Syed Raza 161/03/2019

High energy ignitor unit

The unit is supplied with 28 volts DC from the aircraft's batteries. And what we need to do is up that
voltage. We cannot use a transformer with DC. The trembler mechanism trembles, it switches on
and off very rapidly, and this creates a magnetic field which can be used to transform the DC to a
crude AC waveform, we would get a sawtooth wave from. The parallel capacitor charges when the
trembler mechanism opens and releases the charge when the trembler mechanism closes, the
charge is released to give the primary coil of the transformer extra bit of energy.

We can use the transformer to boost the voltage in the secondary could to around 25000 volts. We
do not want to have a spark that is A.C because the spark would be jumped one way and then the
other this would not work for this circuit. So firstly we need to change the 25000 volts of A.C back to
A.C and to do that we use rectifiers which have 2 one way diodes which stop the current going back.
After the rectifier we have 25000 D.C. after this the current goes to the reservoirs capacitator. This
energy is stored in the reservoir capacitator. When there is enough charge in the reservoir
capacitator, the energy will jump the discharge gap. The discharge gap is held within an evacuated
tube. The reason behind this is so the amount of energy needed to jump the gap is not affected. The
humidity, temperature or any other factors cannot affect how much energy is needed for the
discharge. The energy from the discharge gap now goes to the choke, because the choke creates a
back E.M.F its slows down the current flow, this slowing down of the energy makes a longer spark
which means there is more time for the fire to be lit. then we have the discharge resistors which are
used for the job of safety vice if any energy is left after the discharge gap it will be released back into
the ground through these resistors. We also have safety resistors, and these are used to make sure
that the capacitor does not overcharge, and this can happen if the brake is not working

The ignitors themselves can be either older type which are like car spark plugs, but the problem is
that every time the spark jumps the electrode erodes a little. The modern is what we call the surface
discharge; this has no electrode or anode. With this, a charge builds up until 2000v, and then the
ions create a flashover which is used to create the spark for the igniter

Task 16 Pneumatic starter

The starter is driven by high-pressure air from various sources. This uses an epicyclic gearbox. This
reduces the speed of the output while increasing torque. The reason this is good is that this reduces
in wear of any parts that are spinning. Once the engines start the starter motor disconnects which
increases the life of the parts in the starter motor, this is due to the fact that once the starter motor
has been used to start the engines, they will not be used again until the next flight. The reduction in
the time that the starter motor parts are spun are reduced greatly.

The compressed air comes from

 a ground power unit using a small gas turbine engine. A pallouste/ gas turbine engine. This
production of compressed air is just a gas turbine engine, and the exhaust gasses are used to
start the engine
 a small diesel power engine with a compressor built on it. The compressed air would be used
to start the engine
 An APU which has a separate compressor we used to supply air for starting. You can also
take air from the engine for the use of starting up the engine. If you were to lose the power
to both of your engines mid-flight, you could use the APU to start the engines again.
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 All the starting processes are controlled from the cockpit. You have to select which engine to
start and select how you start an engine
 Another way of powering the pneumatic starter is a Coffman starter which is a 4-inch
cartridge which has a quick blast of air.
 Another method is by using an AVPIN starter which is a very volatile gas that when it burns
creates a lot of gas which is used to start the engine.
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