Propulsion

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Armadillo Aerospace's quad rocket vehicle showing

visible banding (shock diamonds) in the exhaust plume
from its propulsion system
Propulsion means to push forward or drive
an object forward .[1] The term is derived
from two Latin words: pro, meaning before
or forward; and pellere, meaning to drive.[2]
A propulsion system consists of a source
of mechanical power, and a propulsor
(means of converting this power into
propulsive force).

A technological system uses an engine or

motor as the power source (commonly
called a powerplant), and wheels and
axles, propellers, or a propulsive nozzle to
generate the force. Components such as
clutches or gearboxes may be needed to
connect the motor to axles, wheels, or
propellers.

Biological propulsion systems use an

animal's muscles as the power source, and
limbs such as wings, fins or legs as the
propulsors.

A technological/biological system may

use human, or trained animal, muscular
work to power a mechanical device.

Vehicular propulsion
Air propulsion
A turboprop-engined Tupolev Tu-95

An aircraft propulsion system generally

consists of an aircraft engine and some
means to generate thrust, such as a
propeller or a propulsive nozzle.

An aircraft propulsion system must

achieve two things. First, the thrust from
the propulsion system must balance the
drag of the airplane when the airplane is
cruising. And second, the thrust from the
propulsion system must exceed the drag
of the airplane for the airplane to
accelerate. The greater the difference
between the thrust and the drag, called the
excess thrust, the faster the airplane will
accelerate[2].

Some aircraft, like airliners and cargo

planes, spend most of their life in a cruise
condition. For these airplanes, excess
thrust is not as important as high engine
efficiency and low fuel usage. Since thrust
depends on both the amount of gas
moved and the velocity, we can generate
high thrust by accelerating a large mass of
gas by a small amount, or by accelerating
a small mass of gas by a large amount.
Because of the aerodynamic efficiency of
propellers and fans, it is more fuel efficient
to accelerate a large mass by a small
amount, which is why high-bypass
turbofans and turboprops are commonly
used on cargo planes and airliners[2].

Some aircraft, like fighter planes or

experimental high speed aircraft, require
very high excess thrust to accelerate
quickly and to overcome the high drag
associated with high speeds. For these
airplanes, engine efficiency is not as
important as very high thrust. Modern
combat aircraft usually have an
afterburner added to a low bypass
turbofan. Future hypersonic aircraft may
use some type of ramjet or rocket
propulsion[2].

Ground

Wheels are commonly used in ground propulsion

Ground propulsion is any mechanism for

propelling solid bodies along the ground,
usually for the purposes of transportation.
The propulsion system often consists of a
combination of an engine or motor, a
gearbox and wheel and axles in standard
applications.

Maglev

Transrapid 09 at the Emsland test facility in Germany

Maglev (derived from magnetic levitation)

is a system of transportation that uses
magnetic levitation to suspend, guide and
propel vehicles with magnets rather than
using mechanical methods, such as
wheels, axles and bearings. With maglev a
vehicle is levitated a short distance away
from a guide way using magnets to create
both lift and thrust. Maglev vehicles are
claimed to move more smoothly and
quietly and to require less maintenance
than wheeled mass transit systems. It is
claimed that non-reliance on friction also
means that acceleration and deceleration
can far surpass that of existing forms of
transport. The power needed for levitation
is not a particularly large percentage of the
overall energy consumption; most of the
power used is needed to overcome air
resistance (drag), as with any other high-
speed form of transport.

Marine

A view of a ship's engine room

Marine propulsion is the mechanism or

system used to generate thrust to move a
ship or boat across water. While paddles
and sails are still used on some smaller
boats, most modern ships are propelled by
mechanical systems consisting a motor or
engine turning a propeller, or less
frequently, in jet drives, an impeller. Marine
engineering is the discipline concerned
with the design of marine propulsion
systems.

Steam engines were the first mechanical

engines used in marine propulsion, but
have mostly been replaced by two-stroke
or four-stroke diesel engines, outboard
motors, and gas turbine engines on faster
ships. Nuclear reactors producing steam
are used to propel warships and
icebreakers, and there have been attempts
to utilize them to power commercial
vessels. Electric motors have been used
on submarines and electric boats and
have been proposed for energy-efficient
propulsion.[3] Recent development in
liquified natural gas (LNG) fueled engines
are gaining recognition for their low
emissions and cost advantages.

