The Design of A Turbojet Afterburner

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Harrison Milne, Ashish Pokharel, Jordan Selig
The Cooper Union Department of Mechanical Engineering

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Advisor: Professor George Sidebotham
Fall 2016

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Background
The Cooper Union owns an AMT Mercury Micro Turbojet

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Engine. Two former mechanical engineering students
AF fabricated a test stand and a basic instrumentation kit for
the jet engine. We are expanding upon this work by
designing and fabricating an afterburner for the system.

Design Functional
AMT Mercury Micro
Turbojet Engine
Constraints Requirements
Operation in engine lab Inject fuel between turbine
Retrofit existing nozzle, and nozzle
but be independent of Ignite stable flame
turbojet Easy to operate
Characterizing the Turbojet
Using the techniques and principles of Thermodynamics,
Fluid Mechanics, Gas Dynamics, Rocket Science, and
Afterburner Design
Computational Fluid Dynamics, as well as the experimental Using the characteristics and flow properties from the turbojet
work performed by Cooper Union alumni who also worked analysis, as well as the existing nozzle geometry, a preliminary design
with the turbojet, the Cooper Union Turbojet was fully Current afterburner fuel solution was developed. The design consists of a fuel injection system
characterized. This involved completing a Brayton Cycle
injection design that will inject fuel after the turbine and in the nozzle. The fuel injectors
analysis, a control volume analysis, a compressible flow in the afterburner will act as bluff bodies to reduce localized exhaust
nozzle analysis, and a Rayleigh Flow analysis. Turbojet nozzle gas velocity, improving combustion stability and efficiency.
Nozzle hub

CFD Analysis of Nozzle With Theoretical Results

Afterburner Concept
Region of low flow velocity
due to flow separation and
turbulence

CFD Analysis of Nozzle Afterburner concept

Nozzle shroud
Future Work
A series of experiments needs to be
performed in order to better understand
the ignition of a gas in a high velocity
Nozzle hub stream of air, flame stabilization, and the
capabilities of The Cooper Union testing
facilities. Once this is complete,
fabrication, testing, and verification can
be carried out.
High velocity jet