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I worked there! Very interesting technology. Engine development is hard.
by THE_PUN_STOPS 6y ago
I worked there! Very interesting technology. Engine development is hard.
- tomcam 6y agoOk, we need to hear more!
- THE_PUN_STOPS 6y agoIt was just like any startup really, a great team of really smart and dedicated folks trying to disrupt an entrenched industry using new ideas. Lots of simulation, lots of practical prototyping, lots of test rig time. We spent so, so many hours in test chambers observing how a particular engine type behaved with incremental changes to its design, changes which were backed up by simulation. The resulting data was used to strengthen the simulation and we repeated this loop many times. The challenge with this is that there are seemingly infinite different parameters to observe and control in each loop in both the physical and simulated engines, which must be done with high fidelity to learn things. My understanding of thermodynamics was routinely humbled by my coworkers. I remember one time rolling into the office in the morning to find my coworker twirling with excitement and saying something like "I had a realization at 3AM and came to the office and figured out my enthalpy problem!" Working with your buddies to create a working engine from scratch that is unlike any engine that has ever been created before it is a real rush. I recommend it for anyone. Here's a slo-mo video of combustion inside an LP engine. We bolted a thick piece of quartz onto the engine instead of one of the side pieces. https://vimeo.com/111796558 https://vimeo.com/111796558
- tomcam 6y agoDamn what wonderful experience. There are few highs like working with smart people. Thanks for the 20K FPS video. Loved the quartz detail.
- jcims 6y agoWere they able to fully fabricate an engine in house (save for commodity parts)? Does simulation do a reasonable job of wear prediction?
- THE_PUN_STOPS 6y agoYes, mostly in house except for specialty materials, high labor components, etc, similar to the workflow at many small hardware firms with machine shops. We just had more combustion involved than your average hardware company. The compact dimension of the demonstrator engines make that kind of agile development possible--similar to the idea behind Boom's scale demonstrator.
- jcims 6y agoAwesome, thanks for the reply!
- 2sk21 6y agoWhat a great experience you had!
- Maxburn 6y agoFascinating! Is there a video somewhere showing the air flow of all the cycles? Thought I saw something in one video that showed the inside of the rotor being used for something.
- diggernet 6y agoIt looks like the intake and exhaust go through the rotor. https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5f6086e9bbbabd41a20f2984/5f9b85b7d4e3730900987688_hiwlpi-transcode.mp4 https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5f6086e9bbbabd41a20f2984/5f9...