Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Multiscale Modeling Of Carbon Fibers/Graphene Nanoplatelets/Epoxy Hybrid Composites For Aerospace Applications, Hashim Al Mahmud

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Significant research effort has been dedicated for decades to improve the mechanical properties of aerospace polymer-based composite materials. Lightweight epoxy-based composite materials have increasingly replaced the comparatively heavy and expensive metal alloys used in aeronautical and aerospace structural components. In particular, carbon fibers (CF)/graphene nanoplatelets (GNP)/epoxy hybrid composites can be used for this purpose owing to their high specific stiffness and strength. Therefore, this work has been completed to design, predict, and optimize the effective mechanical properties of CF/GNP/epoxy composite materials at different length scales using a multiscale modeling approach. The work-flow of modeling involves a first step of using …

Carbon Fiber Composite Recycling, Wolfe Dennis

All Undergraduate Projects

During construction of Boeing’s aircrafts, carbon fiber reinforced composites are used as the primary material for the wings of the aircraft. Excess material during the manufacturing process is trimmed and discarded as waste. Although there is no viable process thus far, these trimmings have the potential to be recycled and reclaimed to be used in various other manufactured products. The trimmings of carbon fiber composite are approximately 10-12 layers of material bonded together. This project focuses on delaminating the trimmings into individual layers so that the carbon can be pyrolyzed from the bonding resin. In order to separate the layers …

Pulsed Power Control System, Logan Curtis

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Assessing Cognitive Processing And Human Factors Challenges In Nextgen Air Traffic Control Tower Team Operations, Mark D. Miller, Sam Holley, Bettina Mrusek, Linda Weiland

Publications

Previous research of Terminal Radar Control Facilities and Standard Terminal Automation Replacement Systems interactions by the authors examined how combined NextGen digitized technology affects air traffic controller functions. Applying their updated SHELL model, human factors implications on the Tower Team before and after implementing NextGen technology were examined, focusing on cognitive loading and automated functions affecting each team member. A survey examined where cognitive difficulties occur when controllers are responsible for multiple screen views, remote airfields or helipads, and digitized cameras and blind spots. Scanning challenges were identified where local traffic, ground operations, and data converge onto one screen, and …

Design, Construction And Testing Of A 3-Component Force Balance For Educational Wind Tunnels In Undergraduate Aerodynamics, Milan Tomin, Marco Scipioni, Benjamin Gatti

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

This article is focused on providing detailed instructions on how to build and use a force balance for educational wind tunnels. The article’s objective is to encourage undergraduate students in underfunded programs to engage in the field of aerodynamics. The discussed force balance represents an affordable device that only requires basic components like Arduino board, a servo motor, and acrylic and aluminum as construction materials. A simple data collection example is included at the end of the article showing that this simple force balance can collect meaningful data about lift, drag, and moment coefficient of a tested airfoil.

Mechanical And Aerospace Engineering, 2019-2020, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering News

• Letter from the Chair
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• MAE Faculty

Test Article, Test Author

Documentation

Description

Experimentation And Simulation Of Pulsed Eddy Current Thermography Of Subsurface Aircraft Corrosive Defects, Johnathan Hernandez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

During the life cycle of aircraft, external structures are under constant attack from environmental degradation in the form of corrosion. Corrosive defects consist of multiple types of surface and subsurface damage that are often undetectable due to surface coatings or insulation leading to loss in structural integrity. Non-destructive techniques for corrosion detection typically require the removal of paint. Detection of corrosion under insulation (CUI) is highly valuable for cost and time effectiveness. Although techniques have been developed for detection of CUI, not many of these satisfy the criteria for portability and hangar operation. To address this, multiple techniques were investigated …

Peridynamic Approaches For Damage Prediction In Carbon Fiber And Carbon Nanotube Yarn Reinforced Polymer Composites, Forrest E. Baber

Theses and Dissertations

Aerospace structures are increasingly utilizing advanced composites because of their high specific modulus and specific strength. While the introduction of these material systems can dramatically decrease weight, they pose unique certification challenges, often requiring extensive experimental testing in each stage of the design cycle. The expensive and time-consuming nature of experimental testing necessitates the advancement of simulation methodologies to both aid in the certification process and assist in the exploration of the microstructure design space.

