Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

A Review Of 2d And 3d Plasmonic Nanostructure Array Patterns: Fabrication, Light Management And Sensing Applications, Sujan Kassani, Katherine Curtin, Nianqiang Wu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Abstract: This review article discusses progress in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) chip-based nanostructure array patterns. Recent advancements in fabrication techniques for nano-arrays have endowed researchers with tools to explore a material’s plasmonic optical properties. In this review, fabrication techniques including electron-beam lithography, focused-ion lithography, dip-pen lithography, laser interference lithography, nanosphere lithography, nanoimprint lithography, and anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template-based lithography are introduced and discussed. Nano-arrays have gained increased attention because of their optical property dependency (lightmatter interactions) on size, shape, and periodicity. In particular, nano-array architectures can be tailored to produce and tune plasmonic …

Exploration Of High Entropy Ceramics (Hecs) With Computational Thermodynamics - A Case Study With Lamno3±Δ, Yu Zhong, Hooman Sabarou, Xiaotian Yan, Mei Yang, Michael C. Gao, Xingbo Liu, Richard D. Sisson Jr.

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The concept of the new category materials high entropy ceramics (HECs) has been proposed several years ago, which is directly borrowed from high entropy alloys (HEAs). It quickly attracts a lot of interests and displays promising properties. However, there is no clear definition of HECs differentiating it from HEAs, as it is still in its early research stage. In the current work, we are trying to use the classic perovskite LaMnO3±δ (LMO) to demonstrate the fundamental differences between HECs and HEAs. We have adopted the integrated defect chemistry and CALPHAD approach to investigate the mixing behavior and how it is …

Quaternion-Based Robust Attitude Estimation Using An Adaptive Unscented Kalman Filter, Antonio C. B. Chiella, Bruno O. S. Teixeira, Guilherme A. S. Pereira

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper presents the Quaternion-based Robust Adaptive Unscented Kalman Filter (QRAUKF) for attitude estimation. The proposed methodology modifies and extends the standard UKF equations to consistently accommodate the non-Euclidean algebra of unit quaternions and to add robustness to fast and slow variations in the measurement uncertainty. To deal with slow time-varying perturbations in the sensors, an adaptive strategy based on covariance matching that tunes the measurement covariance matrix online is used. Additionally, an outlier detector algorithm is adopted to identify abrupt changes in the UKF innovation, thus rejecting fast perturbations. Adaptation and outlier detection make the proposed algorithm robust to …

On The Unusual Amber Coloration Of Nanoporous Sol-Gel Processed Al-Doped Silica Glass: An Experimental Study, Alvin Chang, Yujuan He, Maria A. Torres Arango, Maoyu Wang, Yang Ren, Zhenxing Feng, Chih-Hung Chang, Knostantinos A. Sierros

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Silica is the most abundant component on the earth’s surface. It plays an important role in many natural processes. Silica is also a critical material for a wide range of technical applications such as in optics and electronics. In this work, we discuss our recent experimental observation of the unusual amber coloration of aluminum doped sol-gel glass that has not been reported in the past. We characterized Al-doped sol-gel glasses, prepared at different sintering temperature, using a plethora of techniques to investigate the origin of this unusual coloration and to understand their structural and chemical properties. We used these experimental …

Programmed Design Of A Lithium–Sulfur Battery Cathode By Integrating Functional Units, Zhipeng Zeng, Wei Li, Qiang Wang, Xingbo Liu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Sulfur is considered to be one of the most promising cathode materials due to its high theoretical specific capacity and low cost. However, the insulating nature of sulfur and notorious “shuttle effect” of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) lead to severe loss of active sulfur, poor redox kinetics, and rapid capacity fade. Herein, a hierarchical electrode design is proposed to address these issues synchronously, which integrates multiple building blocks with specialized functions into an ensemble to construct a self‐supported versatile cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries. Nickel foam acts as a robust conductive scaffold. The heteroatom‐doped host carbon with desired lithiophilicity and electronic conductivity …

Design And Fabrication Of A Remote-Controlled Plane For The Advanced Class Sae Aero Design Competition, Simon Esau

