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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Investigation Of Dynamic Hybrid Rans-Les Turbulence Modeling For Cfd Simulation Of A Normal Jet In Crossflow, Cole Simmonds May 2023

Investigation Of Dynamic Hybrid Rans-Les Turbulence Modeling For Cfd Simulation Of A Normal Jet In Crossflow, Cole Simmonds

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The jet in crossflow is a canonical flow feature in many natural and engineered systems, ranging from pollutant dispersal in exhaust discharge to film cooling of high-temperature components in modern propulsion systems. The ability to computationally predict the flow features of jets in crossflow accurately and efficiently is therefore important for analysis and design for a wide variety of applications. In this study the capabilities of the dynamic hybrid RANS-LES (DHRL) turbulence modeling technique are investigated and compared to an industry standard Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model (k-omega SST) in order to quantify the accuracy and computational cost of the two approaches. …


A Systematic Study Into The Design And Utilization Of Burn Wire As A Means Of Tensioning And Releasing Spacecraft Mechanisms Through Applied Joule Heating, Chandler Dye May 2023

A Systematic Study Into The Design And Utilization Of Burn Wire As A Means Of Tensioning And Releasing Spacecraft Mechanisms Through Applied Joule Heating, Chandler Dye

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The joule heating characteristics of Nichrome burn wires, often used as a thermal cutting device in mechanisms designed to fasten and release CubeSat deployables, are examined in the following thesis. Wires ranging from 0.125 inches to 2 inches long, and diameters of 30 Ga and 40 Ga, are investigated through analytical calculations and thermal simulations based on heat transfer due to joule heating, and through physical circuitry-based experiments. The temperature data is used to generate heating curves to predict the time it takes for Nichrome wires to fail under varying testing parameters. This research aims to catalog a series of …


Improving The Performance Of An Ead Aircraft By Use Of A Retractable Electrode System, Michael Alexander Fredricks May 2021

Improving The Performance Of An Ead Aircraft By Use Of A Retractable Electrode System, Michael Alexander Fredricks

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Electroaerodynamic (EAD) propulsion is a growing area of research for small, low powered aircraft. Recent tests of EAD aircraft have demonstrated low performance in unpowered, gliding flight. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a retractable electrode system on the flight performance of an EAD aircraft. An analysis of electrode drag contribution on the MIT ionic wind plane’s performance predicts a maximum lift to drag ratio of 22, with the addition of a retractable electrode system, for a similarly sized and modeled EAD aircraft. An experiment is developed using a prototype aircraft, launcher, and retraction system …


Characterizing High Entropy Alloys For Hypersonic Applications, Katherine Pettus May 2021

Characterizing High Entropy Alloys For Hypersonic Applications, Katherine Pettus

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this paper, the properties of a new and broad class of materials, high entropy alloys (HEAs), were investigated and evaluated for hypersonic applications. The plan was to identify candidate hypersonic HEAs and model the high-temperature strength using new advanced material models that account for asymmetry and anisotropy characterized with available test data. After accessing a local database of HEAs and their material properties in collaboration with Dr. Gorsse et al., it was realized the knowledge of HEAs is currently very broad but lacks depth. While hundreds of HEAs have been created and tested, none so far have both sufficient …


Attitude Determination And Control Of Arksat-1, Jared Gilliam Dec 2020

Attitude Determination And Control Of Arksat-1, Jared Gilliam

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

ARKSAT-1 is a nanosatellite developed at the University of Arkansas as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). The goal of ARKSAT-1 is to utilize an LED emitter paired with a ground-based tracking system to perform measurements of the composition of the atmosphere using spectroscopy. As part of its function, it is imperative that the satellite is able to control its orientation so that the emitter is aligned as closely as possible with the ground tracker. To do this, the attitude control system of ARKSAT-1 uses magnetic actuators to create a torque on the satellite by interacting with Earth’s magnetic …


Axial Compressor Based On Plastic Additive Manufacturing, Chris Phu Dec 2019

Axial Compressor Based On Plastic Additive Manufacturing, Chris Phu

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Turbomolecular pumps designed to function in very low pressures tend to be too prohibitively expensive for student researchers. On the other hand, while conventional pumps are affordable, they can’t function in extreme low pressures. An additively manufactured axial compressor however is inexpensive to manufacturer and only needs to be build up enough pressure for a conventional pump to function. After many design iterations, a final iteration that is near vacuum chamber ready has been 3D printed and tested for spin functionally. The designed axial compressor is easy to assemble and very modular. Conclusions from each of the design iterations is …


Active Permanent Magnet Attitude Control For Cubesats Using Mu-Metal Shielding, Maxwell Martin May 2018

Active Permanent Magnet Attitude Control For Cubesats Using Mu-Metal Shielding, Maxwell Martin

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cube-Satellites (CubeSats) are nanosatellites composed of cube shaped units, each nominally 10cm to a side and around 1kg in mass. Due to their inherent size and weight limitations, it is often impractical to use conventional attitude, or rotational, control methods such as thrusters on these small satellites. Several methods, including magnetorquer rods and small reaction wheels, are often used instead of traditional methods to work around the size and weight limitations. As a new alternative to these methods, a permanent magnet mounted on a rotatable shaft could be used to achieve attitude control. In much the same way that a …


Time-Of-Flight Based Sonic Speed Measurements For Cold Gas Thruster Development, Brandon W. Kempf May 2016

Time-Of-Flight Based Sonic Speed Measurements For Cold Gas Thruster Development, Brandon W. Kempf

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore an experiment developed for validating the usage of a gaseous solution of water and propylene glycol for cold gas propulsion. The experiment involves a “Time of Flight” method of calculating the speed of sound in the gas and the corresponding specific heat ratio using a copper tube, two MEMS microphones, a piezoelectric speaker, and data-acquisition hardware. The experiment was calibrated using the known thermodynamic properties of air. The accuracy of the experiment was found to be within 0.6% for calculations of the speed of sound in air and within 1.0% of the …