Author Topic: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build  (Read 931050 times)

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Offline octane

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #240 on: August 29, 2013, 08:42:12 AM »
Thank you Neil, I am very close now to the first test run.

No, no, no Anders. You're not running anywhere till you've finished welding:



.-)


Seriously : I can only stand in awe.

Best of luck to you !

.
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection
not when there is nothing left to add
but when there is nothing left to take away"

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Offline octane

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Re: APS Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #241 on: August 29, 2013, 09:04:25 AM »

 is it ok if I take some random pics of the welds and send to the landspeed tech inspector?  

That's probably a good idea, but probably not just 'random'.
.-)

Please notice SCTA rule-book
SECTION 7 MOTORCYCLES 7.A.4

...it is strongly recommended that all new Special Construction class..
[snip]
..vehicles..[snip]..be submitted for pre-event inspection by the Technical Comitee.
If not practical because of distance, photographs and drawing may be
submitted to the Technical Committee Chairman...


I did just that with the Indian, to both the S.C.T.A. and BUB inspectors.
I send LOT's of photos and descriptions during the build process
( couldn't bear the thought of having it turned down after bringing it over )
and was meet with nothing but the friendly willingness to help me through the process.

There's another rule you must pay attention to:

7.J.13 Class Ω (Omega)
An engine using thermodynamic cycle other than Otto, Two Cycle or Diesel..[snip]..
..includes..
[snip]..turbine engines...[snip]..
..Entrant shall submit complete power plant details to the technical committee for safety evaluation
at least 45 days prior to the meet


.
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection
not when there is nothing left to add
but when there is nothing left to take away"

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #242 on: August 29, 2013, 02:31:35 PM »
That spot is one of the few ones not welded all around, and it isn´t a critical weld for the frame strength either so I will take a gamble on this one. :-)

Thank you very much Lars, getting such praise from the real salt racers here is very flattering and assures me that I am heading in the right direction with the build. As I´ve said before I have no experience whatsoever from land racing except for the years of running jet sleds at our Swedish Speed Weekend on Ice which can´t really translate to a record attempt at the salt flats.

Pointing out the frame and engine is also appreciated, before I paint the frame I will go through it thoroughly and add sleeves on every butt joint and strenghtening plates at the steering head and other critical points.

The engine build is fully covered both with pics and data so I see no problem there, all rotating parts in the engine are off the shelf Garrett and Rolls Royce made so I shouldn´t have any problems getting that cleared either.

Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #243 on: August 31, 2013, 05:50:01 PM »
Tonight I finished the temporary wiring for the upcoming tests, I´ve been tinkering with it a few hours last week but didn´t have much to show until now.



Main power switch, oil pump switch, scavenge pump switch, spring loaded spark ignition button and a relay controlled switch for the fuel pump coupled so that the pump only gets power if a pressure switch fitted to the oil filter housing feels that there is oil pressure in the system.



As an added safety I have put an extra fuel pump switch where it can be easily reached if something happens during the test run, as you might know the only way to turn off a gas turbine is to shut off the fuel flow.



All that is left to do now is to fill the fuel and oil tanks, test the pumps and look for leaks. After that I will do a couple of test starts to see if the exhaust temp is ok, if the power turbine NGV is too restrictive I will get high temps and need to open up the NGV area some to get the temps down to reasonable levels.

Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #244 on: September 01, 2013, 05:10:38 PM »
Today I finished off the last stuff I had to do before I could test the system, first I made a fuel tank breather...



...and after that I made a fake injector with a 1mm hole to simulate fuel flow for the fuel pressure test.



An oil hose was routed from the oil filter output back to the tank so I didn´t have to run the oil through the engine to get a pressure reading.



The bike was filled with some Jet-A1...



...and some oil.



The test showed that the throttle regulator was too restrictive so I couldn´t get the idle fuel pressure low enough, I disconnected it and used a 30A PWM controller to run the pump instead. I got a perfect throttle response from 0 to 7 bar fuel pressure so I will use a PWM from now on.



I shot some video footage when I tested the pumps and stuff, sorry for not speaking english but I promise to take some time to make a complete presentation of the bike in english later when it is finished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM_ovekOI_0

Cheers!
/Anders
« Last Edit: September 01, 2013, 05:17:48 PM by Mobacken Racing »

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #245 on: September 05, 2013, 03:19:45 PM »
I will have to modify the internal oil lines a bit before I can run the bike, last night I tested the preheat and spooled the engine up to starting revs with full oil pressure and when I opened the engine cover drain almost 10cl of oil poured out. Yet another leakage in the damn banjo couplings for the journal bearings... :x



Believe it or not but I am glad that it happened, because now I have a reason to tear the engine down and redesign the whole internal oil line arrangement. I could never torque the banjo bolts properly due to the assumed weak threads in the cast aluminum housing. Here is an old pic that shows what it looks like.



Another good thing is that I got a chance to find out if I could remove the gas producer from the frame without having to take away the gearbox or air intake first, it was tight but doable so now I know that field repairs can be done relatively easy.