Space
A remote camera captures a close-up view of a Space
Shuttle main engine during a test firing at the John C.
Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi

Spacecraft propulsion is any method used

to accelerate spacecraft and artificial
satellites. There are many different
methods. Each method has drawbacks
and advantages, and spacecraft
propulsion is an active area of research.
However, most spacecraft today are
propelled by forcing a gas from the
back/rear of the vehicle at very high speed
through a supersonic de Laval nozzle. This
sort of engine is called a rocket engine.

All current spacecraft use chemical

rockets (bipropellant or solid-fuel) for
launch, though some (such as the
Pegasus rocket and SpaceShipOne) have
used air-breathing engines on their first
stage. Most satellites have simple reliable
chemical thrusters (often monopropellant
rockets) or resistojet rockets for orbital
station-keeping and some use momentum
wheels for attitude control. Soviet bloc
satellites have used electric propulsion for
decades, and newer Western geo-orbiting
spacecraft are starting to use them for
north-south stationkeeping and orbit
raising. Interplanetary vehicles mostly use
chemical rockets as well, although a few
have used ion thrusters and Hall effect
thrusters (two different types of electric
propulsion) to great success.

Cable

A cable car is any of a variety of

transportation systems relying on cables
to pull vehicles along or lower them at a
steady rate. The terminology also refers to
the vehicles on these systems. The cable
car vehicles are motor-less and engine-
less and they are pulled by a cable that is
rotated by a motor off-board.

Animal

A bee in flight

Animal locomotion, which is the act of

self-propulsion by an animal, has many
manifestations, including running,
swimming, jumping and flying. Animals
move for a variety of reasons, such as to
find food, a mate, or a suitable
microhabitat, and to escape predators. For
many animals the ability to move is
essential to survival and, as a result,
selective pressures have shaped the
locomotion methods and mechanisms
employed by moving organisms. For
example, migratory animals that travel
vast distances (such as the Arctic tern)
typically have a locomotion mechanism
that costs very little energy per unit
distance, whereas non-migratory animals
that must frequently move quickly to
escape predators (such as frogs) are likely
to have costly but very fast locomotion.
The study of animal locomotion is typically
considered to be a sub-field of
biomechanics.

Locomotion requires energy to overcome

friction, drag, inertia, and gravity, though in
many circumstances some of these
factors are negligible. In terrestrial
environments gravity must be overcome,
though the drag of air is much less of an
issue. In aqueous environments however,
friction (or drag) becomes the major
challenge, with gravity being less of a
concern. Although animals with natural
buoyancy need not expend much energy
maintaining vertical position, some will
naturally sink and must expend energy to
remain afloat. Drag may also present a
problem in flight, and the aerodynamically
efficient body shapes of birds highlight
this point. Flight presents a different
problem from movement in water however,
as there is no way for a living organism to
have lower density than air. Limbless
organisms moving on land must often
contend with surface friction, but do not
usually need to expend significant energy
to counteract gravity.

Newton's third law of motion is widely

used in the study of animal locomotion: if
at rest, to move forward an animal must
push something backward. Terrestrial
animals must push the solid ground;
swimming and flying animals must push
against a fluid (either water or air).[4] The
effect of forces during locomotion on the
design of the skeletal system is also
important, as is the interaction between
locomotion and muscle physiology, in
determining how the structures and
effectors of locomotion enable or limit
animal movement.

See also
Transport
References
1. "Beginner's Guide to Propulsion" .
www.grc.nasa.gov. Retrieved
2017-10-25.
2. Beginner's Guide to Propulsion NASA
3. "Archived copy" . Archived from the
original on 2009-05-17. Retrieved
2009-11-25.
4. Biewener, A. A. 2003. Animal
Locomotion. Oxford University Press,
USA. ISBN 978-0198500223,
https://books.google.com/books?
id=yMaN9pk8QJAC&dq=biomechanics
+biewener&source=gbs_navlinks_s
External links
Media related to Propulsion at
Wikimedia Commons

Look up propulsion in Wiktionary, the

free dictionary.

Pickering, Steve (2009). "Propulsion

Efficiency" . Sixty Symbols. Brady Haran
from the University of Nottingham.

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