How stators increase air pressure in jet engine?

The Stator's role in a jet engine is to increase air pressure and help improve the direction and stability of the air flow. The stator, usually located in the compressor part of the engine, is a ring structure consisting of a series of stationary blades. Here's a detailed explanation of how stators increase air pressure in jet engines:

Working principle

• What the compressor blades do: In a jet engine, the rotor blades rotate to compress the air entering the engine, thereby increasing the pressure of the air.The stator blades (stator vanes) follow the rotating compressor blades, they are stationary, and are used to adjust and stabilize the air flow after compression by the compressor blades.

• Airflow direction: When the air is compressed by the rotating compressor blade, the airflow will have a rotating component (i.e. vortex), which will lead to turbulence and instability of the airflow.

• Energy conversion: The stator blades help convert rotational kinetic energy into static pressure energy by redirecting the airflow. In this way, after passing through the stator blades, the pressure of the air flow is further increased, while reducing the kinetic energy loss.

Function of stator

• Improved efficiency: By eliminating the rotating component of the airflow, the stator blades can improve the efficiency of the entire compressor, so that more energy is converted to the pressure of the compressed air, rather than being wasted in vortices and turbulence.

• Stable air flow: The stator blades stabilize the air flow and reduce irregular fluctuations in the air flow, allowing subsequent combustion chambers and turbines to operate more efficiently.

• Loss reduction: The design of the stator blades can help reduce energy loss due to uneven airflow or turbulence, thereby improving the performance of the entire engine.

Application example

In modern jet engines, stator blades are often used in conjunction with rotating compressor blades to form a multistage compressor system. Each stage of the compressor contains a set of rotating blades and a set of stationary stator blades, which gradually increase the air pressure into the engine through multiple stages of compression.

Sum up

The stator's role in a jet engine is to help increase the pressure of the compressed air flow by redirecting and stabilizing the compressed air flow of the rotating blades, and to improve the quality of the air flow. Through the action of stator blades, the efficiency of compressor can be effectively improved, thus increasing the overall performance of jet engine. The working mechanism of the stator combined with the rotating blade is one of the keys for jet engines to compress air efficiently.