While I removed the gas producer I filled the starting tank with the scuba compressor I inherited prematurely from my father, it wouldn´t hurt to overhaul the valves but I still got the tank up to 180bar which is close enough to the 200bar it is classified for.



After a short while the JU-01 was resting on the work bench, this will hopefully be the last time I have an oil leak inside it.



I called it a night after I had removed the engine cover, I am looking forward to figure out how to do this.  :-)



Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Glen

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #246 on: September 05, 2013, 03:31:00 PM »
Good info and history, your learning curve is well documented,thanks for sharing, :cheers:
Glen
Crew on Turbinator II

South West, Utah

Offline grumm441

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #247 on: September 05, 2013, 06:56:37 PM »
I will have to modify the internal oil lines a bit before I can run the bike, last night I tested the preheat and spooled the engine up to starting revs with full oil pressure and when I opened the engine cover drain almost 10cl of oil poured out. Yet another leakage in the Dodge banjo couplings for the journal bearings... :x

Believe it or not but I am glad that it happened, because now I have a reason to tear the engine down and redesign the whole internal oil line arrangement. I could never torque the banjo bolts properly due to the assumed weak threads in the cast aluminum housing. Here is an old pic that shows what it looks like.




Cheers!
/Anders

Perhaps the banjo fittings are compressing and the bolt is bottoming out in the hole before it is truly tight?
G
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Spirit of Sunshine Bellytank Lakester
https://www.dlra.org.au/rulebook.htm

Offline manta22

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #248 on: September 05, 2013, 09:21:11 PM »
Anders;

Banjo fittings should have soft aluminum or copper washers on both sides; they seal when the bolt is torqued. The washers are one-time use-- throw them away after using. Without the soft sealing washers, banjo fittings are guaranteed to leak.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ
Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

Offline charlie101

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #249 on: September 06, 2013, 01:05:14 AM »
When I was a mech. on a ship, I found those banjo fittings could develope a leak at any given time, even those that had been tight for years. I don't know why that happend on that damned boat.

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #250 on: September 06, 2013, 01:47:58 AM »
The banjo bolts are wire locked and have washers so it is all done properly, the problem is simply that I didn´t dare to tighten them as much as I should have since damaging the threads would have meant a complete rebuild like the one I am about to do now.

They have leaked after almost every assembly so I have had to remove the combustor and tighten them again, so it is something I need to fix since an internal oil leak is very dangerous. If the oil catches fire the engine will act like I fed it lots of fuel and starts revving up uncontrollably until the engine either destroys itself or runs out of oil to burn... :-o

It is called a "Runaway" since that is what you normally do when it happens. I´ve experienced a few over the years. :-)
« Last Edit: September 06, 2013, 01:50:03 AM by Mobacken Racing »

Offline gidge348

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #251 on: September 06, 2013, 04:54:11 AM »
If the oil catches fire the engine will act like I fed it lots of fuel and starts revving up uncontrollably until the engine either destroys itself or runs out of oil to burn... :-o

It is called a "Runaway" since that is what you normally do when it happens. I´ve experienced a few over the years. :-)

You are not the only one to have oil fire runaways, a Qantas A380 had one and it made a pretty expensive mess.. :| :|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO7aIqxXjAo

Ian... :| :|

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #252 on: September 06, 2013, 07:16:25 AM »
You are not the only one to have oil fire runaways, a Qantas A380 had one and it made a pretty expensive mess.. :| :|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO7aIqxXjAo

Ian... :| :|

I suppose I am lucky to be on the ground if something like that happens, easier to abandon ship then than 10.000m up in the sky... :-)

I tore down the gas producer a couple of hours ago and found the banjo couplings without any sign of oil leaks, the compressor housing on the other hand was soaked in oil which I also found the reason for.



The time I ran the engine and the compressor nut came off and caused a rotor salad I didn´t notice that the piston ring seal on the spacer behind the compressor wheel got damaged, later I changed the seal but apparently I didn´t pay much notice to the aluminum sealing surface in the diffusor housing.



I need to remove the damaged section in the lathe and make a steel bushing that can be pressed in place and act as the piston sealing surface. I will still redesign the oil lines since they sooner or later will give me trouble again, so when I am finished with the engine everything in the construction I have come to regret during the bench testing will be redesigned and hopefully won´t give me trouble again.

Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Ellwood

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #253 on: September 08, 2013, 04:29:39 PM »
Hi Anders,i was just thinking ,with all your electrics,  one thing regarding ON switches, or fuses, or deadmans switches- if you have two in parallell, then it reduces the chances of not getting a run because of a faulty one by like maybe 50 %. Unless Murphys law kicks in , and both switches break at the same time ???

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #254 on: September 09, 2013, 03:06:37 PM »
I think I´ll take my chances, there is no engine vibrations that can mess things up so I find it extremely unlikely that a switch would break during a run. The bike will probably be covered in wiring, switches and gauges anyway so I don´t need to double the trouble. :-)