Imu Integration To The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator Power System, Wayland Chan

Electrical Engineering

The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator mimics the rotation dynamics of a spacecraft in orbit and acts as a test bed for spacecraft attitude control system development and demonstration. Prior to this project, the simulator measured its attitude dynamics from a total of seven sensors mounted on to the platform, including three micro-electromechanical system (MEMs) gyroscopes, and four motor encoders. This project entails the installation of an LN-200 high performance gyroscope, which will provide a greater measure of accuracy. The goal of this project is to design a power circuit that will integrate the LN-200 inertial measurement unit onto …

Port Flow Test System, Daniel Chairez, Chelsea E. Crawford, Daniel S. Welch

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines Gas Compressor Engineering Division of San Diego, California called upon the Mechanical Engineering students of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo to provide recommendations for optimization of compressor end cap port design. Various sizes of compressors have end caps with numerous ports that exchange fluids between the inside and outside of the working fluid pressure vessel. Because so many ports must exist on the end caps, unusual flow paths are created to supply the appropriate location within the compressor. These flow paths commonly consist of a drilled inlet hole which intersects with a sudden expansion. The sudden expansion …

Designing The Human-Powered Helicopter: A New Perspective, Gregory Hamilton Gradwell

Master's Theses

The concept of human-powered vertical flight was studied in great depth. Through the manipulation of preexisting theory and analytical methods, a collection of design tools was created to expediently conceptualize and then analyze virtually any rotor. The tools were then arranged as part of a complete helicopter rotor design process. The lessons learned as a result of studying this process—and the tools of which it consists—are presented in the following discussion. It is the belief of the author that by utilizing these tools, as well as the suggestions that accompany them, future engineers may someday build a human-powered helicopter capable …

Review Of The Maxus 8 Sounding Rocket Experiment To Investigate Solidification In A Ti-Al-Nb Alloy, Robin Mooney, David Browne, Olga Budenkova, Yves R. Fautrelle, Ludo Froyen, Andrey Kartavykh, Stephan Rex, Burkhard Schmitz, Daniella Voss, Shaun Mcfadden

Conference Papers

A review of the MAXUS 8 sounding rocket microgravity experiment to investigate solidification structures in a Ti-Al-Nb intermetallic alloy is presented. The experiment was part of the Intermetallic Materials Processing in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification (IMPRESS) EU FP6 project. Key objectives were to investigate columnar and equiaxed solidification, and to achieve Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition (CET) in the alloy. A microgravity experiment was designed to achieve this using a controlled power-down method. Two alloys were tested: one inoculated with a grain refiner and the other without grain refinement. Unrefined samples displayed axial and radial columnar growth. Boride inoculated samples displayed …

Deployment And Characterisation Of A Telescopic Boom For Sounding Rockets, Johnalan Keegan, Mark Wylie, Stephen Curran, Dinesh Vather, Paul Duffy

Conference Papers

In any sounding rocket, volume and mass are at a premium. Payload designers strive towards smaller, lighter and cheaper mechanisms which can achieve the same goals. This project aims to reduce the mass and volume for probe deployment booms and their deployment mechanisms. An experiment (Telescobe) to test a low cost novel method of boom deployment using telescopic carbon fibre poles was developed. A custom camera measurement system was also developed to measure boom length and harmonic deflection. This experiment was flown onboard the REXUS 9 sounding rocket [1] in February 2011 from Esrange space centre, Sweden. The experiment functioned …

Development Of A Laboratory Experiment To Simulate Upper-Stage Rocket Explosions, Timothy J. Price

Aerospace Engineering

This report is a summary of the senior project entitled Development of a Laboratory Experiment to Simulate Upper-Stage Rocket Explosions. The goal of the experiment was to recreate a NASA experiment which used aluminum soft drink cans to approximate the shape of an Ariane third stage rocket. The cans were placed in a vacuum chamber and fired upon with a projectile from a light gas gun. The resulting debris was collected and analyzed allowing several conclusions to be made regarding the behavior or rocket breakups and the formation of space debris. In lieu of a light gas gun, energy drink …

Airplane Landing Flare-The Last 5 Seconds, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

No abstract provided.

High-Frame-Rate Oil Film Interferometry, Jonathan Charles White

Master's Theses

High-Frame-Rate Oil Film Interferometry

Jonathan Charles White

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a high-frame-rate oil film interferometry technique (HOFI) used to directly measure skin friction in time dependent flows. Experiments were performed to determine the ability of a high-speed camera to capture oil film interferometry images. HOFI was found to be able to capture these interferometry images at frequencies up to 10⁵ Hz. Steady laminar and turbulent flows were tested. Transient flows tested consisted of a wind tunnel ramping up in velocity and a laminar boundary layer which was intermittently tripped to turbulence by puffing air …

A Computational Study Of Engine Deflection Using A Circulation Control Wing, Bryan Holly Blessing

Master's Theses

In the past, research into Short Takeoff and Landing aircraft has led to the investigation of the coupling of a Circulation Control Wing and Upper Surface Blowing engine. The Circulation Control Wing entrains the flow of the engine to be deflected downward such that a component of the thrust is now in the vertical direction. The unfortunate consequence of the Upper Surface Blowing engine is the poor cruise performance due to scrub drag. Cal Poly's research into a Cruise Efficient Short Takeoff and Landing Aircraft offers a solution by pylon mounting over the wing engines. Analysis shows that the engine …

Primary And Secondary Flow Structures In A Model Cerebral Aneurysm, Morgan A. Nowak

