Pressure gain combustion (PGC) shows potential to increase the cycle efficiency of conventional gas turbine engines (GTEs) if used in place of the steady combustor. However, a turbine driven by pulsing flow experiences a decrease in efficiency. An experimental rig was built to compare a steady flow-driven turbine with a pulsing flow-driven turbine. The pressure pulse was a full annular, sinusoidal pressure pulse. The experimental data showed a decrease in turbine efficiency and pressure ratio. The pressure pulse amplitude and not the frequency was discovered to be the cause for the decrease in turbine efficiency for the current experimental setup. The decrease in turbine efficiency was mapped with turbine pressure ratio and corrected amplitude to demonstrate how the efficiency of a turbine under pulsing flow conditions could be mapped.
One of the challenges of integrating pressure gain combustion into a gas turbine engine is that a turbine driven by pulsing flow experiences a decrease in efficiency. Computational fluid dynamic simulations validated with experiments showed that pulse amplitude is the driving factor for decreased turbine efficiency and not the pulsing frequency. A quadratic correlation between turbine efficiency and corrected pulse amplitude is presented. Incidence variation is shown to cause the change in turbine efficiency and a correlation between corrected incidence and corrected amplitude is shown to predict turbine efficiency.
Nanoinjection is an innovative approach for the electromechanical injection of DNA into cells, in which DNA is electrically attracted to a lance, inserted into a cell, and repelled by reversing the electrical polarity. In previous work, the lance has been micromachined as part of an on-chip microelectromechanical system. This work investigates a Stand-Alone Lance concept, where the lance and other components are independent of a common substrate. The Stand-Alone Lance may make nanoinjection more accessible to researchers and be more compatible with lab equipment commonly available in transgenic facilities. Required parameters for the electrode are investigated using a mathematical computer model. Different materials and fabrication processes for the metal lance are also considered. Additional testing was performed using tungsten probes, including mock injections on mouse egg cells. Based upon the optimistic cell viability rate, it is recommended to further investigate the use of the Stand-Alone Lance to perform nanoinjections.
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