Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Extended Surface Heat Transfer Coefficients Via Endwall Temperature Measurements, Yogesh Pai

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Short pins are used for internal cooling of the trailing edge in a gas turbine blade. A novel method is described in this thesis which helps in simplifying the experimental process used to obtain average heat transfer data on the pin surface, at the expense of additional post processing complexity. The method is based on a unique, analytical solution of the longitudinal conduction equation with internal heat generation, allowing computation of heat transfer rates via pin base temperature measurements via Temperature Sensitive Paint, or similar non-intrusive methods. Verification of this method is done with comparisons to the solution of infinite …

The Effect Of Surface Materials And Morphology On Wingsuit Aerodynamics, Timothy Allen Sestak

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study examines the aerodynamic effects of the materials, textiles, and morphologies currently used in wingsuit design and construction. The experiment was a low-speed wind tunnel investigation using a rigid wing with an aspect ratio of 2, a NACA 4418 airfoil cross section and a smooth, polished painted surface as a baseline. The baseline wing was modified by covering the upper and lower surfaces with various textiles currently used in wingsuit construction. This study is the first step in continued research to design and build a wingsuit with superior glide performance compared to current designs. Surface textures and features on …

An Evaluation Of The Relationships Between Collegiate Aviation Safety Management System Initiative, Self-Efficacy, Transformational Safety Leadership And Safety Behavior Mediated By Safety Motivation, Daniel Kwasi Adjekum

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The study conceptualized Safety Management System (SMS) initiative, self-efficacy, and transformational safety leadership as constructs that relates to safety behavior (measured by safety compliance and safety participation) when mediated by safety motivation using a quantitative approach. Structural equation modeling techniques was used to derive a final measurement model that fit the empirical data and was used to test the study hypotheses. Utilizing a sample of 282 collegiate flight students and instructors from a large public university in the US, a 46-item survey was used to measure respondent’s perceptions on the study variables. The results indicate that perceptions of SMS policy …

System And Method For Robust Nonlinear Regulation Control Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Synthetic Jet Actuators, Vladimir V. Golubev, William Mackunis

Publications

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is provided with a plurality of synthetic jet actuators and a nonlinear robust controller. The controller compensates for uncertainty in a mathematic model that describes the function of the syn­thetic jet actuators. Compensation is provided by the use of constant feedforward best guess estimates that eliminate the need for more highly computationally burdensome approaches such as the use of time-varying adaptive param­eter estimation algorithms.

System And Method For Robust Nonlinear Regulation Control Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Synthetic Jet Actuators, Vladimir Golubev, William Mackunis

Publications

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is provided with a plurality of synthetic jet actuators and a nonlinear robust controller. The controller compensates for uncertainty in a mathematic model that describes the function of the synthetic jet actuators. Compensation is provided by the use of constant feedforward best guess estimates that eliminate the need for more highly computationally burdensome approaches such as the use of time-varying adaptive parameter estimation algorithms.

Adopting Unmanned Flight Operations Into Controlled Airspace, Jennah C. Perry, Johnny Young, Jacqueline Luedtke, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Allison M. Little, Kyle Wilkerson

Publications

Unmanned aircraft activity is becoming more common within the National Airspace System (NAS) and is expected to dominate the NAS in the near future. Specific procedures for adopting unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).

A variation of the Military Grid Reference System was developed and digitally overlaid onto the radar display. To incorporate this grid system, a customized flight plan database was created for the storage of operator submitted flight plans. Instead of verbal communication, a computer chat system is used for communication because of the low altitude operations in the field.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has …

Utilizing Guided Simulation In Conjunction With Digital Learning Tools In Air Traffic Control Training To Enhance Learning At The Collegiate Level, Allison Little, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Kyle Wilkerson

Discovery Day - Prescott

Students in an air traffic control program are required to learn and apply advance knowledge and skills in a limited time frame. All students learn at different rates as well as through different learning styles. Swivl is a video capture tool designed to enhance student learning by allowing students to refer back to their individual classroom lab training session videos via an online portal. Swivl is being utilized in two ATC lab courses. During this research, two technological shortcomings were discovered: (1) Swivl lacks the ability to capture audio from the COA’s existing communication software and (2) Swivl cannot focus …

Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Operations Into The National Airspace System, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Kyle Wilkerson, Allison Little

Discovery Day - Prescott

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are expected to dominate the National Airspace System (NAS) in the near future. One particular barrier preventing the integration of unmanned aircraft into the NAS is the lack of standardized procedures for distinguishing and communicating with remote UAS operators. In preparation for adopting unmanned flight operations into a complex control system, it is important to identify solutions to effectively control UAS in the NAS. To achieve simultaneous safe manned and unmanned aircraft operations in the NAS, the Joint UAS and ATC Team (JUAT) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) are developing a system that could be used …

Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Operations Into The National Airspace System, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Allison Little, Kyle Wilkerson, Jennah C. Perry, Johnny Young, Jacqueline Luedtke

Publications

Commercial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are expected to dominate the National Airspace System (NAS) in the years to come. One particular barrier preventing integration of UAS into the NAS is the lack of standardized procedures for separating aircraft and communicating with ATC. In preparation for adopting unmanned flight operations into a complex control system, it is important to identify solutions to effectively control UAS in the NAS.

