The
turbofan or
fanjet is a type of
airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in
aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a
portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the
turbo portion refers to a
gas turbine engine which takes mechanical energy from combustion, and the
fan, a
ducted fan that uses the mechanical energy from the gas turbine to accelerate air rearwards. Thus, whereas all the air taken in by a
turbojet passes through the turbine (through the combustion chamber), in a turbofan some of that air bypasses the turbine. A turbofan thus can be thought of as a turbojet being used to drive a ducted fan, with both of those contributing to the thrust. The ratio of the mass-flow of air bypassing the engine core compared to the mass-flow of air passing through the core is referred to as the
bypass ratio. The engine produces thrust through a combination of these two portions working in concert; engines that use more
jet thrust relative to fan thrust are known as
low bypass turbofans, conversely those that have considerably more fan thrust than jet thrust are known as
high bypass. Most commercial aviation jet engines in use today are of the high-bypass type, and most modern military fighter engines are low-bypass.
Afterburners are not used on high-bypass turbofan engines but may be used on either low-bypass turbofan or
turbojet engines.