Date of Award

5-8-2023

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

The work for this project involves the research, design, and testing of the turbine for a Centrifugal Thermal Rocket (CNTR) that can withstand a 420 day round trip human space expedition in terms of efficiency and vibration to suit the needs of NASA.

The project for Team 02 is to design and improve the turbine in the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system. Improvements from the previous years prototype are focused on vibration issues and materials on all elements of the project.

With performance in high temperature, dynamic fluid motion, and high rotation speeds in mind, the team is developing a prototype. The project also pertains to the issue of startup and shut down. Team 20 from the previous year with a similar project proposal, used an electric motor for startup, although to account for high temperatures, Team 02 is taking an alternative approach. The team developed design concepts pertaining to bearings, motors, turbines, structure, and function. Using Pugh and QFD analysis, these concept ideas were narrowed down using engineering and consumer requirements. CAD models of five different turbines were created and analyzed with ANSYS to determine which design choices would produce the best results.

For a proof of concept, a 3D printed prototype was built along with CFD simulations of the printed and possible turbines. Computational calculations to verify that validity of the design in terms of speed, thermodynamics, fluid flow, blade interaction, vibration, and pressure were also included in the proof of concept. Going forward into the next semester, further research and testing will be performed on each turbine along with improvements on the construction of the assembly.

Comments

Team Name: Team 02: Rocket Babies

Company Sponsor: NASA

Sponsor Representative: Michael Houts

Document Reference: URI-MCE-CAP-PDR-2022-02

Download

Share

COinS