The Joint UAS and ATC Team (JUAT) group has designed several simulated ATC scenarios in order to determine effective solutions for integration. Through the use of digitized radar display overlays that replicate the …

Collision Avoidance And Navigation Of Uas Using Vision-Based Proportional Navigation, Matthew J. Clark

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Electro-optical devices have received considerable interest due to their light weight, low cost, and low algorithm requirements with respect to computational power. In this thesis, vision-based guidance laws are developed to provide sense and avoid capabilities for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in complex environments with multiple static and dynamic collision threats. These collision avoidance guidance laws are based on the principle of proportional navigation (Pro-Nav), which states that a UAV is on a collision course with another vehicle or object if the line-of-sight (LOS) angles to the object remain constant. The guidance laws are designed for use with monocular …

In-House Fabrication Of Temperature Sensitive Paint For Turbine Cooling Research, Mayur D. Patel, Mark A. Ricklick

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

The Temperature Sensitive Paint (TSP) is a widely used method in measuring and visualizing flow separation and heat transfer. Compared to the cost and time consumption needed for methods such as pitot tubes, temperature sensitive paint is a cheaper alternative. Due to high usage in College of Engineering research projects, it was determined that in house fabrication of temperature sensitive paint would reduce time and cost limitations. For initial stages, literature research was performed to determine the recipe of intensity based TSP with luminophore and polymer binder that operated optimum at temperatures from 0-100°C. Europium III thenoyltrifluoroacetonate was determined to …

Professional Pilot Commercial Off-The-Shelf (Cots) Efb Usage, Policies And Reliability, Tyler A. Babb

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) have flooded the aviation industry. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tablets are now commonly used by pilots as EFBs. Operators use EFBs for ease of use, faster access to information, to remove weight from the aircraft, and to increase pilots’ quality of life. Identifying trends in EFB usage among professional pilots could benefit operators and universities with flight training programs. EFB policies and procedures may vary among operators but achieve FAA compliance. This study identified these policies and procedures. The types of devices and software vary, and identifying these devices and software could be useful. This research used …

An Archival Analysis Of Stall Warning System Effectiveness During Airborne Icing Encounters, John Michael Maris

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

An archival study was conducted to determine the influence of stall warning system performance on aircrew decision-making outcomes during airborne icing encounters. A Conservative Icing Response Bias (CIRB) model was developed to explain the historical variability in aircrew performance in the face of airframe icing. The model combined Bayes’ Theorem with Signal Detection Theory (SDT) concepts to yield testable predictions that were evaluated using a Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) multivariate technique applied to two archives: the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) incident database, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident databases, both covering the period January 1, 1988 …

Image And Information Fusion Experiments With A Software-Defined Multi-Spectral Imaging System For Aviation And Marine Sensor Networks, Sam B. Siewert, Matthew Demi Vis, Ryan Claus, Ramnarayan Krishnamurthy, Surjith B. Singh, Akshay K. Singh, Shivasankar Gunasekaran

Publications

The availability of Internet, line-of-sight and satellite identification and surveillance information as well as low-power, low-cost embedded systems-on-a-chip and a wide range of visible to long-wave infrared cameras prompted Embry Riddle Aeronautical University to collaborate with the University of Alaska Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) in summer 2016 to prototype a camera system we call the SDMSI (Software-Defined Multi-spectral Imager). The concept for the camera system from the start has been to build a sensor node that is drop-in-place for simple roof, marine, pole-mount, or buoy-mounts. After several years of component testing, the integrated SDMSI is now being tested, first …

Multi-Stage Axial Compressor With Counter-Rotation, Vinod Gehlot, Magdy S. Attia, Divyam Garg

Publications

A multi-stage axial compressor incorporating a counter-rotational movement is provided with a series of rotors mounted along and driven by a driveshaft, and a geared counter-rotating outer casing. A planetary gear system is assembled along a static casing, which can be assembled as a forward or aft casing for the compressor. The bearings of the planetary gear system typically will be aligned concentrically with a center rotor drum assembly mounted along the single driveshaft. The counter-rotating drum assembly will be assembled over the rotor drum assembly and will be engaged by the forward and aft casings so as to provide …

