Engineering Commons^™

Generation And Microwave Scattering Diagnostics Of Small Volume Plasmas, Jordan Chase Sawyer

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the development of novel generation and microwave scattering diagnostic techniques for small volume plasmas. The small volume plasmas presented in this work fall under the two generalized categories: 1) laser-induced plasmas and 2) non-equilibrium microdischarges.

Chapter I presents the application of microwave scattering theory to laser-induced breakdown in air. The MIE solution to Maxwell’s equations is employed to reveal three distinct phases of the evolution of the laser-induced breakdown in air. Chapter II presents a novel method of quantifying thresholds for laser-induced breakdown. These thresholds are established via total electron number measurement from dielectric calibration of …

Accumulator Volume Sensor Final Project Report, Chris Naughton, Kinwei Yu, Michael George

Mechanical Engineering

Accumulator Volume Sensing Team has developed two sensor designs aimed at detecting the position of the piston within a 4024 accumulator. The two designs include the use of a Renishaw LMA10 magnetic encoder and a SpectraSymbol HotPot linear potentiometer. The magnetic encoder solution drastically increases the accuracy of sensing the piston position compared to the current solutions of both a string-pot and linear variable differential transformer while costing slightly less. The linear potentiometer seeks to provide a solution that drastically decreases the cost compared to the present sensing methods. Both designs call for a modification to one half of the …

Dynamic Monitoring And Life Prediction Of Internal Strain-Gage Balances, David Leon Yoder

Masters Theses

Wind tunnel test customers continue to push the limits by producing air vehicle designs that produce high aerodynamic loads at the desired test conditions. These loads are a combination of steady aerodynamic, unsteady aerodynamic, and inertial forces. A methodology to monitor the health of a wind tunnel strain-gage balance has been developed. The objective of this methodology is to define the stress limits of the balance and monitor these limits so the balance can be safely tested without failure of the balance. A balance failure could result in costly damage to the wind tunnel model, support system, and the wind …

Development Of Cal Poly's Shock Table, Christopher D. Risner

Master's Theses

Shock is one of the environmental tests that a spacecraft must pass before being cleared for launch. Shock testing poses a challenging data acquisition issue and careful selection of equipment is crucial to creating a successful shock test facility. Cal Poly’s CubeSat programs can currently perform all environmental testing other than shock themselves, so a quality shock table would be useful. Previous groups of students had developed a shock table, and this paper details the improvement and characterization of that shock table’s behavior. Several adjustable parameters were tested and documented to discover trends in the shock table’s response to an …

Assessment Of Asymmetric Flight On Solar Uas, Eric Belfield

Master's Theses

An investigation was conducted into the feasibility of using an unconventional flight technique, asymmetric flight, to improve overall efficiency of solar aircraft. In this study, asymmetric flight is defined as steady level flight in a non-wings-level state in- tended to improve solar incidence angle. By manipulating aircraft orientation through roll angle, solar energy collection is improved but aerodynamic efficiency is worsened due to the introduction of additional trim drag. A point performance model was devel- oped to investigate the trade-off between improvement in solar energy collection and additional drag associated with asymmetric flight. A mission model with a focus on …

Evaluation Of Efficiency Of Various Materials To Shield From Radiation In Space Using The Monte Carlo Transport Code Called Fluka, Roman Savinov

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to improve spacecraft shielding from radiation in space. It focuses on the evaluation of shielding efficiency of different materials. The efficiency of a shield is evaluated by the dose profile within the shield and the amount of dose absorbed by a target using the Monte Carlo transport code called FLUKA. The output of this code is validated by recreating the experiments from published papers and comparing the results. Once the FLUKA’s output is validated, the efficiency of sixteen materials, subject to SPE and GCR sources, are evaluated. The efficiency comparison is made by fixing …

Commercial Space Situational Awareness (Ssa) Capabilities And Their Benefits For Civilian Space Traffic Management (Stm), Mark A. Skinner

