Engineering Commons^™

Airframe And Systems Design, Analysis, And Testing Of The Horizon Morphing-Wing Aircraft, Sabrina A. Snow

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

Morphing trailing edge technology can provide the ability to dynamically alter the twist distribution, and therefore lift distribution, of an aircraft during flight. There are certain optimal lift distributions which can be chosen to create proverse yawing effects and eliminate the need for vertical control surfaces. The purpose of this project is to support the design and testing of a morphing, crescent flying wing airframe which will be used to evaluate yaw control in an aircraft without vertical control surfaces. There are three main objectives of this project, which are to perform static and dynamic analysis on the crescent wing …

Comparison Of Induced And Parasitic Drag On Wings With Minimum Induced Drag, Sarah A. Abdel-Motaleb

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

Minimizing the induced drag for steady level flight is a variational problem that requires solving for the optimum lift distribution given a set of design constraints. From lifting-line theory, minimizing the induced drag is, in part, achieved by varying the Fourier coefficients used to describe the section lift. The elliptic lift distribution minimizes the induced drag for a wing with fixed weight and wingspan by setting all but the first coefficient to zero. If wingspan is allowed to vary, a negative third Fourier coefficient is utilized to reach an optimum lift distribution that further reduces the induced drag for stress-limited …

Reconstruction Of Attenuated Hybrid Rocket Motor Chamber Pressure Signals Using Maximum Likelihood Estimation And Optimal Deconvolution, Evan M. Zelesnik

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

Chamber pressure, as it develops during rocket combustion, strongly correlates with many of the internal motor ballistics, including combustion stability, fuel regression rate, and mass flow. Chamber pressure is also an essential measurement for calculating achieved thrust coefficient and characteristic velocity. Due to the combustion environment hostility, sensing chamber pressure with high-fidelity presents a difficult measurement problem, especially for solid and hybrid rocket systems where combustion by-products contain high amounts of carbon and other sooty materials. These contaminants tend to deposit within the pneumatic tubing used to transmit pressure oscillations from the thrust chamber to the sensing transducer. Partially clogged …

Inter-Laminar Fracture Of 3d-Printed Plastics - Development Of Methods, Christopher Stolinski

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

Due to the increased use of 3D printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic parts, a way to quantify the failure energy (energy needed to initiate cracking) is needed. Impact tests at high rates of loading are performed to determine failure energy. Throughout testing, specimens are monitored with high speed cameras to perform camera-based deformation measurements. Data acquisition and processing methods to calculate failure energy using crack opening displacement, and loading rates are developed to enable further use by Dr. Ryan Berke’s lab at Utah State University.

Design Survey Of Laminated Composite I-Beam, Mrinmoy Saha

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

Composite I-beams are popular for high-strength low-weight applications. Learning the macro-mechanics and designing the composite I-beam properly are necessary. In this report, a design overview of the composite I-beam is discussed which is based on classical lamination theory where it includes the homogenization approach, the plane stress assumption and the Kirchhoff hypothesis. Using these assumptions, a method was developed to come up with the effective material properties of a beam. Formulas to calculate maximum deflection and maximum bending stress and shear stress and the stress concentration at the connection of web-flange are discussed which describe ways for designing and manufacturing …

A Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics Study Of The Effects Of Helium Bubbles On The Thermal Conductivity Of Zrc, Tate Shorthill

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

Zirconium carbide (ZrC) has been proposed as a potential improvement to nuclear fuel cladding. As such, it is important to characterize its physical properties, particularly those relating to thermal energy transport. Reactor conditions are known to damage fuel microstructure over time. While research has been conducted on undamaged and damaged ZrC, some areas of interest remain. Fission products, such as helium, can accumulate in pores within the fuel microstructure. Such a case has yet to be characterized in ZrC fuel cladding.

A non-equilibrium molecular dynamics model was developed to characterize the thermal properties of ZrC. Fourier’s Law allows the thermal …

A Comparison Of The Aerodynamic Centers For Panel Code Compressible Corrections And Openfoam 5 For Mach 0.1 To 0.8, Dustin Weaver

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

It is known that the aerodynamic center changes from quarter chord to half chord from incompressible to compressible flows on airfoils. Compressible corrections are derived and implemented in a vortex panel code. These results will be used to find the aerodynamic centers for the specified Mach range of 0.1 to 0.8 in 0.1 increments within - 6 to 6 degrees angle of attack. OpenFOAM 5 cases will be created with specific meshes and settings. The results calculated from OpenFOAM 5 will be compared to the results obtained from the compressible corrections.