Long And Short-Range Air Navigation On Spherical Earth, Nihad E. Daidzic

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Global range air navigation implies non-stop flight between any two airports on Earth. Such effort would require airplanes with the operational air range of at least 12,500 NM which is about 40-60% longer than anything existing in commercial air transport today. Air transportation economy requires flying shortest distance, which in the case of spherical Earth are Orthodrome arcs. Rhumb-line navigation has little practical use in long-range flights, but has been presented for historical reasons and for comparison. Database of about 50 major international airports from every corner of the world has been designed and used in testing and route validation. …

Multi-Site Simultaneous Time-Resolved Photometry With A Low Cost Electro-Optics System, Forrest Gasdia, Aroh Barjatya, Sergei Bilardi

Publications

Sunlight reflected off of resident space objects can be used as an optical signal for astrometric orbit determination and for deducing geometric information about the object. With the increasing population of small satellites and debris in low Earth orbit, photometry is a powerful tool in operational support of space missions, whether for anomaly resolution or object identification. To accurately determine size, shape, spin rate, status of deployables, or attitude information of an unresolved resident space object, multi-hertz sample rate photometry is required to capture the relatively rapid changes in brightness that these objects can exhibit. OSCOM, which stands for Optical …

Variable Structure Feedback Control With Application To Spacecraft With Small Thrust Propulsion Systems, Samuel J. Kitchen-Mckinley

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Small spacecrafts requiring small propulsion systems are becoming more popular for low Earth orbit. It is important for these research satellites to have accurate guidance and control systems. Small propulsion systems will also be beneficial for multiple small spacecrafts used future exploration expeditions beyond low Earth orbit. These small spacecrafts benefit from the simplicity of low thrust cold gas propulsion systems. Additionally, large spacecrafts using low thrust, high specific impulse propellants for main propulsion systems, such as ion engines, allow longer and more flexible missions, including Earth orbiting spacecraft and interplanetary spacecraft.

In order to extend the life of future …

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite- R Series (Goes-R) 2016, Paige N. Dixon

Student Works

This is a report on the first NOAA GOES-R satellite, launched on November 19th, 2016. This report will cover some of the details of the GOES-R project, as well as discuss the collaborations that made the project possible. This document will also detail some of the new satellite’s capabilities including geostationary lightning detection, and space weather monitoring, and will focus on real-world application of such technology. Additionally, this report will list some of the current and projected GOES-R products, and the potential benefits if testing proves successful.

More Electric Systems Architecture Effect On Business Jet Performance, Kelsey M. Mazur

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A more-electric systems architecture, using current state of the art components, is proposed for the business jet Dassault Falcon 2000. A model of the existing aircraft, both of its overall flying characteristics and performance and of its detail systems layout, is created using Pacelab APDc and SysArcc programs. The model is validated with respect to the aircraft published data. Then, another model of the same aircraft is created but, this time, it is for the aircraft with the new architecture and their respective performance is compared. In particular, this results in changes in mission range and the overall system's weight. …

Configuration Validation Of A Novel In-Space Propellant Storage And Transfer System, Priyadarshan Sundararaju

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The concept of developing a new technology for on-orbit storage and refueling system has been a great interest among scientists for many decades. This study is about Centaur-based on-orbit propellant storage and transfer. This system takes the advantage of rotational settling to a simple fluid management (FM) system. Specifically, enabling settled fluid transfer and settled pressure control between two tanks. This thesis work focuses on configuration and validation of static and dynamic stability, mass gauging and CFD analysis of the rotational propellant transfer method in space. The application of this technology in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geo-Synchronous Orbit (GEO) …

Turbulence Control In Wall Jets, Jonathan Latim

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The turbulent boundary layer has been the focus of many studies over the last century or so due to its engineering significance. Recent studies have shown that the turbulent boundary layer encapsulates extremely energetic large-scale structures which play a much more significant role in its dynamics than has been previously thought. Further, these large scales amplitude and frequency modulate the finer scales of turbulence. This offers a path to control wall turbulence by controlling the large-scales of the flow. The focus of this thesis is to establish ways to manipulate the energy of the large-scale structures in a model turbulent …

Performance Characterization Of Ceramic Matrix Composites Through Uniaxial Monotonic Tensile Testing, Jóhannes Pétursson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Ceramic matrix composite (CMC) samples were tested in order to characterize their mechanical performance and provide metrics for material process refinement and component design. Monotonic, uniaxial tensile testing of an uncoated carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide ceramic at room temperature was performed following ASTM standard C1275 to measure ultimate tensile strength and elastic modulus. Equipment verification was carried out through alignment measurement with a gaged tensile specimen using ASTM E1012 to ensure the monotonic nature of the testing equipment. Tensile strength data was treated with Weibull statistical models to produce A and B-basis strength properties for design values.