Peridynamic (PD) theory, originating from Sandia National Lab’s in the early 2000’s, is a nonlocal continuum-based method that reformulates the equation of motion into an …

Tangle-Free Exploration With A Tethered Mobile Robot, Danylo Shapovalov, Guilherme Pereira

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Exploration and remote sensing with mobile robots is a well known field of research, but current solutions cannot be directly applied for tethered robots. In some applications, tethers may be very important to provide power or allow communication with the robot. This paper presents an exploration algorithm that guarantees complete exploration of arbitrary environments within the length constraint of the tether, while keeping the tether tangle-free at all times. While we also propose a generalized algorithm that can be used with several exploration strategies, our implementation uses a modified frontier-based exploration approach, where the robot chooses its next goal in …

Satellite Constellation Deployment And Management, Joseph Ryan Kopacz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper will review results and discuss a new method to address the deployment and management of a satellite constellation. The first two chapters will explorer the use of small satellites, and some of the advances in technology that have enabled small spacecraft to maintain modern performance requirements in incredibly small packages.

The third chapter will address the multiple-objective optimization problem for a global persistent coverage constellation of communications spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit. A genetic algorithm was implemented in MATLAB to explore the design space – 288 trillion possibilities – utilizing the Satellite Tool Kit (STK) software developers kit. …

Reliable Navigation For Suas In Complex Indoor Environments, Andrew J. Fabian

Theses and Dissertations

Indoor environments are a particular challenge for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Effective navigation through these GPS-denied environments require alternative localization systems, as well as methods of sensing and avoiding obstacles while remaining on-task. Additionally, the relatively small clearances and human presence characteristic of indoor spaces necessitates a higher level of precision and adaptability than is common in traditional UAV flight planning and execution. This research blends the optimization of individual technologies, such as state estimation and environmental sensing, with system integration and high-level operational planning.

The combination of AprilTag visual markers, multi-camera Visual Odometry, and IMU data can be used …

Thermoanalytical Studies On The Decomposition Of Energetic Ionic Liquids, Alan Esparza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Hydrazine has been extensively used as a propellant for space applications for more than half a century. However, its hazardous characteristics cause high storage and handling costs. For this reason, the search for alternatives, the so-called “green monopropellants,” is of great interest. Most green monopropellants are mixtures of an oxidizer and a fuel, and several ionic liquids (ILs) have been proposed for this application. Among them, hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) and 2-hydroxylethylhydrazinium nitrate (HEHN) are promising oxidizer and fuel, respectively. The objective of the present work was to clarify the decomposition kinetics of both HAN and HEHN, using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), …

Bio-Inspired Method For Close-Proximity Operations On A Near-Earth Asteroid, Rene Alberto Valenzuela Najera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Space maneuvers in the vicinity of small celestial bodies and achieving a soft landing over the surface of small celestial bodies are essential movements to advance the status of exploration, collection of geographical data, measurement of physical properties among other on-orbit tasks. Before a spacecraft reaches hovering position over an asteroid in order to perform orbital tasks, close-proximity operations must be done. Since the movements of the spaceships depend on the acceleration forces provided by the thrusters and external disturbances forces, the correct planning of execution of the close-up trajectories on the celestial body orbit and trajectory to land on …

Development Of A Cold Gas Propulsion System For A 1u Cube Satellite, Norma Alicia Perea

