Engineering Commons^™

Air Traffic Management Under Uncertain Weather Impact, Le Gao

Open Access Theses

Air traffic management under uncertain weather impact is a difficult problem. In this thesis, by dividing the whole air traffic systems into small cells, a new method using database to integrate weather and flight data is proposed. An algorithm has been developed to project weather data onto cells. This research also uses a predictive view to find ights which are affected by severe weather. And a prototype detour algorithm is applied on those flights based on the status information of each cell.

Considerations For Nondestructive Evaluation Of Discontinuous Fiber Composites Using Dynamic Analysis, Rebecca A. Cutting

Open Access Theses

Knowledge of the composite microstructure is vital to predicting performance of the structural member. However, depending on the manufacturing process, the microstructure of the part may be unknown and not predictable with simulation software. A few non-destructive evaluation techniques have been adjusted to predict fiber orientation of composites, including CT scans and thermography, but none have proven acceptable on a large scale with the amount of fidelity required. This research investigated the use of dynamic analysis as a non-destructive evaluation technique to predict fiber orientation of discontinuous fiber compression molded parts. While the method is currently unable to predict individual …

Performance Analysis Of Vortex Based Mixers For Confined Flows, Timo Buschhagen

Open Access Theses

The hybrid rocket is still sparsely employed within major space or defense projects due to their relatively poor combustion efficiency and low fuel grain regression rate. Although hybrid rockets can claim advantages in safety, environmental and performance aspects against established solid and liquid propellant systems, the boundary layer combustion process and the diffusion based mixing within a hybrid rocket grain port leaves the core flow unmixed and limits the system performance. One principle used to enhance the mixing of gaseous flows is to induce streamwise vorticity. The counter-rotating vortex pair (CVP) mixer utilizes this principle and introduces two vortices into …

Effect Of Electrode Geometry On High Energy Spark Discharges In Air, Mounia Belmouss

Open Access Theses

The government, aerospace, and transportation industries are deeply invested in developing new technologies to improve the performance and maneuverability of current and future aircraft while reducing aerodynamic noise and environmental impact. One of the key pathways to meet these goals is through aerodynamic flow control, which can involve suppressing or inducing separation, transition and management of turbulence in boundary layers, increasing the lift and reducing the drag of airfoils, and gas mixing to control fluctuating forces and aerodynamic noise [1]. In this dissertation, the complex flow field following a spark discharge is studied for a range of geometries and discharge …

Asymptotic Modelling Of A Thermopiezoelastic Anisotropic Smart Plate, Yufei Long

Open Access Theses

Motivated by the requirement of modelling for space flexible reflectors as well as other applications of plate structures in engineering, a general anisotropic laminated thin plate model and a monoclinic Reissner-Mindlin plate model with thermal deformation, two-way coupled piezoelectric effect and pyroelectric effect is constructed using the variational asymptotic method, without any ad hoc assumptions. Total potential energy contains strain energy, electric potential energy and energy caused by temperature change. Three-dimensional strain field is built based on the concept of warping function and decomposition of the rotation tensor. The feature of small thickness and large in-plane dimension of plate structure …

Flexible Weapons Architecture Design, William C. Pyant

Open Access Theses

Present day air-delivered weapons are of a closed architecture, with little to no ability to tailor the weapon for the individual engagement. The closed architectures require weaponeers to make the target fit the weapon instead of fitting the individual weapons to a target. The concept of a flexible weapons aims to modularize weapons design using an open architecture shell into which different modules are inserted to achieve the desired target fractional damage while reducing cost and civilian casualties. This thesis shows that the architecture design factors of damage mechanism, fusing, weapons weight, guidance, and propulsion are significant in enhancing weapon …

Dynamics Of Transitions Between Capillary Stable States Under Weightlessness, Praveen Srikanth

Open Access Theses

The study of two phase systems with one of the phases obstructing the other is of importance in a lot of fields. Liquid droplets in airways and air bubbles in the blood stream both fall under this category of problems. Helium bubbles in hydrazine fuel lines of satellites also have been found to cause frequent thruster shutdown and also seriously affect spacecraft control. Studies have been carried out until now to look at static equilibrium topologies and stability of such two phase systems in straight, bent and laterally compressed capillaries. In this investigation we look at the dynamics of the …

Ads-B Used In Improvement Of Air Traffic Control, Hao Wang

Open Access Theses

Automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) is a central component of the NextGen air traffic control program. This surveillance technology can replace current secondary surveillance radars (SSR) and improve cockpit situational awareness. The service can improve traffic surveillance capabilities by sharing accurate aircraft position information between pilots and air traffic controllers. In addition, ADS-B provides pilots with weather as well as air traffic information for nearby area. In order to receive these traffic and weather services, a pilot must have appropriate onboard equipment including GPS receiver, Universal Access Transceiver, antenna and multi-function cockpit display which is capable of receiving and …

