Démian M. Nave
Dr. Jay Brockman

1. MIT 6.270 Lego Kit
   Should include the following
   • Servo (with lego interface)
   • Geared-down motor
   • Heat sensor
2. Rubber tubing for burner
3. Bunsen burner
4. Stopwatch
5. Large container that can be heated, with drain pipe
6. Container to hold water reservoir
7. Source of water (to put in beaker)

What Does This Make?

These items are the beginning of a rudimentary control system for a fuel intake system for an air-breathing engine. The premise is that the combustor must be kept at a certain temperature in order to function properly. To do this effectively, the mass flow rate of fuel to the combustor must be maintained at the proper levels, depending on what the current temperature of the combustion chamber is. Also, the level of heat added to the combustor must be monitored so that the heat addition is maintained at acceptable levels.

For this experiment, the 'combustion chamber' is the beaker over the bunsen burner. Using the servo, heat sensor, and software, the flow of gas to the Bunsen burner can be controlled (after building the frame to hold the servo, which will squeeze the tube to the burner based on input). The flow of water into the beaker can be changed by changing the height of the beaker which feeds water to the 'chamber'. The geared-down motor and a small elevator assembly can be used for this.

The software must be able to judge when to raise or lower the water, based on the current temperature of the 'chamber' (data which is given by the heat sensor).

The schematic included describes the layout of the experiment.