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Cerebral aneurysms affect 5% of western populations and can cause morbidity and mortality if they rupture. Various treatments can be used to minimize the risk of rupture, with new diagnostics and treatments under development that require information from non-invasive techniques such as Particle Imaging Velocimetery (PIV). The current study focused on developing a setup as a basis for future experiments and work on intracranial aneurysms involving PIV. PIV experimentation and data collection were carried out during the summer of 2010 at Ohta Labs of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. The experimental setup consisted of a pulsatile flow system, which was …

A 6-Degree Of Freedom Static Thrust Stand Developed For Rc-Scale Jet Engines, Spencer Sessions

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The description of a portable 6-degree of freedom static thrust stand for RC-scale jet engines is reported. The stand includes three axial and three lateral load cells measuring static thrust with six degrees of freedom. A pitot probe with single axis position control placed perpendicular to exhaust flow measures stagnation pressure along the nozzle centerline. A pitot probe open to the inside of the engine nozzle normal to the exhaust flow and near the outlet measures static pressure. A digital scale measures fuel consumption. The engine is mounted with exhaust gases exiting upward avoiding ground effects and thrust acting downward. …

Computational Efficiency Of A Hybrid Mass Concentration And Spherical Harmonic Modeling, Nathan Piepgrass

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Through Spherical Harmonics, one can describe complex gravitational fields. However as the order and degree of the spherical harmonics increases, the computation speed rises exponentially. In addition, for onboard applications of spherical harmonics, the processors are radiation hardened in order to mitigate negative effects of the space environment on electronics. But, those processors have outdated processing speeds, resulting in a slower onboard spherical harmonic program.

This thesis examines a partial solution to the slow computation speed of spherical harmonics programs. The partial solution was to supplant the gravity models in the flight software. The spherical harmonics gravity model can be …

Electric Motor & Power Source Selection For Small Aircraft Propulsion, Jeremy Fehrenbacher, David L. Stanley, Mary E. Johnson Dr., Jeffrey Honchell

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

The research conducted in this project is on electrical propulsion in aviation. A Cessna 172K aircraft with a Lycoming O-320-E2D piston engine serves as a baseline measurement. Investigation of the components required for electrical flight is performed, and components are selected based on market availability and operational performance criteria.

This research focuses on electrical propulsion in the aviation industry, and is tailored to aircraft within the General Aviation sector leading to the following research question: Can current electric motor and battery technologies conceptually support flight operations for a Cessna 172K in terms of aircraft performance criteria?

The results explore the …

Direct Numerical Simulation Of Hypersonic Turbulent Boundary Layers. Part 3. Effect Of Mach Number, L. (Lian) Duan, I. Beekman, M. P. Martín

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we perform direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent boundary layers with nominal free-stream Mach number ranging from 0.3 to 12. The main objective is to assess the scaling's with respect to the mean and turbulence behaviors as well as the possible breakdown of the weak compressibility hypothesis for turbulent boundary layers at high Mach numbers (M > 5). We find that many of the scaling relations, such as the van Driest transformation for mean velocity, Walz's relation, Morkovin's scaling and the strong Reynolds analogy, which are derived based on the weak compressibility hypothesis, remain valid for the range …

Surface Geometry And Heat Flux Effect On Thin Wire Nucleate Pool Boiling Of Subcooled Water In Mictrogravity, Troy Munro, Heng Ban

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Thermal Conductivity Of Interfacial Layers In Nanofluids, Zhi Liang, Hai-Lung Tsai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Thermal Conductivity of Interfacial Layers is an Essential Parameter for Determining How the Ordered Liquid Layering Around the Particle-Liquid Interface Contributes to the Unusual High Thermal Conductivity of Nanofluids. However, So Far There is No Experimental Data Regarding This Parameter. using Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics Simulations of an Inhomogeneous Au-Ar System in Which the Solid-Liquid Interactions Are Assumed to Be Much Stronger Than the Liquid-Liquid Interactions, We Show Explicitly that the Thermal Conductivity of a 1-Nm-Thick Interfacial Layer is 1.6∼2.5 Times Higher Than that of the Base Fluid. the Simulation Results Are Incorporated into a Three-Level Clustering Model to Calculate the …

Some Considerations For Regional Airline Operations On Contaminated Runways., Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Neural Network Prediction Of Ultimate Compression After Impact Loads In Graphite-Epoxy Coupons From Ultrasonic C-Scan Images, Nikolas L. Geiselman

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this project was to investigate how accurately an artificial neural network could predict the ultimate compressive loads of impact damaged 24-ply graphite-epoxy coupons from ultrasonic C-scan images. The 24-ply graphite-epoxy coupons were manufactured with bidirectional preimpregnated tape and cut into 21 coupons, 4 inches by 6 inches each. The coupons were impacted at known impact energies of 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 Joules in order to create barely visible impact damage (BVID). The coupons were then scanned with an ultrasonic C-scan system to create an image of the damaged area. Each coupon was then compressed …

Development Of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Process For A Large Scale Hybrid Composite Wind Turbine Blade, Jin Woo Lee

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Development of a multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a large scale hybrid composite wind turbine blade is performed. Multiple objectives are considered in the MDO process to maximize annual energy production and lifetime profit, minimize weight and power production rate. A wind turbine blade is divided into regions and the layup sequences for each region are considered as design variables. The scale of wind turbine blade is also considered to find the optimum size of a wind turbine blade. Applied loads due to extreme wind conditions for rotor rotation and rotor stop condition are considered for finite element analysis (FEA) …

Section Abstracts: Aeronautical And Aerospace Sciences

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Aeronautical and Aerospace Sciences Section for the 89th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 25-27, 2011, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia.