Engineering Commons^™

Experimental Investigation Of Active Control Of Bluff Body Vortex Shedding, Ilteris Koc

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Mean and fluctuating forces acting on a body are strongly related to vortex shedding generated behind it. Therefore, it is possible to obtain substantial reductions of at least the unsteady forces if vortex shedding is controlled or its regularity is reduced. While conventional active flow control methods are mainly concerned with direct interaction with, and alteration of, the mean flow about a body, modern techniques involve altering existing flow instabilities using relatively small inputs to obtain large-scale changes of mean flows. Aerodynamic flow control may be intended to delay or suppress boundary layer separation through creation of a boundary layer …

Assessment Of Preliminary Design Approaches For Metallic Stiffened Cylindrical Shell Instability Problems, Vicki Owen Britt

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A preliminary design tool for metallic stiffened fuselage cylindrical panels subjected to longitudinal compression has been developed and validated by comparison to test results. Several methodologies for stiffened panel buckling and failure predictions were examined and evaluated. An appropriate level of analysis fidelity was determined for different failure modes and design details. Results from panel tests conducted to verify analytical methods used to design the Gulfstream V aircraft were presented. The panels were representative of four general skin/stringer configurations on the aircraft. Finite Element analyses and standard analytical methods were used to predict panel failure loads. The accuracy of the …

Development Of A Coupled Fluid/Structure Aeroelastic Solver With Applications To Vortex Breakdown-Induced Twin Tail Buffeting, Steven J. Massey

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Simulation of tail buffet is studied for several delta wing-vertical tail configurations. Flow conditions are chosen such that the wing primary-vortex cores experience vortex breakdown and the resulting turbulent wake flow impinges on the vertical tail. The dimensions and material properties of the vertical tails are chosen such that the deflections are large enough to insure interaction with the flow, and the natural frequencies are high enough to facilitate a practical computational solution. This multi-disciplinary problem is solved sequentially for the fluid flow, the elastic deformations and the grid displacements. The flow is simulated by time accurately solving the laminar, …

Propulsion Enhancement Contributions To The Performance Of Space Launch Vehicles, Russell H. Edwards

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A research effort has been undertaken to investigate critical aspects of launch vehicle performance as affected by variations in specific launch vehicle parameters. The major portion of the study involves liquid propellant systems. However, since solid propellant systems also play a role in today's launch systems, a representative solid-propellant launch vehicle has also been analyzed. The research undertaken determined that the payload capability of a space launch vehicle, or, conversely, the vehicle total liftoff mass, is highly sensitive to the manner in which the space launch vehicle is staged. The research has led to the development and programming of a …

Micron-Level Actuator For Thermal-Fluid Control In Microchannels, Nurhak Erbas

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Effectiveness of an actuator is investigated for thermal-flow control in microchannels. First, simulations of a single actuator in a quiescent external medium are performed in order to study the parameters characterizing the synthetic jet flow from the actuator. For this purpose, a simplified, two-dimensional configuration is considered. The membrane motion is modeled in a realistic manner as a moving boundary in order to accurately compute the flow inside the actuator cavity. The geometric and actuation parameters of the actuator are investigated to define the effectiveness of the jet flow. The study is done initially at macro scales. Then, the flow …

Boundary Interference Assessment And Correction For Open Jet Wind Tunnels Using Panel Methods, Wael Ahmed Mokhtar

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The presence of nearby boundaries in a wind tunnel can lead to aerodynamic measurements on a model in the wind tunnel that differ from those that would be made when the boundaries of the moving fluid were infinitely far away. The differences, referred to as boundary interference or wall interference, can be quite large, such as when testing aircraft models developing high lift forces, or whose wingspan is a large fraction of the wind tunnel width, or high drag models whose frontal area is a large fraction of the tunnel cross section. Correction techniques for closed test section (solid walled) …

Shape Memory Alloy Applications On Control Of Thermal Buckling, Panel Flutter And Random Vibration Of Composite Panels, Xinyun Guo

