Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Dynamical Modeling Of Resistojet Style Thrusters For Fault Detection, And Fault Identification, Jonathan Leo Kerivan Jan 2024

Dynamical Modeling Of Resistojet Style Thrusters For Fault Detection, And Fault Identification, Jonathan Leo Kerivan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The work presented in this thesis investigates and validates the dynamic modeling, fault detection, and fault identification (FDI) for the resistojet thruster system, typically used in low magnitude thrust applications for smaller spacecraft. The resistojet thruster is an improvement upon the widely utilized cold gas thruster, featuring an incorporated heating section aimed at improving propellant efficiency. This additional heating section enhances the performance of the system by increasing the propellant’s thermal energy before its discharge through the nozzle, subsequently leading to a reduction in overall fuel consumption. To implement a model-based FDI technique tailored to the typical resistojet thruster system, …


Effective Drag Coefficient Prediction On Single-View 2d Images Of Snowflakes, Cameron Hudson Jan 2024

Effective Drag Coefficient Prediction On Single-View 2d Images Of Snowflakes, Cameron Hudson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The drag coefficient of snowflakes is an crucial particle descriptor that can quantify the relationships with the mass, shape, size, and fall speed of snowflake particles. Previous studies has relied on estimating and improving empirical correlations for the drag coefficient of particles, utilizing 3D images from the Multi-Angled Snowflake Camera Database (MASCDB) to estimate snowflake properties such as mass, geometry, shape classification, and rimming degree. However, predictions of the drag coefficient with single-view 2D images of snowflakes has proven to be a challenging problem, primarily due to the lack of data and time-consuming, expensive methods used to estimate snowflake shape …


Control Of Pneumatically Actuated Drones, Benjamin Scott Jackson Jan 2024

Control Of Pneumatically Actuated Drones, Benjamin Scott Jackson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Aerial autonomous vehicles have played a crucial role in assisting humans with safety-critical operations on Earth. Applications include natural disaster response, environment surveillance, and infrastructure inspection. As humans hope to return to the Moon, as per NASA's latest initiatives, autonomous vehicles could serve as a key component in keeping humans out of harm's way. However, many celestial objects lack an atmosphere, making propeller-powered drones inadequate. To address this problem, this thesis presents an optimal control methodology to demonstrate how systems actuated using cold gas thrusters may play the role of drones in space. In place of cold gas thrusters, this …