Gas Turbine Combustor Research Project, Benjamin Weimer, Micro Turbojet Engine

This video is about a gas turbine combustor project I've been working on for the last 10 months and will continue to perform research on for the foreseeable future. My name is Benjamin Weimer and I am a Mechanical Engineering student concentrated in Propulsion at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona! A bit more information about my history and projects is available at my LinkedIn page here: www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-weimer/ | More of my research updates can be found at my website, weimerind.com/ where I post regular updates of what I'm doing in a more documentational format. The basic premise of the project is to develop a functional propane gas combustor, based on the formulas and calculations developed by YouTuber, ‪@rcdon‬ . I cannot thank this gentleman enough for the work he's done and how it inspired me to believe such a project could even be possible! His website, where the calculations and steps are super conveniently posted is at this link: www.rcdon.com/ At the current moment, I've truly concentrated on developing and testing a combustor platform capable of burning propane in a controlled manner that produces an energy output in the form of accelerated hot gas. Once I've done so successfully, I can take measurements of temperature and velocity, giving me the ability to calculate the theoretical possible energy I could harness from the exhaust flow with a turbine from a turbocharger or otherwise. I hope to use this project as a platform for extensive future research into many areas, including thermoelectric power generation from gas turbines and testing of sustainable gas turbine fuels as the certification of such fuels progresses through the certification and testing phase in the aerospace and energy industries. I began this research as a way to get my hands on gas turbine related componentry and systems, originally stemming from my difficulty in finding any internship positions which would enable me to do so. The drive to prove myself has gotten me through many long nights of hard work and countless hours researching and performing calculations all of my own fruition. I hope this video and project as a whole can serve as a point of information for any others attempting to perform similar research. Seen in the thumbnail is a hypothetical full system render done in ‪@solidworks‬ Student Edition. It shows what I plan on building as a whole system functioning gas turbine, operating on a Brayton Cycle, with the turbocharger's journal bearing oil pressurization, circulation, and cooling system shown at the back. The electronics board featured is a model of a power generation board from a generator I scrapped for parts and represents a possible use of this research to generate electricity! At the front is an air intake ducting system that would allow centralized intake of cold air for the combustion process from a remote location and also for filtering of the intake air for any possible particulates.