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) has a unique ability to recover large prestrain (up to 8∼10% elongation for Nitinol, a typical SMA material) completely when the alloy is heated (e.g. aerodynamic heating) above the austenite finish temperature Af. An innovative concept is to utilize the large recovery stress by embedding the prestrained SMA in a traditional fiber-reinforced laminated composite plate, which is called SMA hybrid composite (SMAHC) plate. In this research, static thermal and aerothermal deflections, dynamic panel flutter and random response are investigated for traditional composite plates and SMAHC plates under combined aerodynamic, random and thermal loads by employing nonlinear …

Nonlinear Flutter Of Curved Panels Under Yawed Supersonic Flow Using Finite Elements, Mohamed Salim Azzouz

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In the extensive published literature on panel flutter, a large number of papers are dedicated to investigation of flat plates in the supersonic flow regime. Very few authors have extended their work to flutter of curved panels. The curved geometry generates a pre-flutter behavior, triggering a static deflection due to a static aerodynamic load (SAL) over the panel as well as dynamic characteristics unique to this geometry. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide new insights in the subject of flutter of curved panels. Finite element frequency and time domain methods are developed to predict the pre/post flutter responses …

Computation Of Shock Induced Noise In Imperfectly Expanded Supersonic Jets, Bulent Imamoglu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Screech noise exists only in imperfectly expanded jets. The exit pressure of imperfectly expanded jets does not match ambient pressure, so expansion or compression waves appear out of the nozzle and generate shock cell patterns. Screech is generated by the interaction of shock cells and instability waves. Many experiments and computations have been done to model screech noise, but it is not yet a very well known subject.

A numerical study is performed to understand screech generation mechanisms and to compare with latest experiments. A supersonic underexpanded jet of 25.4 mm diameter is modeled for cases of Mach numbers of …

Nonlinear Response And Fatigue Estimation Of Aerospace Curved Surface Panels To Acoustic And Thermal Loads, Adam Przekop

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This work presents a finite element modal formulation for large amplitude free vibration of arbitrary laminated composite shallow shells. The system equations of motion are formulated first in the physical structural-node degrees of freedom (DOF). Then, the system is transformed into general Duffing-type modal equations with modal amplitudes of coupled linear bending-inplane modes. The linear bending-inplane coupling is due to the shell curvature as well as unsymmetric lamination stacking. Multiple modes, inplane inertia, and the first-order transverse shear deformation for composites are considered in the formulation. A triangular shallow shell finite element is developed from an extension of the triangular …

Implementation And Testing Of Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes And Detached Eddy Simulation Using An Implicit Unstructured Multigrid Scheme, Juan A. Palaez

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Investigation and development of the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) technique for the computation of unsteady flows on unstructured grids are presented. The motivation of the research work is driven by the ultimate goal of predicting separated flows of aerodynamic importance, such as massive stall or flows over complex non-streamlined geometries. These cases, in which large regions of massively separated flow are present, represent a challenge for conventional Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) models, that in many cases, cannot produce solutions accurate enough and/or fast enough for industrial design and applications. A Detached Eddy Simulation model is implemented and its performance compared …

Numerical Study Of Two-Dimensional Secondary Injection Into A Mach 3.5 Freestream, Stephen C. Coghill

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Upstream interaction within a dual-mode scramjet engine is investigated numerically. The upstream interaction is investigated by increasing the freestream-to-injector pressure ratio. The constant area duct and sudden expansion geometries are used to achieve these results. Analysis using the symmetry boundary condition is compared to the full boundary condition for the constant area duct. Numerical analysis of the Mach 3.5 freestream is conducted using normal sonic injection of nitrogen gas to create the upstream interaction. Comparisons, where applicable, are made to experimental results. Due to the high speed of the flowfield, oblique shockwaves are present causing numerical convergence difficult to achieve. …

New Approaches To Gortler And Tollmien-Schlichting Boundary-Layer Instabilities, Vijay Kalburgi

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A detailed understanding of the physical processes that lead to instability and transition in the external viscous boundary layers of airfoils has been the goal of researchers for decades. This study seeks to enhance our understanding of Gortler and Tollmien-Schlichting instabilities through a critical review of prior theoretical methodology and fundamental experiments, the development of dimensionally consistent disturbance equations, and novel interpretation of the resulting flow physics revealed by their solutions to explain the process of transition.

