Flameout

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A flameout is the extinction of a flame in an internal combustion engine or other combustion- based systems and equipment.

Jet engine

A flame failure during continuous combustion in the combustion chambers of jet engines and propeller turbines is the result of a technical irregularity. Sometimes the English term flameout or the term engine extinguishing is also used in German for this .

Causes for this can be, for example, a sudden interruption of the air flow, the ingress of large quantities of water or foreign bodies, impurities in the fuel or the state of pumping in the turbo compressor. Often this effect is also supported by stall of the induced air to be compressed on the aerodynamically shaped air compressor blades, for instance by supersonic -Druckwellen in the engine inlet, sudden, extreme change of the angle of attack such as when called. Cobra maneuver or flights with negative g-value. Vibration phenomena during combustion, which can be traced back to the beginning of compressor instability, become important for the flame stabilization of the combustion chamber. The meeting of rich or poor combustion mixture (beginning of chemical instability) with high speed and air vibrations (beginning gas dynamic instability) can lead to a flame out, although the phenomena individually still maintain the combustion.

In early jet engines (such as those of the Messerschmitt Me 262 ), errors often occurred in the measurement of the amount of fuel supplied during rapid acceleration or throttling of the engines. B. is often necessary in the landing approach . As a result of these faults, caused by immature mechanical fuel regulators, the fuel / air mixture is so excessively rich or depleted that the flame in the combustion chamber goes out.

A flameout at low altitude was usually associated with a total loss of the aircraft. Flame bursts can also occur in modern jets, but such engine problems rarely lead to dangerous situations. Crashes some F-16 of NATO - Air Force over Germany were attributed to flame breaks.

Known cases

  • November 2002: During a test flight of a Eurofighter Typhoon with pre-series engines, when the afterburner was ignited, the thrust nozzles of both engines were not yet fully open and there was a backlog, which resulted in a stall. The aircraft was completely destroyed in the crash, and the two-person crew was able to save themselves with the ejection seat.
  • October 2004: The crew of Pinnacle Airlines flight 3701 of a Bombardier CRJ200 was unable to restart the engines after a self-inflicted flame out at an altitude of 41,000 feet (12,500 meters). The captain and copilot died in the crash.
  • February 2015: A burst of flame in an engine triggered a chain of circumstances that triggered the crash of TransAsia Airways Flight 235 .

Further occurrences of flame failure

  • Burners in power plants and other energy-related systems can also cause flames.
  • Blowing out a candle is the targeted application of flame demolition.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ google.com: Patent EP0684182A1 - A flame-out preventing fuel pump system - Google patent search , accessed on March 13, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c Willy JG Bräunling: Aircraft engine basics, aero-thermodynamics, cycle processes, thermal turbo machines, component and design calculations . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-662-07270-7 , pp. 429 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ^ Rolls Royce: The Jet Engine . John Wiley & Sons, 2015, ISBN 978-1-119-06599-9 , pp. 175 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ^ A. Venugopal Reddy: Investigation of Aeronautical and Engineering Component Failures . CRC Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-203-49209-3 , pp. 8 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Reinhard Müller: Air jet engine basics, characteristics, work behavior . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-90324-2 , p. 133 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ me-262.de: The Messerschmitt Me 262 , accessed on March 13, 2017
  7. ↑ Miguel Vasconcelos, United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration: Civil Airworthiness Certification Former Military High-Performance Aircraft . Stickshaker Pubs, 2013, p. 135 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Eurofighter Typhoon. In: Airforces Monthly Special. April 23, 2014, accessed May 30, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Joachim Georg Wünning: Manual of burner technology for industrial furnaces, basics, burner technology, applications . Vulkan-Verlag GmbH, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8027-2938-6 , p. 60 ( limited preview in Google Book search).