Role

Turbomachinery Development Engineering Associate

• Design of Pump Hardware to Assist in Raptor Engine Development

• Preliminary Hydrodynamic Design of Stator

• Modifications to Pump Water Flow Test Facility

• Software Utilized:

  • CAD Generation & GD&T in Semiens NX

  • ANSYS Static-Structural, Blade-Gen, & CFX

  • 3D Mesh in NUMECA Autogrid

I designed a scaled replica of a NASA inducer that integrated on Raptor hardware and operated in SpaceX’s Pump Water Flow Test Facility. The purpose of this scaled inducer was to operate at the same flow coefficients as both NASA & Aerospace Corporation conducted and compare results with theirs. If results were to match theirs, this would validate the functionality the of test facility & conclude that all previous Merlin & Raptor pump testing was satisfactory. My role was I generated the 3D geometry of the scaled inducer to have a constant radial clearance to tip radius. The inducer also featured a bore geometry to integrate onto Raptor’s fuel Turbopump and a new design feature to ease assembly & disassembly. I also created drawings per GD&T and performed a tolerance analysis to ensure a proper fit.

In order for the scaled inducer I mentioned above to operate at desired flow coefficients, it needed an additional pressure rise to complete the cycle on the test rig. To achieve this, it was decided to incorporate my scaled inducer onto Raptor pump hardware. To maintain a smooth transition from the trailing edge of the scaled inducer to the leading edge of the Raptor pump, a custom stator was needed. Utilizing ANSYS Blade-Gen for vane generation, NUMECA Autogrid for 3D-Mesh generation, & ANSYS CFX, I ran multi blade-row CFD simulations to iterate through various vane geometries. After a couple iterations, I established a preliminary hydro-design with no visible flow separation/recirculation & at a desired impeller incidence angle.

I successfully owned a modification to SpaceX’s Pump Water Flow Test Facility to enable optical access to study cavitation of Raptor’s CH4 & LOX development inducers. During the design phase, I performed duties such as: material selection of a transparent material, CAD generation, “hand-calcs”, static structural analysis in ANSYS, and drawings per geometric dimensioning & tolerancing standards. Shortly after presenting design reviews, I proceeded as a build engineer and interfaced with both internal & external supplier to ensure hardware was fabricated on time & under budget. That followed with integrating the hardware onto the pump test stand, procuring & installing lighting, and selecting high-speed cameras. At the conclusion, I presented SpaceX with the first ever video of inducer cavitation.

Raptor Engine Static Fire

Sound On!