Application Of Strand-Cartesian Interfaced Solver On Flows Around Various Geometries, Yushi Yanagita

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

This work examines the application of a high-order numerical method to strand-based grids to solve the Navier-Stokes equations. Coined "Flux Correction", this method eliminates error terms in the fluxes of traditional second-order finite volume Galerkin methods. Flux Correction is first examined for applications to the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations to compute turbulent flows on a strictly strand-based domain. Flow over three geometries are examined to demonstrate the method’s capabilities: a three-dimensional bump, an infinite wing, and a hemisphere-cylinder configuration. Comparison to results obtained from established codes show that the turbulent Flux Correction scheme accurately predicts flow properties such as pressure, velocity …

Enhancement Of Volumetric Specific Impulse In Htpb/Ammonium Nitrate Mixed Hybrid Rocket Systems, Jacob Ward Forsyth

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

Hybrid rocket systems are safer and have higher specific impulse than solid rockets. However, due to large oxidizer tanks and low regression rates, hybrid rockets have low volumetric efficiency and very long longitudinal profiles, which limit many of the applications for which hybrids can be used. This research investigates a method for increasing the volumetric efficiency and improving the form factor of hybrid rocket systems by a non-combustible load of solid oxidizer to the hybrid fuel grain. Including such oxidizers increases the regression rate of the fuel and lowers the amount of fluid oxidizer needed for optimal combustion. This type …

Pyrolysis Of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (Abs) Under High Heat Flux Conditions, James R. Wilson

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

Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) is a common industrial plastic that is widely used for structural and piping applications. Additionally, within the past decade ABS has become the most popular material used in a type of rapid prototyping known as fused- deposition modeling (FDM). Within the past three years, ABS plastic blends have also been investigated as a potential fuel for hybrid- and solid-propelled rocket systems, exhibiting promising results. Because the use of ABS as a rocket propellant is very recent, a pyrolysis database, describing how ABS will burn, at the temperatures and heating rates experienced by rocket systems does not exist. Previous …

Power Efficient Restart-Capable Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene-Based Arc Ignition For Hybrid Rocket Motors, Nathan R. Inkley

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

Hybrid rocket ignition has historically involved either dangerous energetic materials or inefficient and failure-prone plasma sources. The vast majority of such systems cannot sup- port multiple restart cycles, thus limiting the applicability of hybrid rockets–especially for in-space propulsion. During research investigating its use as a fuel for hybrid rockets, it was discovered that Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic possesses unique electrical breakdown characteristics. During a properly designed breakdown event, application of a strong electric field induces a high-temperature arc along the surface of the ABS, concurrent with rapid production of hydrocarbon vapor. This behavior forms the basis of a novel …

Engineering Model To Calculate Mass Flow Rate Of A Two-Phase Saturated Fluid Through An Injector Orifice, Brian J. Solomon

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

An engineering model is developed to calculate mass flow rate of nitrous oxide, a self-pressurizing saturated oxidizer commonly used in hybrid rocket motors. While use of N_{2}0 cannot be accurately modeled using traditional ideal gas, compressible, or incompressible flow assumptions. To obtain accurate mass flow rate this one-dimensional analysis includes both incompressible fluid and homogeneous equilibrium mass flow rate models. Mass flow calculations from the two models are independently weighted and summed to obtain representative two-phase mass flow rate. Fluid properties are iterated in time by keeping track of fluid enthalpy and are propagated across the injector using either isentropic …

Nonlinear Aerodynamic Corrections To Blade Element Momentum Model With Validation Experiments, Robert S. Merrill

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

Blade element momentum theory is well suited for propeller analysis during the early stages of design. The analytic blade element momentum model is presented along with a proposed nonlinear improvement. The analytical model makes small angle assumptions which are known to be inaccurate under some conditions. The nonlinear model avoids these assumptions. The results of the analytical and nonlinear models are compared against each other. The differences between these are most prevalent on lower pitch propellers at high advance ratios. A wind tunnel validation test is outlined. Results of the validation test and other published data from the University of …

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. …