meritflyer
Well-Known Member
Why is it that turbine engines are so much more reliable than piston?
What's the mechanics behind the two?
What's the mechanics behind the two?
Turbine Reliability vs. Piston
- Thread starter meritflyer
- Start date
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
In simple terms, a piston engine works by making small controlled explosions that move parts that move other parts that eventually spin a prop.
A turbine works mostly by air pressure changes created by spinning parts and maintained by continuous "explosions" that move air.
Which one sounds less damaging to you?
A turbine works mostly by air pressure changes created by spinning parts and maintained by continuous "explosions" that move air.
Which one sounds less damaging to you?
OldTownPilot
Well-Known Member
Short explanation:
In a piston engine things are stopping and starting, and gas explodes.
In a turbine it is all constant motion. The gas burns rather than explodes.
In a piston engine things are stopping and starting, and gas explodes.
In a turbine it is all constant motion. The gas burns rather than explodes.
H46Bubba
Well-Known Member
frog_flyer
FredFlyer
EDUC8-or
Well-Known Member
Come on man, it's squirrels! Some lady was complaining about how small our plane as she was boarding in LaGarbage and I had to deplane to speak with the fueler. The FA asked where I was going and I told her I had to check on the squirrels to make sure they had plenty of acorns to spin the engines all the way to Charlotte.
EDUC8-or
Well-Known Member
Shouldn't you be drunk or something?
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
On the internal company site people were talking about the standard "it's such a small plane" remark. The highlights...
-Nope, it's just that your wife's (err...) backside is really big.
-A lot bigger then your Pinto.
-It isn't small when I shove it up your.... (care of a TYS FO. Those hillbillies)
-Small town, small plane.
Some people never cease to amaze me.
EDUC8-or
Well-Known Member
I've been trying to get onto that website for over a year now. I was finally approved by the mod and now MS won't let me log on because my account hasn't been active and I can't reset my stinkin' password.
I was present for the Pinto comment, that was also at LGA and the CA said it right to the face of the passenger. I pretty much lost it. He's at SWA now.
JaceTheAce
Well-Known Member
Metal fatigues from the constant changing motion of pistons when it goes from TDC to BDC over and over again. The crankshaft is forced to deal with a huge amount of stress and fatigue. The turbine engine on the other hand is constantly revolving and isn't forced to stop and go the other way 1000s of times per minute like the piston has to.
JaceTheAce
Well-Known Member
kellwolf
Piece of Trash
You left out bullet proof. Seriously.
Airdale
Well-Known Member
Also, its worthy to note that Turbine engines are self sustaining, where as piston engines are not. Once a Turbine engine gets going, the Compressor turbine drives the axial stage turbines, thus feeding more and more air. Once the cycle is started, a disruption in fuel, or a reverse flow of air caused by a traffic jam (compressor stall) are really the only two things that can kill it, minus a compressor or stator vane flying off and disrupting the cycle.
Piston engines are very violent in terms of how they use their internal components. Pistons, rings, connecting rods, crankshafts etc. get abused very heavily and therefore are more likely to fail. As mentioned before and a famous saying we had in our engineering department in the CG - more moving parts = more s**t that breaks. Piston engines also rely heavily on a timely order of combustion. When one piston is up, fuel needs to be injected and spark supplied at a key moment, and this cycle goes back and forth between all of the cylinders. If the timing, or injection of fuel and ignition of spark, happen a fraction of a second too late, you get pre-ignition "hot spots" on the cylinder walls (often referred to as "knocking"). If ignition occurs when the piston is still on an upstroke, you get detonation and things start getting stressed.
Turbine engines are amazingly reliable and their power output is even more amazing. Yet their design is very simplistic in nature. In theory, Turbine engines don't need nearly the amount of maintenance that piston engines do.
Piston engines are very violent in terms of how they use their internal components. Pistons, rings, connecting rods, crankshafts etc. get abused very heavily and therefore are more likely to fail. As mentioned before and a famous saying we had in our engineering department in the CG - more moving parts = more s**t that breaks. Piston engines also rely heavily on a timely order of combustion. When one piston is up, fuel needs to be injected and spark supplied at a key moment, and this cycle goes back and forth between all of the cylinders. If the timing, or injection of fuel and ignition of spark, happen a fraction of a second too late, you get pre-ignition "hot spots" on the cylinder walls (often referred to as "knocking"). If ignition occurs when the piston is still on an upstroke, you get detonation and things start getting stressed.
Turbine engines are amazingly reliable and their power output is even more amazing. Yet their design is very simplistic in nature. In theory, Turbine engines don't need nearly the amount of maintenance that piston engines do.
