Thermodynamics simulation v6: a Jet Engine!

Finally got a jet engine working. Since I don't have a way of simulating combustion (not yet), I force the working fluid to expand by heating it up inside of the combustion chamber with a heat exchanger.

An interesting side effect of this approach is that I can also simulate a reverse jet engine that works on cooling down the gas inside of it. I'm not sure they exist in real life but it definitely works in theory.

Another thing to mention is that this engine works on positive displacement turbines, they don't "leak" even on low rpm and because of this the engine is pretty easy to self-start and it does not require crazy rpm to work. Real turbines/compressors are very inefficient at low rpm's in comparison.

The preferred direction of the engine is determined by the two turbine's blade pitches: the one with higher pitch "wants" to be a turbine and the one with lower pitch tends to become a compressor. If I cool the gas inside of the engine instead of heating it up, they swap roles.


0:00 just agitating the turbines with the mouse to show how they react
0:10 heating up the working fluid/gas inside of the engine with a heat exchanger causes it to work for a while until pressure inside of it equalizes with the pressure outside (the engine is contained in a closed box)
0:47 if I start cooling down the gas outside of the engine (to simulate an open environment with constant pressure, sort of), the engine can continuously work if I persuade it enough by nudging
1:00 the engine starts a self-sustained cycle
1:57 i showcase that curiously the engine can work in reverse if the environment is hot and it cools the gas inside of the engine. Let me know if you know how it is or could be accomplished from an engineering standpoint.