Gortler vortices arise in boundary layers along concave surfaces due to centrifugal effects and these vortices in combination with other instabilities play an …

Modeling Aspects Of Magnetic Actuators And Magnetic Suspension Systems, V. Dale Bloodgood Jr.

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of new modeling techniques developed for magnetic suspension systems. The techniques discussed are modifications of magnetic circuit theory and fundamental eddy current models. The techniques are compared against experimental test results and finite element data. The information gained from the experimental testing is used to provide insight into magnetic bearing design.

A small-gap modeling technique called extended circuit theory is developed that incorporates information about the system gained from finite element data, or experimental data, to be included in the analytic model. The variations between the classical magnetic circuit model and the finite element model …

Finite Element Modal Formulation For Panel Flutter At Hypersonic Speeds And Elevated Temperatures, Guangfeng Cheng

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A finite element time domain modal formulation for analyzing flutter behavior of aircraft surface panels in hypersonic airflow has been developed and presented for the first time. Von Karman large deflection plate theory is used for description of the structural nonlinearity and third order piston theory is employed to account for the aerodynamic nonlinearity. The thermal loadings of uniformly distributed temperature and temperature gradients across the panel thickness are incorporated into the finite element formulation. By applying the modal reduction technique, the number of governing equations of motion is reduced dramatically so that the computational time of direct numerical integration …

Active And Adaptive Flow Control Of Twin-Tail Buffet And Applications, Zhi Yang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Modern fighter aircraft with dual vertical tails are operated at high angles of attack. The vortex generated by leading edge extension (LEX) breaks down before reaching the two vertical tails. The wake of highly unsteady, turbulent flow causes unbalanced broadband aerodynamic loading on the tails and may produce severe buffet on the tails and lead to tail fatigue failure.

Flow suction along the vortex cores (FSVC) is investigated as an active control method for tail-buffet alleviation. Suction tubes have been tilted at different angles to study the control effectiveness of suction tubes orientation. Flow field response, aerodynamic loading and aeroelastic …

Supersonic Combustion And Mixing Characteristics Of Hydrocarbon Fuels In Screamjet Engines, Ahmed A. Taha

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The combustion characteristics of gaseous propane in supersonic airflow using the rearward-facing step that is swept inward from both end sides is studied. The effect of sweeping the step on the flow field features of propane combustion is investigated.

The study of the supersonic combustion of ethylene is carried out using different combustor configurations, different main fuel equivalence ratios, and different pilot fuel equivalence ratios.

The swept step shows the ability to hold the propane flame in the supersonic air stream without extinction. It was found that the side sweeping of the combustor exhibits the high temperature and combustion products …

Optimal Aeroelastic Vehicle Sensor Placement For Root Migration Flight Control Applications, Abdul Ghafoor Al-Shenhabi

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

An important step in control design for elastic systems is the determination of the number and location of control system components, namely sensors. The number and placement of sensors can be critical to the robust functioning of active control systems, especially when the system of interest is a large high-speed aeroelastic vehicle. The position of the sensors affects not only system stability, but also the performance of the closed-loop system. In this dissertation, a new approach for sensor placement in the integrated rigid and vibrational control of flexible aircraft structures is developed. Traditional rigid-body augmentation objectives are addressed indirectly through …

On Multifunctional Collaborative Methods In Engineering Science, Jonathan B. Ransom Sr.