Linear Matrix Inequality-Based Nonlinear Adaptive Robust Control With Application To Unmanned Aircraft Systems, David William Kun

Open Access Theses

Unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) are gaining popularity in civil and commercial applications as their lightweight on-board computers become more powerful and affordable, their power storage devices improve, and the Federal Aviation Administration addresses the legal and safety concerns of integrating UASs in the national airspace. Consequently, many researchers are pursuing novel methods to control UASs in order to improve their capabilities, dependability, and safety assurance. The nonlinear control approach is a common choice as it offers several benefits for these highly nonlinear aerospace systems (e.g., the quadrotor). First, the controller design is physically intuitive and is derived from well known …

Loss Of Accuracy Using Smeared Properties In Composite Beam Modeling, Ning Liu

Open Access Theses

Advanced composite materials have broad, proven applications in many engineering systems ranging from sports equipment sectors to components on the space shuttle because of their lightweight characteristics and significantly high stiffness. Together with this merit of composite materials is the challenge of improving computational simulation process for composites analysis. Composite structures, particularly composite laminates, usually consist of many layers with different lay-up angles. The anisotropic and heterogeneous features render 3D finite element analysis (FEA) computationally expensive in terms of the computational time and the computing power. ^ At the constituent level, composite materials are heterogeneous. But quite often one homogenizes …

Real-Time Rss-Based Indoor Navigation For Autonomous Uav Flight, Sangjun Lee

Open Access Theses

Navigation for the autonomous flight of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in an indoor space has attracted much attention recently. One of the main goals of an indoor navigation system is developing an alternative method to obtain position information that can replace or complement the global positioning system. While much research has focused on vision-based indoor navigation systems, this paper aims to develop a Received Signal Strength (RSS)-based navigation system, which is a more cost effective alternative. Then, the position and attitude of a UAV can be computed by the fusion of RSS measurements and measurements from the onboard inertial measurement …

Design Of Transfers From Earth-Moon L 1/L2 Libration Point Orbits To A Destination Object, Masaki Kakoi

Open Access Dissertations

Within the context of both manned and robotic spaceflight activities, orbits near the Earth-Moon L1 and L2 libration points could support lunar surface operations and serve as staging areas for future missions to near-Earth asteroids as well as Mars. In fact, an Earth-Moon L2 libration point orbit has been proposed as a potential hub for excursions to Mars as well as activities in support of planetary exploration. Yet, the dynamical environment within the Earth-Moon system is complex and, consequently, trajectory design in the vicinity of Earth-Moon L1 and L2 is nontrivial. Routine transfers between an Earth-Moon L1/L2 facility and Mars …

Design Of Low-Thrust Missions To Asteroids With Analysis Of The Missed-Thrust Problem, Frank E. Laipert

Open Access Dissertations

Small bodies in the Solar System, such as asteroids and dwarf planets, are ideal targets for electric propulsion missions because of the high delta-V required to rendezvous with these targets. We study trajectories to the asteroid belt, including a human mission to Ceres and a sample return mission to (216) Kleopatra, along with trajectories to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. For the human mission to Ceres, payload masses of 75 Mg are achievable with a 11.7 MW nuclear electric propulsion system and an initial mass in LEO of 289 Mg. For low-thrust sample return missions to the main belt asteroid Kleopatra, …

Maneuver Analysis For Spinning Thrusting Spacecraft And Spinning Tethered Spacecraft, Kaela Mae Martin

Open Access Dissertations

During axial thrusting of a spin-stabilized spacecraft undergoing orbital injections or control maneuvers, misalignments and center-of-mass offset create undesired body-fixed torques. The effects of the body-fixed torques, which in turn cause velocity pointing errors, can be reduced by ramping up (and then ramping down) the thruster. The first topic discussed in this thesis derives closed-form solutions for the angular velocity, Euler angles, inertial velocity, and inertial displacement solutions with nonzero initial conditions. Using the closed-form solutions, the effect of variations in the spin-axis moment of inertia and spin-rate on the spacecraft velocity pointing error are shown. The analytical solutions closely …

System Importance Measures: A New Approach To Resilient Systems-Of-Systems, Payuna Uday

Open Access Dissertations

Resilience is the ability to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions. While this attribute has been the focus of research in several fields, in the case of system-of-systems (SoSs), addressing resilience is particularly interesting and challenging. As infrastructure SoSs, such as power, transportation, and communication networks, grow in complexity and interconnectivity, measuring and improving the resilience of these SoSs is vital in terms of safety and providing uninterrupted services. ^ The characteristics of systems-of-systems make analysis and design of resilience challenging. However, these features also offer opportunities to make SoSs resilient using unconventional methods. In this research, we present a …

