sock while Fig. 8(b) shows a low-density sock. Improved injection tuning could provide a continuous high-density sock. Our hypothesis is CHM fabric, Fig. 8(c) , can be manufactured at a higher rate and with customized properties using particle injection. Besides showing the need to improve the stability of the particle injection, which is mainly a mechanical design problem, this experiment also indicated that mixing ferrocene with the NPs and injecting them separately from the fuel seems to make the sock formation more uniform as compared to injecting Zn NPs with the fuel in the mixer. A higher percentage of NPs can be injected when they are mixed with ferrocene. The optimal ratio of NPs to ferrocene, and the possibilities to compound NP mixtures using different metals need to be investigated. Overall, the CHM process is an emerging technology and some of the first results evaluating this new process are presented in this paper.

This work performs a topology optimization of the interior structure of engine blades in compressors with any given geometry of the desired outer-surface shape that may be determined by CFD and aerodynamic design software for the desired performance for thermal and fluid flows. A lofted compressor airfoil surface from the aerodynamic design was used to create a three-dimensional (3D) solid in SolidWorks. This was converted to an .IGS file that would be imported into HyperMesh® for the meshing and submitted to OptiStruct® for optimization. An optimization process is designed to produce an optimal interior structure, considering both pressure on the outer surface and centrifugal forces produced by rotational movements. The optimized blade becomes hollow in an optimal pattern with minimum materials needed for the pressure loading on outer skin and the distributed centrifugal forces. The final design was compared to the initial design using finite element method (FEM) to confirm that the mass, stress, strain, and displacement were reduced. The mass was reduced by 59.8% and the stresses reduced by a factor of 3.66! These results were validated by conducting a mesh independence study. 3D printers were used to produce the optimized blades in both plastic and metal.