Flaperon Assembly Manual For Pegastol Aftermarket Wings, Eric Alan Gray

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Assembly Of A Passive Slat System For A Ch-701 Kit Aircraft, Jordan Coenen, Spencer Spagnola

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Computation Time Comparison Between Matlab And C++ Using Launch Windows, Tyler Andrews

Aerospace Engineering

Processing speed between Matlab and C++ was compared by examining launch windows and handling large amounts of data found in pork chop plots. A compilation of code was generated in Matlab to produce the plots and an identical file was created in C++ that was then compiled and run in Matlab to plot the data. This file is known as a MEX-file. This report outlines some of the basics when working with MEX-files and the problems that face users. For Lambert’s solver, multi revolution cases were considered and some pork chop plots of single revolution trajectories were plotted. Three different …

Preliminary Design Of A Laboratory Cylindrical Hall-Effect Thruster, Scott Mcgrail, Sam Parker

Aerospace Engineering

A 3-cm cylindrical Hall thruster with permanent magnets was designed and modeled. The goal was to design a Hall thruster for Cal Poly’s propulsion laboratory of similar size and performance as Cal Poly’s MiXI thruster. The design process began with an investigation into the physics of Hall thrusters and selection of certain thruster parameters. The selected parameters were the diameter and depth of the channel, the total power input to the system, the discharge supply voltage, the cathode voltage, and the propellant flow rates to the anode and cathode. These parameters were used to determine the operational characteristics of the …

Data Acquisition For Flight Tests Using Handheld Gps And Electronic Flight Instrument System, Christopher Michael Gocha

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Registering An Amateur-Built Light Sport Kit Aircraft, Kevin Condron

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Analysis And Testing Of Heat Transfer Through Honeycomb Panels, Daniel D. Nguyen

Aerospace Engineering

This project attempts to simulate accurately the thermal conductivity of honeycomb panels in the normal direction. Due to the large empty space of the honeycomb core, the thermal radiation mode of heat transfer was modeled along with conduction. Using Newton’s Method to solve for a steady state model of heat moving through the honeycomb panel, the theoretical effective thermal conduction of the honeycomb panel was found, ranging from 1.03 to 1.07 Q/m/K for a heat input of 2.5 W to 11.8 W. An experimental model was designed to test the theoretical results, using a cold plate and a heat plate …

Aerodynamics Of An Aerofoil In Transonic Ground Effect: Numerical Study At Full-Scale Reynolds Numbers, G. Doig, T. J. Barber, A. J. Neely, D. D. Myre

Aerospace Engineering

The potential positive effects of ground proximity on the aerodynamic performance of a wing or aerofoil have long been established, but at transonic speeds the formation of shock waves between the body and the ground plane would have significant consequences. A numerical study of the aerodynamics of an RAE2822 aerofoil section in ground effect flight was conducted at freestream Mach numbers from 0·5 to 0·9, at a range of ground clearances and angles of incidence. It was found that in general the aerofoil's lifting capability was still improved with decreasing ground clearance up until the point at which a lower …

Electromagnetic Railgun Safety, Sven Ericson

Aerospace Engineering

The Cal Poly Electromagnetic Railgun is a system that with the proper precautions can be safely operated. Changes in plugs and boxes insure that the systems cannot be improperly wired, reducing the chances of accidental discharge. By covering exposed wires the system is safe to store as long as the voltage is checked before any maintenance is performed. Updates in procedures remove the possibility of injury to personnel and allow the railgun to be fired repeatedly under similar circumstances. Defined roles for the operators’ decreases confusion and allows people to concentrate on their area during testing. As hardware changes it …

Simulation Of Blood Flow And Nanoparticle Transport In A Stenosed Carotid Bifurcation And Pseudo-Arteriole, Graham Doig, Guan H. Yeoh, Victoria Timchenko, Gary Rosengarten, Tracie J. Barber, Sherman C.P. Cheung

Aerospace Engineering

Numerical simulation of flow through a realistic bifurcated carotid artery geometry with a stenosis has been conducted for comparison to experimental measurements. The behaviour of simplified therapeutic nanoparticles in relatively low concentration was observed using a discrete particle approach. The role of size (diameters from 500 nm to 50 nm) in determining particle residence time and the potential for both desirable and undesirable wall interactions was investigated. It was found that mean particle residence time reduced with decreasing particle diameter, and the percentage of particles experiencing one or more wall interactions increased simultaneously. Further simulations were conducted on a scaled-down …

Investigating Various Propulsion Systems For An External Attachment For A Controlled-Manual De-Orbit Of The Hubble Space Telescope, Nelson De Guia

Aerospace Engineering

This reports explains the results for a proposed senior project. This project concerns the Hubble Space Telescope, and exploring the possibility of having an external propulsion attachment for a manual de-orbit. The Hubble Space Telescope was proposed to return to Earth via the Space Shuttle. Although, through the current U.S. Space Administration, the Space Shuttle has been retired before the Hubble Space Telescope was retrieved. By completing this project, the results could provide insight to what type of propulsion would best de-orbit the Hubble upon its retirement. Different propulsion systems were considered to attempt to determine an optimal attachment, varying …

Aerial Deployable Autonomous Solar Powered Glider, Brandon Groshong, Jacob Ohana

Aerospace Engineering

Awareness of green solutions to powered flight is a new trend taking the Aerospace Industry by storm. One particular application that shows high promise is that of photovoltaics on small UAV-type aircraft to help extend flight time. The purpose of this report is to document both research and experimentation performed on a small RC aircraft in order to better understand the electrical requirements of such a device. Using that research, speculation on how it can be used to design a mobile Aerial Deployable Autonomous Solar Powered Glider will be performed. Technologies such as CIGS solar cells and Lithium Polymer batteries …