Assessment Of High-Fidelity Collision Models In The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method, Andrew Brian Weaver

Open Access Dissertations

Advances in computer technology over the decades has allowed for more complex physics to be modeled in the DSMC method. Beginning with the first paper on DSMC in 1963, 30,000 collision events per hour were simulated using a simple hard sphere model. Today, more than 10 billion collision events can be simulated per hour for the same problem. Many new and more physically realistic collision models such as the Lennard-Jones potential and the forced harmonic oscillator model have been introduced into DSMC. However, the fact that computer resources are more readily available and higher-fidelity models have been developed does not …

Multi-Segment Foot Joint Kinematics With Varying Midfoot Orthotic Postings, Hilary F. Feskanin

Honors Theses

Foot orthoses are often prescribed to prevent and treat lower limb disorders. While the success of these devices is well documented, the mechanisms behind them are unclear. Due to methodological limitations, many studies have focused on the rearfoot. This is the first study to assess the effects of midfoot-targeted orthotic strategies on midfoot and rearfoot kinematics. Gait mechanics were recorded for 19 healthy females walking in four orthotic conditions: valgus midfoot post, varus midfoot post, heel lift and standard/control. The midtarsal and ankle joint 3D kinematics for the three experimental conditions were compared to the control condition. Variables of interest …

Is Aerospace Important To The United States?, Joshua Romer

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Aerospace is technology and industry in space flight and avia:on. It provides safe and faster means of transporta:on, explora:on, and electronics. Aerospace is responsible for many US exports and improvements. Aerospace is important to research because of its lack of publicity.

Analysis Of A Hybrid Rocket Burn Using Generalized Compressible Flow, Naveen Sri Uddanti

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The analysis of square ports in a hybrid rocket is simple when compared to other complicated port geometries such as a wagon wheel configuration. In the present work, fuel grains with several ports in a hybrid rocket engine are analyzed by transforming the ports into equivalent square ports. As an example, the internal ballistics of a hybrid rocket with circular ports is analyzed by transforming it to an equivalent solid grain with square ports having the same amount of solid fuel and burn time. The results obtained are similar to that of circular port but with a slight decrease in …

Comparing Different Methods For Estimating Total Open Heliospheric Magnetic Flux, Samantha J. Wallace

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

There are extended periods over the solar cycle where significant discrepancies occur between the observed open magnetic flux (i.e., those based on spacecraft observations) and that determined from coronal models. One explanation for the source of these discrepancies is the magnetic fields in CMEs, which have yet to magnetically disconnect from the Sun. These “closed” flux sources can be included in open flux estimates, because open and closed magnetic field lines are not easily distinguished in spacecraft data. Another possibility is that a portion of the open flux measured by in situ spacecraft originates from the time-dependent evolution of solar …

The Design For Manufacturing And Assembly Analysis And Redesign Of An Aircraft Refueling Door Hinge Utilizing Additive Manufacturing, Kurt A. Schwarz

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In this thesis, an aircraft door hinge assembly provided by Gulfstream Aerospace was analyzed following an established process called DFMA. The hinge was then redesigned to be additively manufactured, which is uncommon currently in industry for load bearing components. It was shown that the Design for Manufacturing (DFM) guidelines were inadequate when applied to the new technology of additive manufacturing (AM). This was primarily due to AM's unique and unprecedented manufacturing capabilities.

A conservative redesign approach was followed due to a limitation in current AM material properties and time available for analysis. Despite this, a significant improvement in weight reduction …

Numerical Investigation Of Tonal Noise On A Transitional Airfoil Under Varying Conditions, Warren W. Hiner

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The generation of discrete acoustic tones is a problem of interest in transitional airfoils. Such tones exist for moderate Re below 2,000,000 and for low to moderate angles of attack. The purpose of this study is to use linear stability theory to study the growth of instabilities on the pressure and suction surfaces of airfoils for varying Re between 144,000 and 468,000 and angles of attack between 0˚ and 12˚. High accuracy 2D simulations based on an Implicit Large Eddy Simulation (ILES) code are conducted for a NACA0012 airfoil for varied conditions, and linear stability analysis is performed to predict …

Determination Of A Simplified High-Order Vortex Equation For Radial Equilibrium With Cfd Verification, Travis K. Matsumoto

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The goal of this thesis is to determine a flow model that provides a better blade design over current design techniques utilizing a hybrid vortex model. This hybrid vortex model combines the well-established simple radial equilibrium vortex models into a higher order equation that will establish the basis for a more flow-accurate model. In this paper, we will discuss the basis and derivation of these vortex models, the shortcomings of current techniques, and verification of the new vortex model with empirical data via Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). The simple radial equilibrium equation set has been known to the scientific community …

