For this project, I designed and implemented a manifold to distribute fuel and air into a combustion setup at Mesodyne. This experience involved more complex design elements including balancing lead time and longevity, manufacturability, and fluid flow dynamics.
It was necessary for this part to be created as quickly as possible. As a result, I decided to print it in-house from PLA. This obviously directed the design towards being printable, as well as being “just good enough”. The shift away from perfectionism is an important idea, and something I hadn’t done previously.
The goals of the part are to uniformly distribute air and fuel into concentric tubes, and allow room for additional DAQ electronics. This was done by using internal tori to redirect fluid flow.
Cross-sectional view: showing upper and lower tori, fuel syringe holes, as well as o-ring grooves for tight seals.
This device worked well to uniformly distribute airflow in two separate tubes for combustion, while fuel was injected through needles moving vertically through the base. An additional piece was used to attach to an 8020 aluminum bar. The DAQ electronics including thermocouples and glow plugs are inserted through the bottom.
The tori included tapped openings to insert NPT fittings, shown below.
The manifold worked well for its purpose. The accelerated timeline for a part like this meant perfection would take too long, and thus is unnecessary. This concept is critical to effective and realistic engineering.