An alternative …

Development Of Fault Tolerant Adaptive Control Laws For Aerospace Systems, Andres E. Perez Rocha

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The main topic of this dissertation is the design, development and implementation of intelligent adaptive control techniques designed to maintain healthy performance of aerospace systems subjected to malfunctions, external parameter changes and/or unmodeled dynamics. The dissertation is focused on the development of novel adaptive control configurations that rely on non-linear functions that appear in the immune system of living organisms as main source of adaptation. One of the main goals of this dissertation is to demonstrate that these novel adaptive control architectures are able to improve overall performance and protect the system while reducing control effort and maintaining adequate operation …

Coupled Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling Of A Parafoil, Brandon Burnett

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In the summer of 2014, Performance Designs, Inc. contacted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Eagle Flight Research Center to lead an investigation on square parachute design and optimization using modern computational methods to reduce costs in experimental testing. This thesis investigates the foundation for using an implicit fluid-structure interaction computational model to tackle the challenges of modeling a highly-flexible, porous fabric for design optimization of a parafoil parachute’s transient performance. Canopy deformations of a single-cell square parafoil using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model with nonlinear material modeling is compared to an experimental setup of matching geometry. The results of this thesis yielded …

Effect Of Slot Span On Wing Performance, Juan F. Granizo

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This report presents new numerically-derived correlations to estimate the aerodynamic properties of a three-dimensional wing that features a partial to full span fixed slot. Fixed slots have been thoroughly studied in the past with regards to their operation and the relation between slot geometry and wing performance. There have also been many studies on the advantages and disadvantages of tip-slotted wings and the comparison between these and full-slotted wings. Up to this point however, a study on the effects of slot span on wing performance has not been performed. Effect of slot span on wing performance is evaluated in an …

Model Predictive Control Of A Nonlinear Aeroelastic System Using Volterra Series Representations, Wai Leuk Law

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential effectiveness of using a Volterra-based Model Predictive Control strategy to control a nonlinear aeroelastic system. Model Predictive Control (MPC), also known as Receding Horizon Control (RHC), entails computing optimal control inputs over a finite time horizon, applying a portion of the computed optimal control sequence, and then repeating the process over the next time horizon. The Volterra series provides input-output models of a dynamical system in terms of a series of integral operators of increasing order, where the first-order Volterra operator models the linear dynamics and the higher-order operators model …

Effect Of Flow-Acoustic Resonant Interactions On Aerodynamic Response Of Transitional Airfoils, Joseph Hayden

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A high-accuracy numerical study is conducted to examine the impact of flow-acoustic resonant interactions on the aerodynamic response of symmetric and cambered airfoils in the realistic transitional flow regimes with Rec=140,000 and M=0.0465 as well as the low Reynolds number flow regime with Rec=10,000 and M=0.2. The symmetric NACA-0012 and the cambered SD7003 airfoils are investigated at various angles of attack that have been found previously to include both the tone and no-tone producing regimes, with specific focus on the aerodynamic lift response. Additional simulations are conducted with a low-intensity synthetic turbulence introduced upstream of the airfoils in order to …

Windshield Defrost And Deice Using Carbon Nanotube Composite, Santhosh Kumar Loganathan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are well known for their high thermal and electrical conductivities and can offer a great advantage by converting the applied electrical energy into instant heat with minimum energy loss. The goal of this research is to develop a very thin CNT layer sandwiched between two layers of glass substrate in order to generate instant heat through electrodes. The thin CNT layer is fabricated using the CNTRENETM solution, which is a mixture of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) (~75%), double-walled nanotubes (DWNTs), and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs) with an average CNT length of ~0.4 - 0.6 μm. The thin layer is …

A Detailed Uncertainty Analysis Of Heat Transfer Experiments Using Temperature Sensitive Paint, Anish Prasad

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Heat transfer experiments for different cooling techniques for a gas turbine blade are performed and the data are collected via temperature sensitive paint, ammeter, thermocouple and manometer measurement techniques. These data are subjected to uncertainty analysis and the major contributing parameter in the uncertainty is found. A tool to identify the major contributing parameter is devised to reduce the uncertainty in the experiment. Further the effect of temperature difference (surface temperature to bulk temperature) is studied to determine the impact on uncertainty and to determine its importance. The analysis between various implementations of the student’s t distribution are conducted to …