Carleton University — Research Assistant

Skills

CAD (SolidWorks)MATLABCFD (Fluent)Excel

Summary

Simulated the cold and hot flow of the JetCat P500 to establish a baseline burner efficiency and validate whether targeted design improvements increase it.

Section 1

Cold and Hot Flow Simulation

JetCat P500 combustion zones diagram — Figure 1: P-500 Combustion Zones

Using reverse-engineered properties and geometry from the JetCat P500, a cold flow simulation of the gas turbine was performed.

Cold flow simulation results in Ansys Fluent — Figure 2: Converged cold flow simulation

After inputting the boundary conditions into Ansys Fluent, the cold flow simulation was run to convergence.

Discrete-phase fuel injection simulation — Figure 3: Discrete-phase fuel injection

Using the converged results, a discrete phase was used to simulate fuel injection. Species transport paired with a custom Chemkin mechanism was used to simulate combustion.

Combustion simulation results with species transport — Figure 4: Combustion simulation

Section 2

Fuel Injector Study

Developed an empirical relationship to determine at what size an engine should employ fuel injection instead of vaporization. Key findings:

For engine mass <= 17.6 kg, vaporization is preferred.
For engine mass >= 46 kg, atomization is preferred.
More data is needed for engines between 17.6 kg and 46 kg.
Vaporization is preferred for engine volumes <= 0.037 m^3, while atomization is common above 0.053 m^3.
In line with the observed trends, most of the unknown engines can be assumed to use pressure atomizers.

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