An Integrative Course in Turbomachine Design, Manufacturing, and Measurement

Abstract A new course entitled Advanced Manufacturing for Aerospace Engineers was developed for junior- and senior-level students in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. It is a one-semester project-based course in which students, in small teams of two or three, design, manufacture, assemble, and test an electric turbopump for a notional rocket engine. The project applies several different disciplines, including fluid dynamics, turbomachinery, rotordynamics, additive manufacturing, material science, economics, instrumentation, measurement, and technical communication. The course is divided into three phases — (i) fluid-mechanical design of the radial pumps, (ii) rotordynamic design of the rotor-casing structural system, and (iii) final integration, assembly, and testing. In the first two phases, the students assess baseline systems, design and fabricate their own systems to meet the overall project requirements, and then test their new components in a laboratory setting. The assessment is carried out using hand-calculations based on first principles, commercial software, and experiments. In the third phase, the students assemble their components from the first two phases into the final pump to be tested. Each phase includes lectures, laboratory sessions, and problem sets, and is concluded with a technical report and presentation. The pumps are designed according to functional requirements, including pressure rise and mixture ratio. The novelty of this course is its integrative, multi-disciplinary, open-ended structure. The project modules take students through an entire research and development cycle, including design, fabrication, assembly, testing, and reporting. These steps are fulfilled in a hands-on setting, giving the students real-world experience with simulation, modeling, fabrication, and measurement, as well as the limitations of these methods. The integrative structure allows the students to develop an understanding of the connection between their design work and the manufacturing steps, and ultimately to the performance of their final products. The open-ended nature of the project encourages students to choose designs different from those of their peers, giving them a personal connection to their project. This paper discusses the structure and content of the course, lists the intended learning objectives, and evaluates the effectiveness of the course components at enabling students to achieve the learning objectives. Student achievement is primarily assessed with the three presentations. The rubric for these presentations and its connection to the learning objectives is given. Two anonymous surveys were used to obtain student feedback on the efficacy of the course components as well as their primary takeaways from the course. The presentation scores and the performance in the lab activities show that the students achieved the learning objectives. The survey feedback shows that the course achieved the department goals of providing greater access to hands-on manufacturing work for undergraduate students, and that this hands-on work enabled a deep connection to the project and the course concepts.