan as its 2nd stage LP.

Unusual arrangement.

[Helicopterpilot16]

Hey, at the begining of this video I se what looks like a JT9D engine outside, Could you possibly make a video of the engine it self and is s&s going to run it?

Thanks Tyler

[AgentJayZ]

@Helicopterpilot16 The JT9D was used to power some 747s, and others were powered by the GE CF-6, which is what you see in the background.

The engine we have is part of a long-term project, and it will be the subject of a video or two as it is worked on.

We will run it, but when is still not decided.

[saxonlight]

Very informative, thanks.

[Xx69roadrunnerxX]

Great vid!! Awesome engine!

[AugmentedB737]

what the big turbofan engine at the beginning i guess GE CF6? i would like to see that engine running

[AgentJayZ]

@AugmentedB737

Good eye! That is indeed a CF-6-50. We are embarking on a long, strange project.

I will report on progress as it happens.

[AgentJayZ]

@AgentJayZ Actually, I checked today, and it's a CF6-6. An earlier version of the CF6, with higher bypass ratio, and more suited to our plans...

[tround88]

wow thats awesome, great video.

walter rulez