Space Traffic Management Conference

Paralleling (but lagging) satellite development, SSA, long the sole domain of sophisticated militaries, now includes commercial providers. These commercial capabilities, identified as beneficial to the sustainable use of outer space[1], have demonstrated technical sophistication sufficient to positively contribute to the mitigation of satellite interference and provide actionable SSA information. Utilizing small optical telescopes, these entities are able to determine the orbits of objects in the geosynchronous orbit (GSO) to sizes as small as 1 m², with measured positional uncertainties of 10s of meters, on the order of the size of a modern communications satellite. These techniques …

Cricketsat: Space Temperature Measurement Module, Mitchell I. Harris, Saeed Almalki

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The CricketSat Project at Murray State University was developed to establish better understandings for the design and assembly procedures of satellite technology. The satellite consists of one remote sensor that provides specific frequencies corresponding to various temperatures. By purchasing this inexpensive CricketSat, it provides students with the opportunity to advance their understanding of satellite technology and partake in hands on learning.

The CricketSat is composed of a single wireless module and a receiving antenna. The sensor transmits an audio tone that changes frequency in response to temperatures within the atmosphere. During launch, the CricketSat is attached to a helium balloon …

Designing An Anti-Coincidence Shielding System For The Alfred Project, Active Luminescence For X-Ray Emission Detection (Alfred) Team, Francis Wessling

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

A Bioinspired Modification For Uas Propeller/Rotor Noise Reduction, Mark N. Callender

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This projects presents a bioinspired modification to UAS propellers/rotors for noise reduction. Sound pressure levels (SPL) and thrust for modified propellers were compared to a baseline propeller. The bioinspired modification yielded lower SPL with a requisite increase in rpm in order to maintain a chosen level of thrust.

3d Fe Modelling Of Die Stress And Wear In Non-Isothermal Forging Of Ti–6al–4v Turbine Blade, Shiyuan Luo, Dahu Zhu, Lin Hua, Dongsheng Qian, Sijie Yan

The 8th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing

No abstract provided.

High Strain Rate Experiments Of Energetic Material Binder, Roberto Rangel Mendoza, Michael Harr, Weinong Chen

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Energetic materials, in particular HMX, is widely used in many applications as polymer bonded explosives (PBX) and rocket propellant. However, when damaged, HMX is known to be an unstable substance which renders it a hazardous material and in some cases unreliable. Finding critical mechanical conditions at high rates that render various forms of energetic materials as unreliable would be vital to understand the effects that vibrations and compression forces have on energetic materials. A better understanding would enable the ability to develop improvements in the manufacturing of PBX and rocker propellant. The method utilized to evaluate the mechanical properties of …

Design Of A Master Cutdown Payload For High-Altitude Balloon Applications, Bradley Henderson

Research Horizons Day Posters

No abstract provided.

Restraint System Design And Evaluation For Military Specific Applications, Sebastian Karwaczynski

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research focuses on designing an optimal restraint system for usage in a military vehicle applications. The designed restraint system must accommodate a wide range of DHM’s and ATD’s with and without PPE such as: helmet, boots, and body armor. The evaluation of the restraint systems were conducted in a simulated vehicle environment, which was utilized to downselect the ideal restraint system for this program.

In December of 2011 the OCP TECD program was formulated to increase occupant protection. To do this, 3D computer models were created to accommodate the entire Soldier population in the Army. These models included the …

Expedient Airfield Runway Repair Using Folded Fiberglass Mat, Christopher Y. Tuan, Willaim C. Dass

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

For expedient airfield runway repair, the US Air Force has developed a folded fiberglass mat to cover craters repaired with a well-compacted granular base material. The objective of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of using polymer plugs to anchor the mat to a repaired asphalt pavement for heavy aircraft operations. The effort consisted of materials testing, field experiments and analytical modeling. An 89,800-kg (198,000-pound) load cart having the footprint of a single C-5 main gear was pulled on a mat with wheels locked to simulate full braking forces. Anchor bushings were instrumented to measure anchor loads. A simplified …