Shock Compression

 What Is It?
 Flight Applications of Shock Compression
 The Rampressor - Ramgen's Compression Technology
 The Rampressor Competitive Advantages
 Ramgen's Technology Development Focus
 RAM 1 Proof of Concept
 RAM 2 CFD Validation

RAM-2 CFD Validation Test

As the RP-1 test concluded, Ramgen launched the Rampressor-2 “RP-2” test program with a goal of demonstrating supersonic rotor compression at higher pressure ratios. This test was again conducted with the support of Boeing’s world-class Nozzle Test Facility in Seattle, WA, and as expected, the test rig is more sophisticated.

Ramgen’s team of 26 engineers began the design of the RP-2 test rig in January 2004 and was ready to test in December of 2005. This highly professional and comprehensive effort includes: aerodynamic analysis and simulation, structural design and analysis, heat transfer and thermal analysis, rotor dynamics analysis, control and instrumentation design, system integration, fabrication, assembly and checkout. A new RP-2 rotor with the best available aero flowpath was released to manufacturing in May 2005, and testing began in early December, 2005 with the Pre-swirl Nozzle calibration testing.

In the meantime, Ramgen has continued to pursue its aerodynamic optimization efforts. This has resulted in a steady stream of performance improvement projections, as Ramgen developed a world-class set of CFD capabilities. The Company has made considerable investments in hardware and software to support these efforts, but most of the improvements are a direct result of Ramgen’s efforts in applying these tools to our particular application.

Figure 6.  RP-2 Test Rig Installed in Test Cell

Ramgen’s team of approximately 26 scientists and engineers began the design of the RP-2 test rig in January of 2004. Approximately $2,000,000 of equipment and facility expenses are projected for completing this test program. Figure 6 shows the RP-2 rig design and installation schematic.

Figure 7 shows the “unwrapped” view of the RP-2 rotor with the pre-swirl nozzles upstream, and Table 2 details the flow field.

Figure 7.  RP-2 Rotor Configuration

The design rotor speed is ~ 41,000 RPM. The flow path is designed to operate at a Mach number of 2.4, achieved through a combination of pre-swirl effects and rotor RPM.

Table 1. RP-2 Rotor Inflow Conditions

Pre-swirl nozzle (PSN) testing was completed in January 2006. The test objectives included comparing experimental test data to computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling, and defining the flow characteristics entering the RP-2 rotor. Figure 8 shows a sample CFD result for the PSN, and Figure 9 compares the PSN CFD predictions with the experimental data.