Aerospace Propulsion and Engine Systems

AAE 339: Aerospace Propulsion, a core propulsion course in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics covering engine cycles and propulsion systems.

Conducted an extensive literature survey on novel techniques within the Urban Air Mobility sector, concentrating on Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) systems and how they can reduce acoustic noise and optimize battery thermal management across a distributed set of electric fans, then documented the findings in a course report.

Result: The survey report is available from the Academia section of this site via OneDrive.

Zucrow Laboratories at Purdue, in Prof. Nicole Key's High Speed Compressor Lab, where Aaryan has contributed from Fall 2025 onward.

Contributed to inlet vortex distortion studies and experimental hardware readiness on the compressor test rigs, helping with fan-rig test cell assembly and calibration support and working on manufacturing techniques to build research hardware parts effectively, using Siemens NX and MATLAB for design support and analysis.

Result: Helped assemble and calibrate the test cell's fan-rig; the compressor lab work is described on the Zucrow research page.

AAE 571: Complex System Safety, a graduate-level course taken as an undergraduate in Purdue's aerospace program.

Performed accident-style analysis and wrote a conference-style research paper investigating the safety challenges and risk-mitigation strategies for the propulsion systems of urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, tying failure modes of electric propulsion back to system-level safety.

Result: The research paper is linked from the Academia section and the home-page course cards via OneDrive.

TurboFan Engine Assembly, a personal CAD project built as a full parametric turbofan model in Creo Parametric.

Ran bypass ratio optimization studies and performance parameter calculations on the engine, working the design from an engine-cycle and performance standpoint so the parametric model captured how bypass ratio drives thrust and overall engine behavior.

Result: The complete assembly, 3D model, and gallery are browsable on the project page.