Anyone built a Turbine Engine?

[Simon Says]

Hey I am in the process of building a turbine engine out of spare parts here and there. Well, real early in the process. So far I have a turbo charger and ducted it to a burner. I plan on having it run off of propane and it would only be a stand model.

I have looked over the internet and there are several garage turbine engine plans out there. I am just wondering if anyone else has taken on this endevour.

 

[VNugget]

Me and some friends were actually planning to hit the junkyard this week. I'm all giddy.

You gotta respect those guys (I'm sure you've seen the sites) that don't use a turbocharger, and machine their own impellers and turbines.

 

[Simon Says]

Yeah, no machineing for me. I am scavaging all the parts from Walmart and the junk yard.

Are you using any plans.

 

[VNugget]

No real "plans" available, but the following 2 pages have a little bit of detail on the combusion chamber, and that will probably be the hardest part. Most everything else is just plumbing.

http://www.junkyardjet.com/primitive.html
http://www.technologie-entwicklung.de/Gasturbines/Turbocharger/turbocharger.html
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/gas/combust.htm

Here' some plans for an ignition circuit, but it would be much simpler to use a magneto if we can get a hold of one. Everything's practically already done for us in this case.

http://www.wclintdavis.com/id8.html

And here's some other general sites. You've probably already come across them all, but just in case...

http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet/turbine1.htm
http://freespace.virgin.net/dyno.power/gasturbine/gasturbine.htm
http://www.diygasturbines.com/main/
http://pfranc.com/projects/turbine/top.htm
http://www.wclintdavis.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIYGasTurbines/

 

[Simon Says]

A couple of them I have not. Nice. How many guys you got on your build team? For me it is just me, myself, and I. And my wife yelling at me that I am going to burn the house down. LOL

Are you going to use a turbo-charger. I think it would be easier, at least for me. I picked one out of a Nissan. Looks in pretty good shape, although I gotta through an oil pump on it.

THIS THING IS GOING TO LOOK WICKED!

I am guessing I will get maybe 10-20lbs of thrust. LOL not enough to power a skateboard.

 

[VNugget]

So far just me and 2 friends friends from school, but I'm sure that as it moves along and news spreads, more people will pitch in their various skills. (Nunchuck skills, bo staff skills...) This is gonna be the most kickass summer project ever!

Hell yeah we're using a turbocharger, none of us is qualified to even think about scratch-building anything that's gonna be turning at six-digit RPMs and heated to a thousand degrees. Can you say "grenade?"

I'm really glad I found that Yahoo group and the diygasturbines.com forum, learning from others' experience will probably be a great resource.

Aside from those, my favorite site is this guy's FAQ. It pretty much sums over all the important points, especially the section on inspecting a potential turbocharger before picking it for use.

 

[GravityHater]

jeez I think I'd stand well back, and out of the arc that an uncontained failure would make when running it. Otherwise sounds like a blast (er, a lot of fun).

 

[PeteCO]

You should assemble like 8 of them and mount them to the back of a long-ez.

You could then log multi-engine turbine time, just like that guy that mounted little AMT turbojets on his CriCri. Wouldn't THAT be a hoot.

If you used 8 of them, you could tell everyone "yeeeep, it was just like flying the BUFF".

 

[wrxpilot]

That's a pretty cool project to get involved with. I'm a turbine designer, but everything I do is based upon mega $$ such as single crystal cast serpentine blades, FEA design, etc. I saw a video a few months ago of a guy that built one out of a turbo and it did work pretty decent. There's actually a few commercial engines that use centrifugal compressors like your turbo (the Allison/Rolls T56 is I think). Seems like the difficult part would be the combustor, but I'm sure there's a lot of stuff out there. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

 

[VNugget]

My membership for the Yahoo group just got approved.

Whoa.

Absolutely. Positively. Join it. It's a goldmine of information. They have a "starer" section where they have compiled all the stuff they have learned from trial and error... like basic combusion chamber dimentions, operating parameters, dimention relations, actual plans for ignition circuits, tachs, etc...

 

[Simon Says]

Alright, I will submit my name and stuff now. I don't think actually igniting the thing would be a problem, but the real problem would be to have it sustained.

Anyways, I will join up on the Yahoo group.

 

[EagleRJ]

I've thought about trying this sometime. It seems like a worthwhile way to apply for the Darwin Awards in the name of science!

One of the sites mentions switching to liquid fuel. I think the reason most people use propane is that it's already pressurized high enough to feed into the burner can. Any fuel needs to be under more pressure than a normal fuel pump can manage, just to overcome the pressure inside the hot section. A diesel injection pump works with those kinds of pressures, but those aren't cheap!

Anyone know how the R/C turbine engines pump fuel? Maybe they're so small the pressure isn't that high, or maybe it's because they're only a single stage.