“Dancing gracefully with chaotic forces will yield a better return than brute forcing your way through nature ever will, or something along those lines” – Me
Saturday January 31st,
I had spent that afternoon banging my head against my computer trying to configure Open FOAM on my virtual Linux Mint OS before going to a Viking themed shindig. A lot of weird and providential forces have been at work to get me to that point. To get stuck with installation config problems (sort of a fun puzzle to be solved in my case) seemed laughable and mildly devastating. You look lost, let me catch you up.
OpenFOAM® or Open Field Operation and Manipulation is a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) toolbox learn more at http://www.openfoam.org. What that means for me is that I can test the air dynamics and combustion properties of prototypes before actually building anything. Then you would probably say: Prototypes of what? Then I would say: Oh, yeah… Hang on a sec.
Post Mortem Gifts From Nikolai Tesla or How Tesla Helped Save Pulse Jet Engine Technology.
I browse the web a lot for technology. For a long stretch I was intrigued with Pulse Jets. For more than you ever wanted to know about pulse jets check out http://www.pulse-jets.com/pulse3.htm. Basically it’s a jet engine without the turbofan or compressor, it is really quite amazing… and loud. So obviously I wanted to spec one out for myself to be built. After reading some I thought to myself, Nikola Tesla’s Valve conduit would really help here. Lo and behold that specific device was mentioned in a piece of the history of Pulse Jets.
In 1915 (I think) NT patented a valve that had a preferred flow through it. He might have had different plans for it, he was going on about his Tesla Turbine at the time so maybe it was related to that *shrugs*. Whatever though. He got distracted with electricity for a while after that, or maybe he wanted it to be found and figured out later…?
Yes there are PJEs that operate off of moving valves, those might even be a better fit for what I want, but a valveless PJE is so much more elegant in my opinion.
So that’s my current aim. Design and test the Valve Conduit for use in a Pulse Jet Engine. I have CAD’d a 3D model of the V.C. rotated so as to fit in a housing. Now I just need to test and tweak it in Open FOAM.
I have a friend that has a 3D printer so once I get the values I want the rapid prototyping will be a cinch.
Whatever I learn from this venture will help me better understand the limitations of making a Pulse Detonation Engine, more on that later.