3D Printing for Better Gas Turbine Flame | The Cool Parts Show #42

The swirler is the component of a gas turbine engine that mixes air and fuel to feed a flame, while introducing turbulence and swirl, and also holding the flame in place. It performs in so many different ways at once that the design is difficult to optimize. However, additive manufacturing offers a way to rapidly produce and test different design ideas. In this episode of The Cool Parts Show, we see swirler design iterations made through laser powder bed fusion, and we meet the Penn State University researcher who is working with additive manufacturing graduate students to attack the problem of swirler optimization.
This episode brought to you by Carpenter Additive. www.carpenteradditive.com/
LEARN MORE ABOUT:
- The machining and other steps needed to prepare these swirlers for testing (BONUS EPISODE): • Prototyping Is More Th...
- Penn State Reacting Flow Dynamics Laboratory: sites.psu.edu/rfdl/
- The Penn State additive manufacturing masters program: www.additivemanufacturing.med...
- Laser powder bed fusion: www.additivemanufacturing.med...
- The Cool Parts Show #35 - 3D printed turbine blades: www.additivemanufacturing.med...
- The Cool Parts Show #30 - 3D printed rocket combustion chamber: www.additivemanufacturing.med...
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[@aimlessweasel]

I kept waiting for Integza to pop up... maybe he can do a collaboration with Dr. O'Connor. For sound control I was expecting owl wings or some more complicated trailing edge treatment. Also a bit surprised they just did 2D extruded wing profiles... could have done some bowed or canted wings to take advantage of the free complexity. It would have made the predictions from conventional methods more challenging, but it seems like this is a more blue sky project (pun intended). Basic research is often complicated and messy, but that's how we advance the state of the art. Use it to validate some CFD or perhaps a neural network (do I hear 2 Minute Papers)? Looking forward to part 2.

[@Paul-rk9kq]

very cool, thank you for making this!

[@Lulu58e2]

Thanks again. Fascinating stuff. I was just reading today about using machine learning to control fusion reactions in tokamaks: I won't be surprised to see the same thing happen here with swirlers to achieve optimal mixing (etc.) for different applications. (Also commenting for algorithm).

[@proto_hexagon5649]

an comparation betwen normal turbo and this wings style will be nice.

[@FloridaMeng]

Nice.

[@derrickterrell9133]

Looks a lot alike a Vgt turbo on 6.0 ford diesel

[@hovant6666]

Biomimicry is the zeitgeist marketing buzzword, eh?

[@Sophocles13]

I feel like the Professor overly constrained her students in this instance.

[@kevinoneil7532]

Turban or turbine? She pronounces it turbine and he pronounces it turban. A turban is a long piece of cloth that has nothing to do with motors or engines of any kind.

[@adrianus13]

its due to an accent - don't get so uppity when the host clearly knows what they are referring to