Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of Access-To-Space Missions Utilizing On-Board Energy Management And Entropic Analysis, Tyler Winter

Masters Theses

"The overall objective of this study is the thermodynamically consistent quantification of second-law and performance losses for vehicle configurations implemented or suggested for access-to-space missions and the development of the relationships between the mission entropy generation and overall mission performance. The detailed theory which allows thermodynamically rigorous loss accounting (entropy generation and direct relationship to vehicle performance) is developed and discussed for aerospace vehicles. A full vehicle trajectory code utilizing simplified models for multi-stage rockets and air-breathing propulsion systems is developed and validated specifically for use as a testbed for second law-based theory and concepts. Results are shown in which …