Afterburners, how do they work?

U

Unforgiven

Spaceman
I was wondering lately how afterburners would work in space? I mean they can't possibly work like the real thing here on Earth. Come on LOAF, I know you have the answer to this one :)

For the record, this is how real afterburners work:
A normal Jet engine sucks air in through the front, uses it to burn fuel, and then blows the resulting gasses out the back at extreme high speed.
At some point this process became so efficient that not all the air could be burned given the speed they could pump and burn fuel in the engine. So they put extra fuel lines at the back of the engine nozzle, spray fuel in the remaining airstream and burn it there.

Without air in space this would be kind of hard. So how do WC afterburners work?
 
That reminds me of how Michael Okuda answered when he was asked how Star Trek's transporters work: "Very well, thank you."
 
TADAAH!!! An other success for the ZIM!

It's a seperate fuel-tank. Works just as fine in atmosphere.
Don't stand behind it when ignited :D

Anyone brought sausages?

-ZIM (for your general annoyance)
 
I hate to whine (actually that's not true ;) ), but...
Why are they called afterburners then. Seems to me they are just burners if they do that.
Alright I know the reason, it's because it's a good name and everyone knows the concept and is not as lame as calling them boosters...

God I hate it when I do that.

Now where are we going to find sausages that withstand several thousand Kelvin...
 
purchaseable in the better supermarket!

How afterburners work:

Extra gas is injected into the craft's engine.
This reacts with it's Kerosin.

It's as simple as that.

I think it would look different in space though, because there is no oxygen there to be consumed.

If you still don't understand it completely, go to a NASA site.

Hope to have been of advice,

iMZ
 
this is how I say they work, the afterburners through extra fuel into the superhot plasma release from the normal engine that fuel ignites (so there would be oxygen released with it too) and provides extra thrust
 
THey probobly work the same way the space shuttles engines work in space. You need air to get any kind of combustion in an engine going even your normal car engine
 
Rocket engines work just fine in space ... you just need to take your own oxygen with you to burn.

The 'afterburners' in WC are most likely very different in operation to the afterburners on current jets. However, their purpose remains the same - to provide a large and rapid acceleration at the expense of fuel. They probably operate fairly similarly to a current rocket engine: a mixture of fuel and oxygen combusting to eject gas at high speed. The fighter only carries a limited amount of 'afterburner' fuel, hence you can fly virtually forever on standard engines, but have limited afterburner time. The word afterburner is probably a misnomer, however we are familiar with the term and its operation so the name has probably stuck even though the after burn process no longer exists.
 
I agree with Azrael. In Privateer, in the Ship Component Purchasing Shop (or whatever), the picture of the Afterburner looks exactly like modern-day jet afterburners; I figured that instead of the aforementioned extra fuel lines that the projections surrounding the main thrusters (in WC, not Real Life) were either simply extra thrusters or some type of special shields; if the shield assumption were the case, the afterburner/boost effect would be accomplished by simply pumping more fuel/plasma/what have you into the combustion chamber, and the afterburner-shields would keep the increased intensity of the blast or plasma flow under control.
Zim, you suck. ;)
 
the afterburners have to work with plasma because the dragon/lance had unlimited afterburner (not mentioning the ships from privateer)
 
Plasma? I go by Azrael's explanation, although instead of rocket fuel as we know it today (which probably isn't very efficient) Dragons/Lances make use of the high concentrations of hydrogen scooped up.

The civilian ships in Privateer simply pump out more thrust from their limited engines, I think.

The Prophecy-era ships, while possessing scoops like the Dragon/Lance, still have limited afterburn. I can't explain that. Perhaps they use 'traditional' fuel, or maybe they just can't make use of the scooped hydrogen as efficiently as the Dragon/Lance. They're also very small ships, if you remember.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
Plasma? I go by Azrael's explanation, although instead of rocket fuel as we know it today (which probably isn't very efficient) Dragons/Lances make use of the high concentrations of hydrogen scooped up.
Click to expand...

plasma. the 4th state of matter. i read somwhere about how plasma could be used in an ion engine. somthing about the magnetic repulsion caused by the atoms. so that would create an ion rocket that is similar in principle to regular rockets
 
Yes, I know what plasma is, but the only time I recall plasma being mentioned is the slow-firing weapon in Privateer.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
Yes, I know what plasma is, but the only time I recall plasma being mentioned is the slow-firing weapon in Privateer.
Click to expand...

its a slow firing weapon in a lot of the games.
 
Whoops, yeah, they are, aren't they? :eek:

Well, as a weapon then, I don't recall plasma ever being referred to with regards to fuel.
 
I haven't, either, but you never hear them saying that it *wasn't* used as fuel. ;)
Yeah, I read the same thing about the ion-plasma engine in a Popular Science mag. If it's true, then the ion-engined WCIV Bearcat did use plasma (at least in part) for propulsion).
Besides, in the late 27th century, I doubt they're still using chemical rockets.
 
Yes, WC engines are probably plasma based. As we all know the fuel used is nuclear. Fighters probably use fission, while the cap ships use fussion. This difference makes sence when you consider the engine differences actually mention in the story. In fighters, the fuel, probably uranium or plutolium pelets, get bombarded with neutrons collected from space. This reaction creates waiste in the form of plasma. It is this plasma, once accelerated by magnets, that gives us the thrust to move the craft. Normally, the ammount of fuel being used is meaningless as you don't need a lot of force to move an object in space. However, when the afterburners are used, fuel is consumed quickly to get the higher accelerations. Also, WC engines are refered to as "ion drives" in the manuals. Plasma is a substance made up of ions.
 
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