Minimizing Pressure Losses in the Combustor of a Turbocharger Jet Engine

Abstract

This project set out to minimize the total pressure loss in the combustor of Protesto and Lee’s turbocharger jet engine. Using theoretical and numerical experiments carried about by past researchers, two new combustion liners were designed, built, and tested alongside Protesto and Lee’s liner. After initial testing, the experimental setup was redesigned and rebuilt to output a larger flow rate through the combustors. The fabrication and testing of this project was conducted in the MAE Machine Shop under all of the safety protocols of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite some non-physical data, it was postulated that the qualitative trends were valid. From this, the liner of equivalent diameter to Protesto and Lee’s but with more holes in the intermediate region was determined to have a lower pressure difference than the other two liners. It is recommended that future work improve the experimental setup to increase its reliability. While the complete performance of the combustors cannot be estimated without a “hot” test, this project is a first step towards minimizing the fuel consumption of Protesto and Lee’s engine.