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Figure 1
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Figure 2
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Mechanical Engineering
Team 54

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Eric Gillespie
Zihao Liu
Jeet Modi

Georgios Matheou

Sponsor

Dominic Myren

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Stanadyne LLC is a global leader in fuel systems technology. The company’s current research and development involves low and high-pressure fuel pumps and fuel injectors. Within the development process of these pumps, Stanadyne utilizes hydrodynamic fuel simulations to analyze their designs. The quality of these simulations depends on the accuracy of the fuel properties assigned as engineering data in the simulations. Specifically, density, viscosity, and bulk modulus are critical properties of fuel in the design and development of fuel systems technology. Temperature and pressure both have considerable effects on these properties. This project aims to measure the viscosity of fluids at a maximum of 34 MPa pressure and a maximum of 200 °C temperature. The data acquired is used to validate the hydrodynamic simulations and equations of state from NIST’s REFPROP fuel models. The test device is designed using the Hagen-Poiseuille equation for measuring viscosity. The equation utilizes constant length and radius of the tube and measured pressure drop and volumetric flow rate through the tube. A design capable of withstanding 100 MPa at the same temperature for further experimentation, has been recommended to Stanadyne LLC. The team has collaborated with team ME52, as they measure the density and compute bulk modulus at the same pressure and temperature conditions.