This Portfolio showcases most of the design work that I have done during my time at Purdue University. Below I will go over the different aspects of my portfolio and specifics about those projects.
Gimbal Design: I took on this project when I first joined the organization "Reusable Rocketry at Purdue". The goal was to design a gimbal, or thrust vectoring unit, that could deflect a solid rocket engine at least 10 degrees in the pitch and yaw axes relative to the rocket's roll axis. I did extensive research into the subject of thrust vectoring, and took an initiative in the club to learn the most I could about the design behind these systems. After a semester of work, and the completion of my first design of the gimbal, I was voted propulsion lead for the Spring 2020 semester. From that point, I took on the design of the rocket gimbal as a solo project to give other sub-teams of the club (which is just two years old) more members to work with. After learning a lot from the first semester of work and research, I applied my knowledge and SolidWorks experience towards a redesign of the gimbal which ultimately saved weight, volume, and provided more accurate control of the thrust direction. My approach was to stack servo motors, with the top servo actuating a platform that the bottom servo was mounted to, and then have that bottom servo actuating the engine itself. This cut down the volume of the gimbal in half, while maintaining around the same weight as before. For this design, I also focused greatly on the linkages from each servo to its respective mounting point. The system is made such that 3 degrees of servo rotation corresponded to 1 degree of gimbal actuation, increased precision. With these adjustments, the gimbal can now be actuated 12.5 degrees in the pitch and yaw axes, and weighs just 200g while conforming to a 2.9 inch inner diameter tube.
Quick Disconnect Design: After a semester of research and learning as a member of "Purdue Space Program", I was given a design task to create a quick disconnect system for the liquid oxygen and methane that filled the propellant tanks, as well as the gasses that had to be vented from the tanks to ensure no amount of the propellant tanks were gaseous. First myself and others looked at the physical propellant tanks and their respective plumbing and instrumentation. After getting a sense of how the system could work, we identified basic mechanical parts that could perform a quick disconnect. The primary part that I designed around was a 'quick disconnect body', which can be actuated to quickly connect and disconnect from a fill stem or vent stem, which adapts to the diameter of the plumbing that runs to each tank. One of the main focuses of my design was to minimize, or completely negate the distance that the fill and vent stems protrude from the rocket body. This meant designing a system that allowed the quick disconnect body to be nested inside the rocket, and then quickly actuated and pulled out of the rocket. My approach to this problem was to have a metal cylinder attach onto the actuation section of the disconnect body, and have that cylinder be driven by two pneumatic pistons that press against the outside of the rocket body. When the pistons push against the static rocket body, this actuated the quick disconnect and then ejects the entire pneumatic-cylinder system away from the rocket body. Throughout this process, I learned a lot about weight and volume saving, designing for manufacturability, and basic mechanical design. Although the system is completely designed, we have not yet been able to manufacture parts because of the current pandemic and the inability to access manufacturing equipment at Purdue.
CGT 163 Course: I took this course during my first semester of college. Although I had prior CAD experience from high school, I was surprised at how much I didn't know about 3D modeling and part design. Learning how to use PDM, constraint based modeling, and surface modeling were some of my favorite aspects of this class that I hadn't been exposed to before. Additionally, I came to the realization that I had relatively poor design habits when it came to CAD. I was quick to change those habits and learn more about industry standards and expectations. Throughout the course we used 'Catia'. Using this software was much more difficult than was I was used to, but gave a more detailed understanding of CAD software and gave me experience with software that many professionals use in industry today.