Gas Turbine Engine: A Senior Design Project

This paper describes a senior design project conducted by two senior mechanical engineering students at the Virginia Military Institute. Completion of a capstone design project is a requirement for VMI’s bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. The objective, of this project was to design and build a radial flow gas turbine engine, that will be incorporated as part of an undergraduate energy laboratory program. A commercially available turbocharger was used for the compressor and turbine portions of the engine. As part of the design analysis the students developed the system of equations necessary to simulate the engine and used them in a computer model to predict the design and off-design performance of the engine. The results of these computer simulations were used to size and design the various engine systems and components. The engine systems and components designed by the students included a combustion chamber, fuel system, ignition system, lubrication system, starting system, instrumentation, and test stand. The combustion chamber was designed based on required air and fuel flow rates predicted by the engine simulation. The combustion chamber was fabricated from stainless steel using inert gas welding techniques. Instrumentation included gas temperature and pressure measurements, engine speed, and thrust measurements. The lubrication system was sized and fabricated from commercially available components, as were the fuel and ignition systems. The paper describes the sizing, fabrication, and operation of the completed engine.