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Jet Engine Project

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Neil

Sun Apr 01 2012, 10:50AM

Registered Member #1458 Joined: Wed Apr 30 2008, 09:47AM
Location:
Posts: 51

After building Tesla Coils and HV Capacitor Banks I decided to start working on a slightly different project, a Jet Engine. I thought some of you may be interested in this despite the lack of electrical content in it, so am posting my progress so far in the General Science section.

I decided to base the design on using a Turbocharger rather than building those more critical parts myself, they are easy to acquire, reasonably cheap through their mass production and are designed to run at the RPM I am after. The Turbo I purchased was the largest I could find online, rated for a 1000HP engine.

Below are details of my progress so far.

First off I drew it up in Autocad 2011 as a 3D model to get all my sizing right, then drew construction drawings from this to allow me to order my steel and stainless steel

I purchased 316 stainless steel from a company that would plasma cut it with a computer controlled machine from submitted drawings, they came out very neat. Other assorted parts are in the picture too.

This picture shows the 90 PSI fuel pump & regulator, 80 PSI oil pump, ignition system and oil cooler for the turbo

I then started pressing up the stainless steel to shape

1333271599 1458 FT0 Combustion Chamber Bend

All the flanges were then drilled, and I could tack it all together

1333271702 1458 FT0 Plates Drilled Tapped

1333271702 1458 FT0 Progress For The Weekend

I then started working on the combustion chamber, the jet is designed to run off a liquid fuel such as petrol rather than a gas. I have made a flame tube to help hold the flame and ensure the inrushing air doesn't blow out the flame, then to allow the fuel to vaporise I have made an evaporator tube which extends up into the flame to heat the fuel before doubling back and allowing the vapour to exit at the end. This will hopefully avoid large burning droplets of fuel making it to the turbo, and improve efficiency.

At the other end, I have welded some pipes around the circumference to give the flame tube something to rest on and centre it, and also to provide some restriction to the airflow. Ideally most air will enter the flame tube through all the small holes, however some air will flow on the outside and through the pipes welded around the circumference, this serves 2 purposes, it will keep the combustion chamber cool so radiant heat doesn't burn hoses and any other items in the frame, and also provides a cool surrounding to the hot gas to allow it to travel up to the turbo hopefully keeping the transition and bend cool also.

The Jet will also have an afterburner which is the purpose of the nozzle. I have also welded a flame holder in this to try and maintain a flame and not let it be blown out. The flame holder extends back up close to the entrance of the exhaust gasses from the Turbo, the flame will them extend over the pipes leading to this and help to vaporise the fuel to allow as much fuel to burn in the nozzle as possible before exiting.

The Jet is starting to take shape as the Turbo and piping is assembled

The fuel will be ignited using 2 x Jacobs Ladder kits purchased from Jaycar, they are connected to spark plugs, one box will be connected to the combustion chamber, the other will be connected to the afterburner . The circuits have been mounted into a box to keep it neat and protected from damage.

The control box is made from lexan and wood. I still have to finish it by painting the front panel, install the switches onto that panel and connect it all to the Jet. It has 6 gauges to monitor the Jet:

Pyrometer
Oil Temp
Oil Pressure
Fuel Pressure
Boost Pressure
Voltage

Fuel and oil will all be run in stainless steel braided hose with Aeroflow fittings.

I still have a fair bit of work to go to finish, I will post an update as more work is completed and then a video when its finished and running.

Ash Small

Sun Apr 01 2012, 11:30AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Very nice work, Neil. Keep us posted on progress.

IamSmooth

Sun Apr 01 2012, 06:45PM

Registered Member #190 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 12:00AM
Location:
Posts: 1567

Nice work. What are you going to do with it?

Neil

Mon Apr 02 2012, 10:26AM

Registered Member #1458 Joined: Wed Apr 30 2008, 09:47AM
Location:
Posts: 51

At this stage the plan is just to get it running and enjoy using it. If it produces any useful thrust, I may consider extending the frame, adding wheels, steering, a seat etc but will look at that later on, the thought of the noise and flame is what is driving me to finish it as I think it will be quite interesting to see running.

IamSmooth

Mon Apr 02 2012, 02:04PM

Registered Member #190 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 12:00AM
Location:
Posts: 1567

Have you done anything like this before (engines, welding, brazing). It looks nice. Make sure you take videos.

Steve Conner

Mon Apr 02 2012, 02:58PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Yes, this looks like a great project! I'll be very interested to see it done. What thickness of metal did you use? Some of the parts look seriously hefty.

Neil

Tue Apr 03 2012, 07:22AM

Registered Member #1458 Joined: Wed Apr 30 2008, 09:47AM
Location:
Posts: 51

Thanks for the comments.

Yes I was once what they call a boilermaker here in Australia, not sure what they call it in the rest of the world but its basically a trade on welding and fabricating metal so I have had a lot of past experience in that regard.

Steve, most of the plates and pipes are 6mm. It is quite heavy and hard to bend/shape/drill, however I thought it was worth it as I wanted to ensure it was thick enough that it can cope with heat well without glowing instantly, it might allow me to run the afterburner for more time before the end wants to glow red. I will be the first to admit I have probably overdesigned the thing, but given the time and money this is costing me to make, I thought I would aim more for reliability.

Chip Fixes

Tue Apr 03 2012, 09:33PM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

Wow! Looks great! I'm excited to see the finished product, on another note.. Lexan is fantastic stuff!! Virtually unbreakable

Neil

Wed May 16 2012, 08:12AM

Registered Member #1458 Joined: Wed Apr 30 2008, 09:47AM
Location:
Posts: 51

I have now finished my Jet. I am very pleased with the result. So far I have only commissioned it, running it at idle to iron out the bugs, one of which caused the turbo to be damaged due to low oil pressure, however I have sorted that issue out now, just waiting for the replacement turbo to arrive.

Even at idle it pumps out a huge volume of gas, I am really looking forward to increasing the RPM and seeing how much thrust I get. I also need to tune it a bit to get the afterburner to run constantly when I turn it on.

Here is the YouTube video, it goes through most of the build pictures at the beginning and the starting of the jet and running it during the commissioning is toward the end

Some pictures of the final build of the jet are below

Jrz126

Wed May 16 2012, 03:24PM

Registered Member #242 Joined: Thu Feb 23 2006, 11:37PM
Location: Erie PA
Posts: 210

Looks good.
Is it safe to stand that close to it? I'd at least wear long pants and a welding jacket.

I was cutting into a car and had a gas shock inside the bumper blow up in my face. Spent a month on the couch recovering. I'm a bit more cautious around fire now.

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