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The type of jet engine used to explain the conversion of fuel into thrust is the ramjet.It is simpler than the turbojet which is, in turn, simpler than the turbofan.It is valid to use the ramjet example because the ramjet, turbojet and turbofan core all use the same principle to produce thrust which is to accelerate the air passing through them.
The familiar study of jet aircraft treats jet thrust with a "black box" description which only looks at what goes into the jet engine, air and fuel, and what comes out, exhaust gas and an unbalanced force. This force, called thrust, is the sum of the momentum difference between entry and exit and any unbalanced pressure force between entry and ...
If a jet aircraft is at full throttle but attached to a static test stand, then the jet engine produces no propulsive power, however thrust is still produced. The combination piston engine –propeller also has a propulsive power with exactly the same formula, and it will also be zero at zero speed – but that is for the engine–propeller set.
The thrust-to-weight ratio is usually calculated from initial gross weight at sea level on earth [6] and is sometimes called thrust-to-Earth-weight ratio. [7] The thrust-to-Earth-weight ratio of a rocket or rocket-propelled vehicle is an indicator of its acceleration expressed in multiples of earth's gravitational acceleration, g 0. [5]
Specific impulse (usually abbreviated I sp) is a measure of how efficiently a reaction mass engine, such as a rocket using propellant or a jet engine using fuel, generates thrust. In general, this is a ratio of the impulse, i.e. change in momentum, per mass of propellant. This is equivalent to "thrust per massflow".
TSFC or SFC for thrust engines (e.g. turbojets, turbofans, ramjets, rockets, etc.) is the mass of fuel needed to provide the net thrust for a given period e.g. lb/(h·lbf) (pounds of fuel per hour-pound of thrust) or g/(s·kN) (grams of fuel per second-kilonewton). Mass of fuel is used, rather than volume (gallons or litres) for the fuel ...
To get thrust, an aircraft engine is either a shaft engine – piston engine or turboprop, with its efficiency inversely proportional to its brake-specific fuel consumption – coupled with a propeller having its own propulsive efficiency; or a jet engine with its efficiency given by its airspeed divided by the thrust-specific fuel consumption ...
Similarly to jet engines, matching the exhaust speed and the vehicle speed gives optimum efficiency, in theory. However, in practice, this results in a very low specific impulse, causing much greater losses due to the need for exponentially larger masses of propellant. Unlike ducted engines, rockets give thrust even when the two speeds are equal.