Flagship Project
Turbopump FYP
WIP: Designed, built and tested a 20,000 RPM turbopump delivering 0.4 kg/s at 20 bar for a liquid rocket engine - my final year thesis.
TurbomachineryCFDTest RigThesis
Thesis title: Experimental and Computational Investigation of Small-Scale Turbopump Performance with a Novel Barske-Type Impeller.
Key Details
- Compressed air driven, pumping water at 20,000 RPM — tackling the challenges of small-scale low-cost turbomachinery design.
- With a specific speed of 6.5, the project compares the Barske impeller design to a full emission impeller.
- A supersonic turbine was designed and built to drive the pump, preparing for future gas-generator testing.
- For component testing, an electric motor drives the pump and a hysteresis brake loads the turbine. A torquemeter provides accurate efficiency readings.
- Full test rig designed and built to measure flow rate, pressure and efficiency.
- All electronics designed and built in-house using the rocket electronics system I developed the previous year.
- Centrifugal pump and supersonic turbine designed from first principles.
- Comprehensive safety case: risk assessment, SOPs, emergency response plan, FMEA, blast shield, electrical safety, noise analysis and more.
- Currently in progress: experimental testing, CFD analysis and thesis writeup.