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Engineers are challenged to produce better designs in less time and for less cost. Hence, to investigate novel and revolutionary design concepts, accurate, high-fidelity data must be assimilated rapidly into the design, analysis and simulation process. This data assimilation should consider diverse mathematical modeling and multi-discipline interactions necessitated by concepts exploiting advanced materials and structures. Integrated high-fidelity methods with diverse engineering applications provide the enabling technologies to assimilate these high-fidelity, multi-disciplinary data rapidly at an early stage in the design. These integrated methods must be multifunctional, collaborative and applicable to the general field of engineering science and mechanics.

Multifunctional methodologies …

Large Amplitude Pitching Of Supermaneuver Delta Wings Including Flow Control, Yahia A. Abdelhamid

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The unsteady, three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are solved to simulate and study the aerodynamic response of a delta wing undergoing large amplitude pitching motion up to 90° angle of attack. The primary model under consideration consists of a 76° swept, sharp-edged delta wing of zero thickness, initially at zero angle of attack. The freestream Mach number and Reynolds number are 0.3 and 0.45 × 106, respectively. The governing equations are solved time-accurately using the implicit, upwind, Roe flux-difference splitting, finite-volume scheme. Both laminar and turbulent flow solutions are investigated. In the laminar flow solutions, validation of the computational results is carried …

Jet Stability And Noise Computations Using Direct Numerical Simulation, Farouk Owis

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The computations of axisymmetric jet noise with symmetric disturbances are investigated using the direct numerical simulation of the unsteady compressible Navier-Stokes equations. High order accurate numerical schemes are employed for the solution of the governing equations. The investigation shows that MacCormack schemes with operator splitting and minimum dispersion error can be used to predict noise radiated from subsonic and supersonic jets with low and high Reynolds numbers. In addition, different kinds of nonreflecting boundary conditions are used at the inflow and outflow boundaries. These boundary conditions include characteristic boundary conditions, buffer domain technique and perfectly matching layer method. The results …

Studies Related To The Design Of A Magnetic Suspension And Balance System For An Ultra-High Reynolds Number Flow Facility, Oscar Magno Michael Gomeiz

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The basic design principles for a magnetic suspension and balance system applied to the test section of an ultra-high Reynolds number facility are defined. The design of the cross-sectional area to be used in the test section is analyzed. The parameters of the permanent magnet to be used in the model inside the test section are investigated. The testing of magnetic fields at the center of a test pipe and validation of data by computer finite element analysis is described with the purpose of finding common results. The performance of the magnet configuration is evaluated with relation to the magnetic …

Efficient Dynamic Unstructured Methods And Applications For Transonic Flows And Hypersonic Stage Separation, Xiaobing Luo

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Relative-moving boundary problems have a wide variety of applications. They appear in staging during a launch process, store separation from a military aircraft, rotor-stator interaction in turbomachinery, and dynamic aeroelasticity.

The dynamic unstructured technology (DUT) is potentially a strong approach to simulate unsteady flows around relative-moving bodies, by solving time-dependent governing equations. The dual-time stepping scheme is implemented to improve its efficiency while not compromising the accuracy of solutions. The validation of the implicit scheme is performed on a pitching NACA0012 airfoil and a rectangular wing with low reduced frequencies in transonic flows. All the matured accelerating techniques, including the …

Continuous Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis For Aerodynamic And Acoustic Optimization, Kaveh Ghayour

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A gradient-based shape optimization methodology based on continuous adjoint sensitivities has been developed for two-dimensional steady Euler equations on unstructured meshes and the unsteady transonic small disturbance equation. The continuous adjoint sensitivities of the Helmholtz equation for acoustic applications have also been derived and discussed.