Benchmarking Of Computational Models Against Experimental Data For Adiabatic Film-Cooling Effectiveness For Large Spacing Compound Angle Full Coverage Film Cooling Arrays, Simon R. Martinez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study aims to benchmark experimental data that tested the effects of blowing ratio, surface angle, and hole spacing for two full coverage geometries composed of cylindrical staggered holes at a compound angle of 45 degrees. These holes varied parametrically the inclination angle to be 30 and 45 degrees, while maintaining a lateral and axial spacing of 14.5 hole diameters. Within this study, the local film cooling effectiveness was obtained from 30 rows for the 14.5 diameter spacing. Utilizing a velocity profile at the crossflow inlet produced significant differences in the results produced when compared to a uniform freestream velocity …

Investigation Of Pulse Detonation Engines: The Effect Of Variable Blockage Ratio On The Deflagration To Detonation Transition, Christopher Tate

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Detonation and constant volume combustion is well known to be thermodynamically more efficient than the typically utilized constant pressure. There have been numerous approaches of achieving detonation through deflagration-to-detonation transition most of which use evenly spaced obstacles with a specified constant blockage ratio to generate turbulence and pressure fluctuations. There have been few efforts to study effects of varying blockage ratio as a function of axial distance. This research analyzes the effect of variable blockage ratio on deflagration-to-detonation transition in ethylene-air mixtures. The experiments show that with certain blockage ratio functions detonation is more repeatable and produces a smaller variation …

Scalloped Leading Edge Vaned Diffuser Analysis For A Compact High Pressure Ratio Centrifugal Compressor, Vinod Poonamchand Gehlot

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Microturbines and small gas turbines are often an attractive option for turbo-hybrid application research in aviation due to their simple design and high power to weight ratio. However, the low operating pressure ratios of microturbines leads to low thermal efficiency, which results in very high fuel consumption. Higher operating pressure ratios in microturbines could vastly improve their current fuel efficiency. This thesis focuses on developing a compact, single stage 8:1 pressure ratio centrifugal compressor stage designed to meet the high-pressure ratio requirements of microturbines and small gas turbine engines in turbo hybrid-electric propulsion applications. The first stage vaned diffuser was …

Guidance And Navigation For A Spinning Projectile Using A Strapdown Seeker, Timothy J. Josey

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis describes the derivation and implementation of an Extended Kalman Filter for the purpose of estimating the line of sight rates between a non-thrusting, guided projectile and a ground target. Line of sight rates are required signals to implement the proportional navigation guidance scheme. Using low-cost strapdown sensors, the line of sight rate is not directly measurable but is observable as shown in this thesis. The line of sight signal generated by strapdown seekers inherently includes projectile body motion, but with the use of a global positioning system and a strapdown inertial sensor suite, the seeker signal is transformed …

Performance Characteristics Of Fluidic-Based Thrust Augmentation Using A Slot Jet For Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Propulsion, Brendan A. Wiedow

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Currently most small vertical takeoff and landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UA V's) use a quadcopter design by utilizing four exposed blades rotating at high RPMs around a central array of components. The research performed in this thesis is focused on understanding the underlying fluid dynamics of a slot jet through the use of flow entrainment for thrust augmentation with the application to be integrated into a novel UAV system with no external moving parts. Current publicly available quadcopter rotor design type aircraft were used as a basis for the design target weight and power to estimate the amount of thrust …

Improving The Performance Of The Space Surveillance Telescope As A Function Of Seeing Parameter, Jae H. Jeon

Theses and Dissertations

This research paper investigates ways to improve the detection capability and predict the performance of the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) system when it's relocated to Exmouth, Australia. The dataset collected by the SST observing the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite, ANIK-F1, entering the earth's eclipse is used to test the performance of the three existing and one new detection algorithm. The three existing algorithms are the point detection (Binary Hypothesis Test (BHT)), correlation detection (CD-BHT), and Multi-hypothesis Test using ten hypotheses (MHT10), and the new detection algorithm is the Multi-hypothesis Test using six hypotheses (MHT6). To improve the accuracy and …

Pilot Assisted Inertial Navigation System Aiding Using Bearings-Only Measurements Taken Over Time, Anthony T. Mirabile

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this work is to develop an alternative INS aiding source other than the GPS, while preserving the autonomy of the integrated navigation system. It is proposed to develop a modernized method of aerial navigation using driftmeter measurements from an E/O system for ground feature tracking, and an independent altitude sensor in conjunction with the INS. The pilot will track a ground feature with the E/O system, while the aircraft is on autopilot holding constant airspeed, altitude, and heading during an INS aiding session. The ground feature measurements from the E/O system and the INS output form measurements …