Grant: Strategic Projects Supplemental Competition

The proposed research will study a new, high risk/high reward, engine technology for hybrid fuel cell power trains that could significantly reduce the cost of fuel cells powered vehicles. A hybrid fuel cell system using the proposed engine would have costs of ~22$/kW compared to the actual costs of full fuel cell systems of ~73$/kW. Moreover, system weight and size would be about 3 times lower (from 163kg to 50kg and 114L to 31L), further improving fuel economy and easing vehicle design.The engine technology proposed here is based on a rotary ramjet engine configuration using rim rotors (patent pending). It uses a unidirectional carbon-fiber rim rotor to reach supersonic rim speeds of up to Mach 3. Rotational power comes from supersonic thrusters (ramjets) placed inside the rim rotor. Power is extracted via an electrical generator or a reduction gearbox. Preliminary theoretical analysis of this engine running on hydrogen shows very high power densities (10kW/kg vs 1.6kW/kg for high power piston engines), acceptable energy conversion efficiencies (10-30%), and low production costs (~$500). The engine has multi-fuel capabilities and can operate on any kind of gaseous or liquid fuels. The research aims to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technology. This will be done by showing that a ramjet designed for the rim-rotor configuration can produce thrust and by showing that a representative rim-rotor engine can achieve the required rim speeds of Mach 3. The ramjet demonstration will be addressed with a stationary ramjet test bed to measure the flow properties, visualize the flow fields, and measure the net thrust of a representative rim-rotor ramjet (with combustion). The rim-rotor demonstration will be addressed by measuring the bursting speed of an optimal rim-rotor rotary ramjet engine made with proper high strenghtcarbon fiber materials (without combustion).