Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Spacecraft Systems & Navigation, Christopher Vanacore

Student Works

This textbook is steered towards higher educational course entailed in Commercial Space Operations. This textbook will be covering in detail Orbital Satellites, and Spacecraft. These topics are discussed according to their application, design, and environment. The power system, shielding and communication systems are reviewed along with their missions, space, environment and limitations. Any vehicle, whether manned or unmanned, intended for space travel is a spacecraft. A spacecraft's required systems and equipment depend on the information it will acquire and the tasks it will perform. Although their levels of sophistication vary widely, they re all subject to the harsh conditions of …

Seal For A Wave Rotor Disk Engine, Christopher Tait, Pejman Akbari, Brian Sell, Marc Polanka

AFIT Patents

A unique seal for a wave rotor disk engine is disclosed herein. The seal is operable for sealing a region between a rotor and a rotor casing. The seal is spring loaded and will engage with the tip of the rotor to reduce pressure loss within the wave rotor disk engine.

A Comparative Performance Analysis Of The Novel Turboaux Engine With A Turbojet Engine, And A Low-Bypass Ratio Turbofan Engine With An Afterburner, Kaleab Fetahi, Sharanabasaweshwara A. Asundi, Arthur C. Taylor

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Presented herein is a comparative performance analysis of a novel turbofan engine with an auxiliary combustion chamber, nicknamed the TurboAux engine, against a turbojet engine, and a low bypass ratio turbofan engine with an afterburner is presented. The TurboAux engine is an adaption of the low-bypass ratio turbofan engine, but with secondary combustion in an auxiliary bypass annular combustion chamber for thrust augmentation. The TurboAux engine is envisioned with the desire to facilitate clean secondary burning of fuel at temperatures higher than in the main combustion chamber with air exiting the low-pressure compressor. The comparative study starts by analyzing the …

Feasibility Of Low-Enriched Uranium Fueled Nuclear Thermal Propulsion In The Low-Thrust Region Below 16klbf, Samantha B. Rawlins, Dale L. Thomas

PRC-Affiliated Research

No abstract provided.

Turbine Cooling System With Energy Separation, James L. Rutledge, Matthew Fuqua, Carol M. Bryant

AFIT Patents

A method and system for cooling an engine and/or vehicle using energy separation is disclosed herein. An energy separation device is operable for separating a compressed gaseous coolant stream into a first relatively cooler coolant flow stream and a second relatively hotter coolant flow stream. The relative cooler coolant flow stream is directed to a first region requiring increased cooling and the relative hotter coolant flow stream is directed to a second region requiring lower cooling than the first region in the engine or vehicle.

Disk Engine With Circumferential Swirl Radial Combustor, Brian Bohan, Marc Polanka, Bennett Staton

AFIT Patents

A disk engine and system configured to provide high power at a reduced axial length is disclosed herein. The disk engine includes a radial compressor, a compressor discharge manifold positioned circumferentially about compressor, a combustion chamber positioned within the discharge manifold and a radial turbine positioned radially inward of the combustion chamber.

Understanding The Nonlinear Dynamics Governing Vertical-Lift Vehicles With Variable-Speed, Fixed Rotors, Stephanie Vavra, Micah Busboom, Aleea Stanford, Keegan Moore

UNL Student Research Days Posters, Undergraduate

Problem: Traffic significantly limits travel in urban areas. • The NASA Urban Air Mobility Project is developing an air taxi as an alternative mean of transportation (Fig. 1).

Challenge: Operating rotors at different frequencies may cause the cabin to vibrate at high amplitudes. Such effects are currently unknown.

Objective: Understand the effect of variable speed rotors on passenger comfort.

From the reduced-order modeling simulations, it can be assumed that counteracting the rotor speed in-balances can reduce the displacement and vibrations experienced at the center of the wing. In other words, should a rotor not maintain its optimal operation speed, reducing …

Electromagnetic Slosh And Liquid Position Detection, Eduardo Antonio Rojas

Publications

Apparatus and techniques are described for monitoring slosh of a liquid within a propellant tank. The approaches described herein can use an electromagnetic transmitter positioned at a first location on or within the tank, the electromagnetic transmitter coupled to a source of electro­magnetic energy and arranged to establish a specified elec­tromagnetic field configuration within the tank using a signal from the source, and an electromagnetic receiver positioned at a different second location on or within the tank, the electromagnetic receiver arranged to sense an electromag­netic field established within the tank by the electromagnetic transmitter. A control circuit can be coupled …

Flow And Heat Transfer Characteristics In A Pre-Swirl Rotor-Stator Cavity, Xiaoyu Yang, Zhong Ren, Jing Ren, Philip M. Ligrani

PRC-Affiliated Research

The present study investigates flow and heat transfer characteristics in a rotor-stator pre-swirl system. Considered are rotational Reynolds numbers ReФ ranging from 3.4 × 105 to 6.8 × 105, with jet Reynolds numbers Rew of approximately 8.8 × 104 to 3.81 × 105, and associated turbulent flow parameter λT = Cw/ReФ0.8 varying from 0 to 0.4. Experimentally-measured and numerically-predicted results illustrate the combined and separate influences of jet impingement and rotor entrainment, as they affect and govern flow and heat transfer characteristics within the cavity. These results show that the relative strength of the two effects varies with ReФ and …