Why does the jet engine still working even if it's in the clouds? and yet clouds has water?

Question

how does the combustion chamber still ignites even if there is water inside?

Answer 1

Same way your car operates in the rain. Actually the moist air is good for the engine. Keeps it cool, moist air has more volume.

In the ole' days we had water injection to produce more power. We would pull max power (temp) then introduce water, the temp would go down and we could pull more power

Answer 2

they are designed to travel through water vapor which is what clouds is. But don't go through Thunder clouds because they contain Hail which can destroy the engine

Answer 3

There is still air ton air per square foot as compared to the amount water droplets per foot. So the ratio is still very dry. They will run in huge amounts of rain, when in doubt thet turn on the igniters. Heavy turblance that normally comes with heavy rain is more likely to cause a flameout. And the burn in the engine is constant  so its not a matter of relighting it every split second.

Answer 4

yes there is some water vapor, but its still mostly air particles in the cloud.

Answer 5

A turbine, (jet,) engine only actually combusts about 25% of the air that passes through it.

Also, the air passing through the compressor section of a turbine reaches about 400 deg. C before going through the diffuser and into the combustion liners, at which point the water is now in a state referred to as "steam."

To give you an idea just how much water a turbine engine can ingest, I'll point out an experience at school. We had an antiquated J-83 we'd use for practice run ups, (so old we had to blend gasoline and diesel to run it.)

Among the other tests we did while running the engine was try to suffocate it with water from a garden hose. The building had pretty fair water pressure and delivery.

The engine had been taken apart and reassembled so many times that the seams didn't fit well any more. Water would drip several compressor stages back from the inlet.

I doubt you could extinguish that thing with anything short of a fire hose when it was running at power. So, if you can imagine the adances in engine technology between the 1960's era and today, modern engines are probably even harder to snuff out with water.

Flying through a cloud, as far as the engine is concerned, is like trying to put out a brush fire with a super-soaker.

JT

Answer 6

Jet engines are built to be able to handle a good bit of water.

Proof positive --  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V06LBgfux...

Answer 7

In some cases they actually make more power in rain. Some aircraft water inject at higher altitudes to enhance fuel economy. Hail doesn't really form at real high altitudes, but I am sure it doesn't do the compressor blades much good. We used to seek out clouds to wash off the plane, I was a Navy P-3 crewman.

Answer 8

There is still plenty of air inside a cloud to provide combustion for an engine.  After all... You can still breathe while walking in fog, and fog is just a low hanging cloud.

Answer 9

One can turn on the manual igniters in heavy rain to keep the engine from flaming out.  Also a lot of the water gets diverted before it reaches the combustion chamber.  Finally as a number of people have mentioned flying through clouds actually assist in cooling and therefore one can increase power with out the worry of over temping.

Answer 10

There's really not very much water in a cloud.  It's pretty diffused water vapor.  Not enough water to put out the fire of a jet engine, which is pretty darn hot.