The highlights of the developments for the steady two-dimensional Euler equations are the generalization of the airfoil surface boundary condition of the adjoint system to allow a proper closure of the Lagrangian functional associated with a general cost functional and the results for an inverse problem with density as the prescribed target. Furthermore, it has …

Computational Modeling Of Airborne Noise Demonstrated Via Benchmarks, Supersonic Jet, And Railway Barrier, Moumen Idres

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In the last several years, there has been a growing demand for mobility to cope with the increasing population. All kinds of transportation have responded to this demand by expanding their networks and introducing new ideas. Rail transportation introduced the idea of high-speed trains and air transportation introduced the idea of high-speed civil transport (HSCT). In this expanding world, the noise legislation is felt to inhibit these plans. Accurate computational methods for noise prediction are in great demand.

In the current research, two computational methods are developed to predict noise propagation in air. The first method is based on the …

Skin-Stiffener Separation In Buckled Composite Plates And Shallow Shells, Mark Edward Robeson

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The development of an approximate analysis for predicting stresses in the skin-stiffener interface region of composite plates and shallow shells is presented. The analysis determines interlaminar normal stress and transverse shear stresses in the direction of the stiffener axial coordinate and the direction of the inplane coordinate perpendicular to the stiffener axis. The analysis accounts for skin-stiffener interfaces with nonzero thickness and for curvature in the skin and stiffener. The interlaminar normal stress and transverse shear stresses at the interface are applied to the lower face of the skin and the upper face of the stiffener flange as unknown functions, …

Vortex Wake And Exhaust Plume Interaction, Including Ground Effect, Ihab Gaber Adam

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Computational modeling and studies of the near-field wake-vortex turbulent flows, far-field turbulent wake-vortex/exhaust-plume interaction for subsonic and High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) airplane, and wake-vortex/exhaust-plume interaction with the ground are carried out. The three-dimensional, compressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are solved using the implicit, upwind, Roe-flux-differencing, finite-volume scheme. The turbulence models of Baldwin and Lomax, one-equation model of Spalart and Allmaras and two-equation shear stress transport model of Menter are implemented with the RANS solver for turbulent-flow modeling.

For the near-field study, computations are carried out on a fine grid for a rectangular wing with a NACA-0012 airfoil section and …

Experimental Geometry Optimization Techniques For Multi-Element Airfoils, Drew Landman

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A study is reported on geometry optimization techniques for high-lift airfoils. A modern three-element airfoil model with a remotely actuated flap was designed, tested, and used in wind tunnel experiments to investigate optimum flap positioning based on lift. All the results presented were obtained in the Old Dominion University low-speed wind tunnel. Detailed results for lift coefficient versus flap vertical and horizontal position are presented for two airfoil angles-of-attack: 8 and 14 degrees. Three automated optimization simulations, the method of steepest ascent and two variants of the sequential simplex method, were demonstrated using experimental data. An on-line optimizer was demonstrated …

Placement Of Piezoelectric Actuators For Active Control Of Vibration Using Modal Parameters, Xuegeng Zhu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

An equation is derived to model the piezoelectric actuators incorporation with flexible structures. This equation permits the comparison of the performance indices over the entire structure for a piezoelectric actuator with constant area, which is unachievable if the Finite Element Method is used for complicated structures.

An index has been developed for placement of piezoelectric actuator for control of vibration of a flexible structure. This index is derived from the definition of H2norm. Computation of the proposed index requires only the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes of the structures of interest. The method is well suited to large …

Aerodynamic Gradient-Based Optimization Using Computational Fluid Dynamics And Discrete Sensitivities For Practical Problems, Mohagna Jayendrarai Pandya

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A gradient-based shape optimization methodology based on quasi-analytical sensitivities has been developed for practical three-dimensional aerodynamic applications. The flow analysis has been rendered by a fully implicit, finite-volume formulation of the Euler and Thin Layer Navier-Stokes (TLNS) equations. The flow equations and aerodynamic sensitivity equation have been solved using an alternating-direction-implicit (ADI) algorithm for memory efficiency. A wing geometry model based on space-surface and planform parameterization has been utilized. The present methodology and its components have been tested via several comparisons.

Initially, the inviscid flow analysis for a wing has been compared with those obtained using an unfactored, Preconditioned Conjugate …