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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev Aug 2018

Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Currently, 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas (primarily methane), a potent greenhouse gas, are flared off for environmental and safety reasons. This process results in enough fuel to provide the combined natural gas consumption of Germany and France. The research team developed a thermophotovoltaic device to convert thermal energy to electricity at a high efficiency using proprietary emitters and combustion system. With the current focus being fuel efficiency and the combustion process, the assembly was simulated using ANSYS Fluent modelling software and the following parameters were optimized: air/fuel ratios, flow rates, and inlet sizes. Simultaneously the heat transfer across …


Additive Manufacturing Of High Solids Loading Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grains, Stephen P. Johnson, Michael Baier, Ibrahim E. Gunduz, Steven F. Son Aug 2017

Additive Manufacturing Of High Solids Loading Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grains, Stephen P. Johnson, Michael Baier, Ibrahim E. Gunduz, Steven F. Son

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Hybrid rocket motors offer many of the benefits of both liquid and solid rocket systems. Like liquid engines, hybrid rocket motors are able to be throttled, can be stopped and restarted, and are safer than solid rocket motors since the fuel and oxidizer are in different physical states. Hybrid rocket motors are similar to solid motors in that they are relatively simple and have a high density-specific impulse. One of the major drawbacks of hybrid rocket motors is a slower burning rate than solid rocket motors. Complex port geometries provide greater burning surface area to compensate for lower burning rates …


High Pressure Combustion And Supersonic Jet Ignition For H2/Air, Michael G. Woodworth, Sayan Biswas, Li Qiao Aug 2015

High Pressure Combustion And Supersonic Jet Ignition For H2/Air, Michael G. Woodworth, Sayan Biswas, Li Qiao

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There are many incentives to increase the fuel efficiency of combustion processes. This paper looks at two available options to achieve this goal. The former aims to develop an experimental method that can analyze combustion at extremely high pressures to improve the understanding of high pressure H2/air combustion. Experimental data has been lacking a suitable combustion diagnostic to visualize high pressure combustion processes, making it difficult to improve the process. Improvement of x-ray diffraction tomography in a windowless combustor makes it possible to see flame propagation at high pressure. The procedure and chamber are still in the design phase, yet …


Development Of Combined Dual-Pump Vibrational And Pure-Rotational Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (Dpvcars And Prcars) System, Shenli Yuan, Aman Satija, Robert Lucht Aug 2014

Development Of Combined Dual-Pump Vibrational And Pure-Rotational Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (Dpvcars And Prcars) System, Shenli Yuan, Aman Satija, Robert Lucht

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) [1,2] is a spatially-resolved, time-resolved spectroscopic technique for quantitative measurements in reacting flows [3 – 6]. This work demonstrates a combination of N2/O2/CO2 dual-pump vibrational coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (DPVCARS) system and two-beam pure-rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (PRCARS) system. It is based on the previous development of combined VCARS and PRCARS system which was used to obtain temperature measurements in non-premixed H2-air flames. The new combined system will be used to measure the temperature profiles and major species concentrations such as N2/O2/CO2 …