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If the energy is produced by the mass itself, as in a chemical rocket, the fuel value has to be /, where for the fuel value also the mass of the oxidizer has to be taken into account. A typical value is v e {\displaystyle v_{\text{e}}} = 4.5 km/s, corresponding to a fuel value of 10.1 MJ/kg.
A corollary of this is that, particularly in air breathing engines, it is more energy efficient to accelerate a large amount of air by a small amount, than it is to accelerate a small amount of air by a large amount, even though the thrust is the same. This is why turbofan engines are more efficient than simple jet engines at subsonic speeds.
The best performance (in terms of thrust efficiency and power-to-thrust ratio) can be obtained using high atomic weight alkali metals, such as cesium (Cs, 133 amu) and rubidium (Rb, 85.5 amu). These propellants have a low ionization potential (3.87 eV for Cs and 4.16 eV for Rb), low melting point (28.7 °C for Cs and 38.9 °C for Rb) and very ...
Since the power equals thrust times speed, the efficiency is given by = / where V is speed and h is the energy content per unit mass of fuel (the higher heating value is used here, and at higher speeds the kinetic energy of the fuel or propellant becomes substantial and must be included).
Rocket propellant is used as reaction mass ejected from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical rocket, or from an external source, as with ion engines.
This imparts additional energy to the propellant, so that one can extract more work out of each kilogram of propellant, at the expense of increased power consumption and (usually) higher cost. Also, the thrust levels available from typically used arcjet engines are very low compared with chemical engines.
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 energy input might be rendered in several different types depending on the type of propulsion, and normally such energy is presented in liquid fuels, electrical energy or food energy. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The energy efficiency is also occasionally known as energy intensity . [ 3 ]