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In efforts to further the development test capabilities of nanosatellites on earth, NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) is developing a Magnetic Levitation Table (MLT) for ground testing of nanosatellites. Testing of the table requires dedicated test articles that employ space-like systems, but those that can be used in the confines of a small lab testing area. In collaboration with WSTF, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Center for Aerospace Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) is developing an 1U cold gas propulsion cube-satellite demonstrator (CGD) to test capabilities of the levitation table. A 1U cube satellite was designed with …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Aerospace Materials, Vehicle Shape And Astronaut Position At Lowering The Whole Body Effective Dose Equivalent In Deep Space, Daniel K. Bond

Theses and Dissertations

As future crewed, deep space missions are being planned, it is important to assess how spacecraft design can be used to minimize radiation exposure. Collectively with shielding material, vehicle shape and astronaut position must be used to protect astronauts from the two primary sources of space radiation: Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) and Solar Particle Events (SPE). GCRs, which are composed of low intensity, highly energetic, and fully ionized stable and meta-stable isotopes, are considered a chronic source of radiation risk to the astronauts. SPEs, which originate from solar coronal mass ejections, are composed mostly of high intensity protons that can …

Toward Adjoint-Based Aeroacoustic Optimization For Propeller And Rotorcraft Applications, Ramiz Ö. Içke, Oktay Baysal, Andy Moy, Leonard V. Lopes, Beckett Zhou, Boris Diskin

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of the present project is to build a multidisciplinary, rapid, robust, and accurate computational tool to optimize wing-mounted propeller designs. The full Farassat’s formulation F1A for aeroacoustic analysis is implemented in the open-source software SU2. This extension enables the prediction of far-field noise generated by moving sources. The formulation is verified, for a stationary and rotating sphere in a wind tunnel and for a tiltrotor in forward flight, by comparing the acoustic predictions of SU2 with the predictions computed by NASA’s aeroacoustics code ANOPP2. The algorithmic differentiation capability of SU2 provides discretely consistent, adjoint-based sensitivity analysis for this …

Assessment And Applications Of The Conversion Of Chemical Energy To Mechanical Energy Using Model Rocket Engines, Hüseyin Sarper, Nebojsa I. Jaksic, Ben J. Stuart, Karina Arcaute

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

To provide the first-year engineering students with a hands-on experience in an engineering application using both chemistry and physics, this team project uses a set of chemical and physical energy concepts and MS Excel based analysis. The main objective of the project is to calculate how much of the potential maximum possible chemical energy is converted into propulsion when using model rocket engines with solid fuel. The secondary objective is to determine the effects of increasing conversion rates on the performance of a model rocket. The solid fuel or propellant used in common model rocket engines is black powder. Compared …

Parametric Study Of A Turbojet Engine With Auxiliary Bypass Combustion- The Turboaux Engine, Kaleab Fetahi, Sharanabasaweshwara A. Asundi, Arthur C. Taylor, Adem H. Ibrahim, Syed Firasat Ali

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

A parametric study of a novel turbojet engine with an auxiliary combustion chamber, nicknamed the TurboAux engine is presented. The TurboAux engine is conceived as an extension of a turbojet engine with an auxiliary bypass annular combustion chamber around the core stream. The study presented in this article is motivated by the need to facilitate clean secondary burning of fuel at temperatures higher than conventionally realized from air exiting the low-pressure compressor. The parametric study is initiated by performing a simple optimization analysis to identify optimal ‘fan’ pressure ratios for a series of conventional low-bypass turbofan engines with varying bypass …

Peak Pressures On Low Rise Buildings: Cfd With Les Versus Full Scale And Wind Tunnel Measurements, Aly Mousaad Aly, Hamzeh Gol-Zaroudi

Faculty Publications

This paper focuses on the processes of wind flow in the atmospheric boundary layer, to produce realistic full-scale pressures for the design of low-rise buildings. CFD with LES turbulence closure is implemented on a scale 1:1 prototype building. A proximity study was executed computationally in CFD with LES that suggests new recommendations on the computational domain size, in front of a building model, apart from common RANS-based guidelines (e.g. COST and AIJ). Our findings suggest a location of the test building, different from existing guidelines, and the inflow boundary proximity influences pressure correlation and reproduction of peak loads. The CFD …