Theses

The goal of the present research is to optimize the radio-controlled airplane design for the Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE) Aero Design Advanced Class competition. The SAE Aero Design Advanced Class seeks to further research and development of an aeronautic system that can deliver cargo and passengers to form a colony on Mars. Mission success is achieved by attending to the rules, constraints, and requirements of the competition. System-level engineering is applied to meet these diverse requirements and create a robust final product. The radio-controlled airplane submitted for competition can theoretically be scaled to carry colonists, habitats, and supplies …

Composite Recycler: Delamination, Nathan Sauer

All Undergraduate Projects

A great deal of composite waste is generated in the construction of wings for the Boeing 777. These carbon fiber “wing trimmings” are currently being disposed of in a landfill. These carbon fiber boards are made of several layers laminated together, making them very rigid and hard to recycle. This report proposes a method to delaminate the layers of these composite wing trimmings using a hydraulic press and a V-shaped steel die so that they may be more easily shredded and thus recycled. A top, “male” die with two points is pressed into a bottom, “female” die with three points …

Mechanical And Aerospace Engineering, 2018-2019, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering News

• Letter from the Chair
• Introducing Dr. Zachary D. Asher
• Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering develops an engineering flight simulator
• Gear Sliding Loss Prediction
• Ph.D. student receives the prestigious NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
• NSF grant allows important materials research
• Student receives scholarship from gear industry
• Development of low cost/high volume micro/nano sensors and actuators
• Liou receives $204,000 NSF grant for neurological research
• Alexander Porter inducted into the Alumni Excellence Academy

From Statistical Correlations To Stochasticity And Size Effects In Sub-Micron Crystal Plasticity, Hengxu Song, Stefanos Papanikolaou

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Metals in small volumes display a strong dependence on initial conditions, which translates into size effects and stochastic mechanical responses. In the context of crystal plasticity, this amounts to the role of pre-existing dislocation configurations that may emerge due to prior processing. Here, we study a minimal but realistic model of uniaxial compression of sub-micron finite volumes. We show how the statistical correlations of pre-existing dislocation configurations may influence the mechanical response in multi-slip crystal plasticity, in connection to the finite volume size and the initial dislocation density. In addition, spatial dislocation correlations display evidence that plasticity is strongly influenced …

A Smart Uav Platform For Railroad Inspection, Ryan Debevec

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using quadcopters for analysis of an environment has been an intriguing subject of study recently. The purpose of this work is to develop a fully autonomous UAV platform for Railroad inspection The dynamics of the quadrotor is derived using Euler's and Newton's laws and then linearized around the hover position. A PID controller is designed to control the states of the quadrotor in a manner to effectively follow a vision-based path, using the down facing camera on a Parrot Mambo quadrotor. Using computer vision the distance from the position of the quadrotor to the position of the center of the …

Investigation Of The Flow Field And Associated Heat Transfer Within An Asymmetrical Leading Edge Jet Impingement Array, Jorge Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the turbulent flow features present in asymmetrical leading edge jet impingement and their effects from a fluid and heat transfer prospective using both numerical and experimental techniques. The jet-centerline plane flow field was quantified experimentally through the non-intrusive experimental method of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), while an area average heat transfer was acquired via a traditional copper block method. The numerical element served to investigate how well the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) k-? SST turbulence model predicts the flow field and heat transfer within the leading edge and further investigate the results outside of the experimental scope. …

A Multi-Species Single-Led Hazardous Gas Sensor For Commercial Space Applications, Akshita Parupalli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the interest of furthering both commercial and government-funded opportunities for deep space exploration, the safety of life and equipment onboard must be absolutely certain. In this regard, the presence of any hazardous gases or combustion events onboard space vehicles must be quickly characterized and detected. Several hazardous gases of interest have absorption features in the mid-infrared range and can be detected with an infrared light source, via the principles of absorption spectroscopy. A non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensor that follows these principles has been developed to utilize light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for gas detection and quantification. LEDs contain a particular advantage …

Sintering Behavior, Structural, And Catalytic Properties Of Ytterbium Oxide (Yb2o3), Alina Aftab

