This week, we refined our presentation skills and progressed essential project decisions. After completing revisions to our Preliminary Design Report (PDR), we toured one of our manufacturing spaces on Tuesday. This tour improved our understanding of our manufacturing capabilities, which guided our finalized concept selection efforts.

Continuing to solidify our concept selection, we selected two parameters to investigate with CFD testing. These parameters were orifice shape and angle, concluded to be influential on performance while remaining practical for manufacturing. Once our CFD testing is complete, we will select one of these parameters to vary for manufacturing, coming to a conclusion based on which parameter has the greater impact on performance.

Additionally, we furthered our research into our wind tunnel test environment, as discussed in Week 6. From this, we concluded that we should leave a margin on either side of our orifices, as the flow near the edges of the test section is less stable than that in the center. In the coming week, we will modify the spacing and size of our orifices to account for this margin, which was determined to be one-quarter of the test cross-section width, from both edges.

This week, UF class operations will be halted on Friday for homecoming. Despite this, we are excited to carry our momentum from this week into Friday, as we will be presenting our PDR to GE Aerospace.