I am working on developing a 300-lbf thruster, and to design the injection system, I spent much of my free time reading and learning about injector and fluid atomization over summer. To assist in the development of the project, I wanted to create a way to visualize the effectiveness of different injector iteration.

My goal for the program is to allow for a wide range of basic input parameters (propellant types, mass flow, engine chamber pressure, O/F ratio, etc) to create an impinging injector design. Then, using the design, run a simulation tracking the trajectories of the desired propellants exiting orifices into the combustion chamber. All of the propellant jet paths are plotted in 3D to let the user maneuver to, and investigate, different regions of interest.

I wanted this to be a rapid-use tool to both solve for dimensions I need for a CAD and to provide basic verification of performance. While this is no replacement for CFD software, those programs would require updating a CAD model with new dimensions and rerunning simulations after every design iteration. The usefulness of my modeling system is to reduce the number of times the injector needs to be tested in a CFD software by providing simple simulations to quicken early development.