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Ytterbia (Yb₂O₃) is an oxide ceramic, whose magnetic properties and crystal structure were studied to some extent in the past. However, the information on Yb₂O₃'s catalytic properties is lacking. Therefore, in this work, the sintering behavior and catalytic properties of Yb₂O₃ were examined. Yb₂O₃ ceramic samples were made using pressureless sintering of the commercially available Yb₂O₃ with 99.99% purity powder. The powder was first uniaxially pressed at 20 MPa in a steel die followed by pressureless sintering at different temperatures of 900 ⁰C …

Moore’S Law And Space Exploration: New Insights And Next Steps, Michael Howell, Venkat Kodali, Richard Segall, Hyacinthe Aboudja, Daniel Berleant

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Understanding how technology changes over time is important for industry, science, and government policy. Empirical examination of the capability of technologies across various domains reveals that they often progress at an exponential rate. In addition, mathematical models of technological development have proven successful in deepening our understanding. One area that has not been shown to demonstrate exponential trends, until recently, has been space travel.

This paper will present plots illustrating trends in the mean lifespan of satellites whose lifespans ended in a given year. Our study identifies both Wright’s law and Moore’s law regressions. For the Moore’s law regression, we …

Wake Vortex Pair Formation As An Analog For Dust Devil And Tornado Genesis, Robert L. Ash

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

In 1966, meteorologist R.S. Scorer attempted to explain how large-scale oceanic tropical depressions become hurricanes or typhoons. His model was based on the idea that when these large-scale tropical depression structures begin to rotate, mostly due to Coriolis effects, an annular outer portion of that structure changes suddenly to a potential vortex segment, with the same outer radial limit as the low-pressure structure, but with an inner radius that conserves the overall system angular momentum and kinetic energy. By analogy with the "jump" instability describing sudden buckling of a vertical column, this paper shows that his conjecture merits additional consideration. …

Uas Flight Operations In Complex Terrain: Assessing The Agricultural Impact From Hurricane Maria In The Central Mountainous Region Of Puerto Rico, Kevin Adkins

Publications

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm causing major damage to infrastructure, agriculture and natural ecosystems, as well as the loss of many lives. Among the crops hardest hit was coffee, one of the most important crops in Puerto Rico. As a perennial system, coffee takes various production forms along a gradient from high shade/biodiversity coffee farms to low shade coffee monocultures and therefore offers an ideal means for the study of resistance and resilience of an agroecosystem to weather and climate disturbance. During the summer of 2018, 14 impacted farms across the production …

Development And Environmental Testing Of A Single-Axis Printer Inside A 1u Cubesat For On-Orbit Servicing Repairs In Low Earth Orbit, Perla Rocio Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As additive manufacturing is becoming an established technology in space, new emerging strategies improve the efficiency of the printing processes. Orbital Factory 2 (OF-2) is a small satellite-or CubeSat-developed at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) which launched to space on November 2019. In January 2020, it will be released in low earth orbit (LEO). OF-2 is a 1U (10x10x10cm) CubeSat that carries a one-axis printer experiment as its primary payload. This printer was developed and tested in-house. The experiment focuses on printing electrically conductive ink on a printing circuit board that verifies the conductivity on the trace …

Thermal/Mechanical Analysis And Development Of A 2000 Lbf Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Methane Rocket Engine, Marissa Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) is developing three rocket engines: a 5 lbf reaction control engine, a 500 lbf engine, and a 2000 lbf engine. All these engines utilize a liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant combination. The reason methane was selected for the fuel is because methane is easy to store, is self-pressurizing, and readily available. There is also the possibility of creating methane on planets such as Mars through an electrolysis process on the ice water found on Mars.

The 2000 lbf engine, or the CROME-X, is a modular, steady-state pintle injector engine. It …

Low Level Turbulence Detection For Airport, Derek Kearney, Anthony O'Connor

Articles

Low level wind shear and turbulence present a serious safety risk to aircraft during the approach, landing and take-off phases. Despite many advances in on-board and ground based warning systems. Wind shear remains a formidable force that coupled with a microburst can overpower any aircraft. Aviation reports have concluded that pilots need to have improved information in relation to tailwinds, wind shear and wind variations on approach and during the landing phases. Low level wind shear continues to cause disruption, delays and contribute to aircraft crashes. As recently as 2016, two Boeing aircraft crashed while attempting a Go-around manoeuver after …

Selective Dielectric Barrier Discharge Actuation For Flow Control Of Delta Wings, Arnab Chatterjee

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.