First Meeting with Mr. Adamczyk -- Pre-Project -- February 9th, 2023

 Yesterday, we had our first meeting with Mr. Adamczyk to discuss our project. We expected to have a 30-minute discussion about what we wanted to accomplish and how we were planning to do it, but the phone call ended up last 1 hour and 45 minutes. Mr. Adamczyk asked us about our goals and why we were interested in doing this project, explained some physics and math about turbofan jet engines, expressed his concerns about safety, and nudged us into pursuing a project with a ducted fan rather than a turbofan or turbojet. His concerns around safety were due to the high temperature of burning jet fuel and the manufacturing capabilities necessary to produce balanced spinning parts. He gave us a lot to think about in the direction of our project and we will likely be meeting with him on a biweekly basis from now on. Here is a summary of the notes we took during the meeting: 

The notes are about jet engines and their types, components, efficiency and history. Some topics covered are:

- The relation between inlet pressure, rpm and kinetic energy in jet engines
- The risk of jet engines blowing up due to increased pressure
- The contributions of Whittle, von Ohain and GE to the development of jet engines
- The difference between turbojets and turbofans and their propulsive efficiency
- The concept of unducted fan and propeller with stators
- The application of Bernoulli's principle and Brayton cycle to jet engines
- The idea of building a ducted fan or a stator for a ducted fan to demonstrate Bernoulli's principle
- The factors that affect the efficiency of jet engines, such as pressure ratio, temperature and compressor type

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #1 -- Pre-Project -- May 8th, 2023

     Behind this project personally was a combined interest in my family legacy and engineering. My grandfather worked as a jet engine designer at General Electric for many decades, and since my childhood, I've always been fascinated by his work. As I grew up, that fascination coincided with my genuine curiosity in STEM subjects, particularly engineering. Taking classes like physics and chemistry has begun to satiate this curiosity, but in many ways, this project is an extension of my own curiosity. In this project, I hope to create a jet engine, but more broadly I hope to get a better understanding of the engineering process on a broader level. I want to be able to understand exactly what undertaking a big problem by breaking it down into smaller steps and troubleshooting them looks like.      Essentially, I want to answer the question: How does one undertake a massively complex project by breaking it down into smaller problems and working through them? Bu...
Read more

Blog #3 (Ben) -- Reflection on Design Process and Preliminary Testing -- May 16th, 2023

Image
               These are the drawings from our designs of the full model, inlet, impeller, and diffuser. As a quick review of the function of each part: the inlet is vital for the efficiency of the impeller, the impeller brings in air, and the diffuser channels the air into the correct place and makes sure the air is traveling in the correct way (no spin).      Our design process was quite smooth despite having to both work on the same file. We used Fusion 360 and shared all of our files with each other so we could work on them at any time. We were able to use an online design for the impeller, and Nikhil designed the inlet flange and diffuser based off that impeller. We chose the design for the impeller that we did because it was used to test rocket engines so we assumed it was an efficient design. I also enjoyed making the drawings in Fusion so that they can be easily understood and helpful.      On 5/16, ...
Read more