We are excited to announce that we successfully presented our Preliminary Design Report to GE Aerospace last Friday! We received some valuable feedback from our liaisons about the progress of our project and have spent this week working on updating our designs based on their feedback. This PDR experience provided us with valuable insights into technical engineering presentations, and this week we presented these insights to our IPPD class.

Working on updating our designs based on PDR feedback, we spent this week modelling a new manifold for our wind tunnel testing. It was determined that this new manifold was necessary to let us switch orifice designs and still easily collect data from our testing. For these designs, we’ve been focusing on figuring out how to design the component to be strong enough and how to connect our testing sensors. That took the form of research and FEA testing.

Following our decisions last week, in which we decided which parameters to investigate with CFD, we began our CFD analysis using Ansys. We started testing different orifice designs to see how they will behave at the wind tunnel conditions. After the investigation we hope to decide which of the orifices would be best to manufacture and test in the wind tunnel.

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.

This week, we made strides in developing our presentation skills and advancing key project decisions. After finalizing the details and designs for our PDR, we presented our slide deck to a group of peers on Tuesday. This presentation gave us an opportunity to practice effective communication and receive feedback. We look forward to using the valuable insights we gathered to prepare for our final PDR presentation, which will be given to GE Aerospace.

Building on our task of concept selection from previous weeks, we worked to determine a group of optimal designs for further CFD testing and eventual manufacturing. We used decision matrices to compare the independent variables in our wind tunnel test section plate designs. However, certain factor combinations may not be practical to manufacture, so we will investigate our manufacturing capabilities and create a manufacturing plan in the coming week.

We also conducted further research into the limitations of our wind tunnel test environment, as discussed in Week 5. It appears we will likely need an external low-pressure environment, generated using a vacuum pump, to control the pressures in the test environment. In the coming week, we will continue our research and develop concepts for this test configuration in our lab.

Due to Hurricane Milton, UF operations were halted mid-week. Although this slowed some of our progress, we still managed to make significant strides and look forward to starting next week with renewed momentum.

This week, our team has been focusing on creating our presentation for the PDR peer review this coming Tuesday. We met with our coach this week to discuss parameters and designs to include in the PDR and get approval from our liaison. He taught us concepts from compressible flow that are important to understand when designing our test components and told us about some problems we would have to solve to begin testing. One of these problems is that the atmospheric pressure (pressure in the room) is higher than that of the wind tunnel where we will be conducting our tests. Since our project requires extracting air from the test section, this is an issue because pressure travels from high concentration to low concentration. This means that instead of air flowing outward from the wind tunnel, the air will be flowing into the test section, which will cause damage to the system. This week has been a lot of discussion about how to fix this problem and continue to progress our project.

As mentioned last week, we have been finalizing the geometry of the isolator orifices. This has been another topic of extensive discussion. We decided to try simulating multiple configurations through Ansys CFD which is currently being worked on. Another consideration is manufacturing a few sets of plates to install into the wind tunnel that have different orifice geometries and simply running tests to get real physical data.

We also did our IPPD lab training this week and were joined by Team 1! The lab is very nice and we are all very excited to be able to work, prototype, and have meetings in here. Stay tuned to see what we come up with! See you next week.

This week GE Aerospace invited us to an event they were hosting where they gathered all of the aerospace design teams and presented to them what they have been working on as a team. This gave our team the opportunity to present our IPPD project to other GE Aerospace employees outside of our liaisons and present our project to others who may not be familiar with it. This helps us give a better understanding of what is important to present when talking about our project.

Within the scope of our team, we have started creating an outline of our PDR, diving the report, and creating a roadmap to ensure we meet our deadline. We have also decided to change the shape of our isolator duct to rectangular since this is how we decided we will test it and get the most accurate results from our testing. Stay tuned as we continue to finalize our orifice geometry!

This week, our team made significant progress toward advancing our wind tunnel testing methods. We toured Dr. Ukeiley’s wind tunnel lab, where we explored various flow imaging techniques and brainstormed ideas to scale the wind tunnel for our desired testing. With safety training at the Herbert Wertheim Laboratory completed, we’re now fully cleared to work in the lab. Additionally, we designed a concept model using SolidWorks and prepared a presentation for our meeting with liaison engineers. Next week, we’ll coordinate IPPD lab access, attend an event with GE Aerospace, and begin our preliminary design review. We’re also developing our project roadmap to keep everything on schedule.

Looking ahead, we’re working closely with the liaison engineers to finalize dates for site visits and receive approval for our preliminary designs. With everything on track, we’re excited to dive deeper into testing and refinement in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

At Hyperstream Solutions, our name reflects the dynamic nature of our approach to problem-solving and innovation. We move at the speed of progress, channeling the energy and momentum of rapid advancements to deliver high-impact, efficient solutions. Just as a hyperstream represents a powerful and unstoppable current, our team is dedicated to forging paths through even the most complex challenges with precision, creativity, and relentless drive. 

Our current project focuses on investigating the effects of bleeding air from a dual-mode ramjet isolator, which is capable of handling extremely high-speed airflow. This study has never been done before, presenting countless opportunities for innovation. Our team will design and manufacture an isolator test rig to conduct tests and simulations, then analyze the data to determine the impact of air bleeding on performance. We will share more specific details after we meet with our GE Aerospace Liaisons. 

Stay tuned as we continue to innovate, create, and push the boundaries of what’s possible—one hyperstream solution at a time. 

Hello everyone!

We’re excited to share that our team has officially kicked off our journey together. This week marked our very first meeting, and it was a fantastic start to what promises to be an incredible collaboration. Here’s a glimpse into what we accomplished and our plans moving forward.

We introduced ourselves, sharing our majors and interests. We coordinated a weekly meeting time, discussed roles and responsibilities, and began deciding on a team name and logo. Additionally, we scheduled a meeting with our coach to introduce ourselves, gain a broader understanding of the project, plan our first liaison meeting for next week, and complete our Scope of Work table. Stay tuned for official team name and logo!