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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Performance Enhancement And Characterization Of An Electromagnetic Railgun, Paul M. Gilles
Performance Enhancement And Characterization Of An Electromagnetic Railgun, Paul M. Gilles
Master's Theses
Collision with orbital debris poses a serious threat to spacecraft and astronauts. Hypervelocity impacts resulting from collisions mean that objects with a mass less than 1g can cause mission-ending damage to spacecraft. A means of shielding spacecraft against collisions is necessary. A means of testing candidate shielding methods for their efficacy in mitigating hypervelocity impacts is therefore also necessary. Cal Poly’s Electromagnetic Railgun was designed with the goal of creating a laboratory system capable of simulating hypervelocity (≥ 3 km/s) impacts. Due to several factors, the system was not previously capable of high-velocity (≥ 1 km/s) tests. A deficient projectile …
Modeling And Testing Powerplant Subsystems Of A Solar Uas, Luke J. Bughman
Modeling And Testing Powerplant Subsystems Of A Solar Uas, Luke J. Bughman
Master's Theses
In order to accurately conduct the preliminary and detailed design of solar powered Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of the systems involved. In particular, it is desirable to have mathematical models and analysis tools describing the energy income and expenditure of the vehicle. Solar energy income models may include available solar irradiance, photovoltaic array power output, and maximum power point tracker efficiency. Energy expenditure models include battery charging and discharging characteristics, propulsion system efficiency, and aerodynamic efficiency. In this thesis, a series of mathematical models were developed that characterize the performance of these …
Design Principles And Preliminary Testing Of A Micropropulsion Electrospray Thruster Research Platform, Will Alan Mcgehee
Design Principles And Preliminary Testing Of A Micropropulsion Electrospray Thruster Research Platform, Will Alan Mcgehee
Master's Theses
The need for micropropulsion solutions for spacecraft has been steadily increasing as scientific payloads require higher accuracy maneuvers and as the use of small form-factor spacecraft such as CubeSats becomes more common. Of the technologies used for this purpose, electrospray thrusters offer performance that make them an ideal choice. Electrosprays offer high accuracy impulse bits at low power and high efficiency, and have low volume requirements. Design choice reasoning and preliminary testing results are presented for two electrospray thruster designs. The first thruster, named the Demonstration thruster, is operated in atmospheric conditions and serves as a highly visible example of …
A Homegrown Dsmc-Pic Model For Electric Propulsion, Dominic Charles Lunde
A Homegrown Dsmc-Pic Model For Electric Propulsion, Dominic Charles Lunde
Master's Theses
Powering spacecraft with electric propulsion is becoming more common, especially in CubeSat-class satellites. On account of the risk of spacecraft interactions, it is important to have robust analysis and modeling tools of electric propulsion engines, particularly of the plasma plume. The Navier-Stokes equations used in classic continuum computational fluid dynamics do not apply to the rarefied plasma, and therefore another method must be used to model the flow. A good solution is to use the DSMC method, which uses a combination of particle modeling and statistical methods for modeling the simulated molecules. A DSMC simulation known as SINATRA has been …
Colloid Thruster To Teach Advance Electric Propulsion Techniques To Post-Secondary Students, Alexander M. Powaser
Colloid Thruster To Teach Advance Electric Propulsion Techniques To Post-Secondary Students, Alexander M. Powaser
Master's Theses
Colloid thrusters, and electrospray thrusters as a whole, have been around since the 1960s. When they were first developed, the high efficiency and fine thrust control was overshadowed by the high power requirement for such a low thrust that the system provides. This caused the technology to be put on hold for aerospace applications. Now, as small satellites are becoming more prevalent, there has been a resurgence in interest in electrospray thruster technology. The recent advancements in tech- nology allow electrospray thrusters to use significantly less power and occupy less volume than their predecessors. As electrospray technology continues to advance, …