Dear Class:
I look forward to meeting with you on Tuesday morning in Room 1310 of the E.V. Williams Engineering and Computer Science Building. In case you didn't know, we are in the process of building out a new engine laboratory at 860 West 44th Street (behind Monarch Way, in a building known affectionately as The Torpedo Factory). We have the following equipment that we plan to begin to use this semester:
A Flow Bench (to be moved from Kaufman Hall)
A small engine dynamometer (up to 100 HP, to be moved from the Langley Full Scale Tunnel in Hampton--we also have four Briggs and Stratten Animal Engines)
A new 1000 HP engine dynamometer that will be installed and available for testing high performance (spark and diesel) engines (focusing on biodiesel)
A new "spintron" which is a very sophisticated cam-follower drive system and laser valve position sensor that will allow us to study the dynamic behavior of high performance cam systems at high RPMs.
An in-cylinder pressure transducer and encoder system that will allow us to measure the instantaneous pressure in the combustion chamber as a function of crank angle.
A modest suite of exhaust gas analyzer sensors.
In addition, Dr. Taj Mohielden has recruited a graduate student who is working on a very sophisticated engine combustion simulation program that we hope to test with data from some of your projects.
The good news is that the equipment in our new engine laboratory is worth a quarter of a million dollars. The bad news is the lab is not yet ready for us to use and we will be working to bring all of that equipment on line during the fall semester. The goal for justifying the laboratory expense is to demonstrate that we have begun to study how to operate a high performance diesel engine when it is operated using a variety of fuels ranging from "at-the-pump" diesel fuel to algae-derived biodiesel, by the end of the semester (that won't be your problem).
There are nine of you enrolled in the class and I would like you to organize yourselves in three-person teams. Each team will have a particular engine research and development project from among the following:
1. Develop an improved powerplant for the upcoming Formula SAE competition(s) and prove it out using the equipment in the engine laboratory--areas that can be considered are spark and timing, valve train, intake and exhaust manifold design and combustion chamber modifications. (If there aren't enough FSAE people in the class, the same project will be available using one of our Briggs and Stratton Animal engines.)
2. Develop a Spintron laboratory unit using a racing engine as the test article.
3. Develop a test plan and execute a dynamometer test for a high-performance diesel engine.
4. Develop a laboratory unit using the in-cylinder pressure transducer and crank angle encoder and coordinate the measurements with Dr. Mohielden's graduate student simulations.
5. Develop an engine simulation program that models the behavior of the Briggs and Stratton Animal engine with sufficient accuracy to enable you to study how various design modifications will affect performance.
Finally, I would like to encourage all of you to keep your Thursday mornings open between 9:00 AM and noon. In the past, students in this class have been unable to get together to work on homework and other projects and as a result the overall output of the class has suffered. If you can keep that three-hour time slot open, you will be able to work together in the engine lab when you need to and you will be able to do first-rate work on your homework assignments. If you actually have six hours a week to devote to this course, you will already be going a long way toward succeeding in this class.
There aren't very many engineering programs in the US with the range of engine laboratory equipment that will be available to you this year. However, being available and being an integral part of your educations will require some hard work by all of us. I look forward to working with you.