I have a question (that I probably could google), but when you turn on the afterburner, you're talking about sudden increase in speed and thus higher pressure, but is it possible to gradually turn on the afterburner in steps to minimize the sudden thrust ?
As per @Afif ’s explanation , you can introduce afterburner in stages. The fuel spray nozzles can be adjusted in say 5 stages in the case of f16s to increase afterburner level in increments.Yes. You can gradually increase the afterburner's thrust. But if your engine is not designed to withstand that increase it is still going to be a problem.
When the fuel air mix is burnt in the combustion chamber to the full it would create too high a temperature for the innards of an engine to withstand. Therefore a cooler air is introduced by the compressor to the airflow before it goes through the turbines. So when the hot air exits the turbine it has a good deal of oxygen in it. When you spray this hot air with fuel, it will use this oxygen and reheat the exhausted air, increasing thrust.
During dogfight when you are in full dry thrust and suddenly need extra power to get out of a sticky situation or you find there is a missile on your tail, you are not going to think about staged afterburner.
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