Feasibility Analysis For Electrically-Powered Hoverboard, Cameron Chan, Jason Cortez, Jay Lopez

Aerospace Engineering

Composite materials are engineered by combining two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties in such a way that the constituents are still distinguishable, and not fully blended. Due to today’s high rising prices of gasoline and aviation fuel costs, many manufacturers have turned to the use of lightweight composites in their designs due to the advantages of the composite material, which include outstanding strength, excellent durability, high heat resistance, and significant weight reduction that the composite material properties hold. The purpose of this project is to design and construct a composite structure for an electrically-powered …

The Importance And Challenge Of Launch Environment Testing, Christina Diaz

Aerospace Engineering

This report discusses the purpose and effect of environmental testing, particularly vibration, shock and acoustic tests, in the aerospace industry. Vibration, shock, and acoustic testing are methods that are used to quantify and analyze the physical phenomenon of the launch environment on a payload or launch vehicle. The importance of innovation in testing and understanding of failures is crucial to a successful spacecraft mission. The advancement and precision of these testing methods is also explored in this report such as the invention of the 6 Degree of Freedom (DoF) vibration table and solutions to data acquisition issues recently discovered in …

Aircraft Operations Based Mission Requirements, Robert A. Mcdonald

Aerospace Engineering

The mission capabilities of aircraft in the current commercial fleet are a combined result of many factors. The launch customer for each aircraft has a voice in determining the requirements. The manufacturer desires to best position the aircraft in the market considering their own aircraft and their competitors aircraft it will replace and compete with. Consequently, anyone considering the development of an aircraft to compete with or replace an aircraft in-service must do more than simply choose to meet the capabilities of that aircraft. This is especially true when unconventional systems are considered; the fundamental trade-offs for these systems may …

Wind Tunnel Modeling Of Small Electric Uav Power System Performance, Nathan R. Phelps

Aerospace Engineering

This report details the design and construction of a testing apparatus for characterization of small electric aircraft power systems designed for use in the California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo Aerospace Engineering department’s subsonic wind tunnel. This apparatus was constructed and implemented with the goal of determining system and component efficiencies of an entire power system using RC Aircraft components as an analog for systems currently in use in the current generation of small electric UAV’s in service with the US Armed Forces. The goal of these experiments was to determine where improvements in the system architecture can be …

Radiation In The Space Environment, Sally Hermansen, Jennifer Shatts

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Aircraft Longitudinal Control Experiment, Dustin Schaff

Aerospace Engineering

This paper describes the design, fabrication, and analysis of an experiment that demonstrates the stability and control system characteristics of an aircraft constrained at the center of gravity in an air flow field. Given a set of basic requirements, the physical system (including the airframe, wings, tail, and mounted ball bearing) was designed, modeled, and manufactured. With the aircraft placed in front of a fan and allowed to rotate freely with the ball bearing, an angular rate sensor and servo motor to the deflect the elevator may be connected to any computer using an analog/digital Data Acquisition (DAQ) device to …

Considerations For Numerical Modeling Of Inverted Wings In Ground Effects, Graham Doig, Tracie J. Barber

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Performance Analysis Of A Variable Conductance Heat Pipe, Herron Arreola

Aerospace Engineering

This report examines the analysis of a donated Boeing variable conductance heat pipe with unknown performance characteristics. These characteristics were found through experimental means by utilizing 14 thermocouples attached to various locations on the heat pipe, the heaters and to the insulation. Although the maximum axial heat transport capability could not be determined due to the limited number of strip heaters available, the maximum radial heat flux capability of the heat pipe was found to be 2.46 W/in². The experiment also revealed that increasing the input power decreased the burn out inclination angle and that using a coolant …

Constrained Hermite Tls For Mesh-Free Derivative Estimation Near And On Boundaries, Robert A. Mcdonald, Alejandro Ramos

Aerospace Engineering

A Taylor series least-squares approach to estimating derivatives on scattered data is extended to include derivative observation or specification. This approach allows improved estimation of derivatives near boundaries as compared with the standard ghost node approach. It also enables a unique method of estimating derivatives in a surface using only surface data.

Mission Performance Considered As Point Performance In Aircraft Design, Robert A. Mcdonald

Aerospace Engineering

The cruise or loiter performance of an aircraft is intimately tied to its wing loading and its thrust-to-weight ratio. Paradoxically, mission performance is often not considered when these fundamental aircraft parameters are determined in conceptual design. In this paper, the traditional constraint diagram is extended to include contours of range or endurance parameter. These performance metrics represent the mission-performance capability of the aircraft without sizing the aircraft to a particular mission. This gives the designer an immediate and intuitive understanding of the tradeoff between the point and mission performance of the aircraft. The potential freedom for the designer to choose …

Flow Characteristics Of The Renovated Cal Poly 3 X 4 Ft Subsonic Wind Tunnel, Mathew L. Thomas, Dorian V. Pandey, Jason N. Nguyen

Aerospace Engineering

This paper investigates the flow characteristics of the renovated Cal Poly 3 x 4 ft subsonic wind tunnel. The IFA 300 constant-temperature anemometer along with a cross-plane X-wire dual-sensor probe was used to measure the mean velocity and turbulence intensity of the tunnel flow and part of the turbulent boundary layer at one section of the tunnel. Because of the malfunction of one channel of the IFA 300, only one wire of the dual sensor probe was calibrated for the measurements. The probe was then placed in a streamlined probe holder mounting on the traverse inside the wind tunnel. The …

Comparison Of A High Purity Germanium Gamma Ray Spectrometer And A Multidimensional Nai(T1) Scintillation Gamma Ray Spectrometer, Greg Stratton

Aerospace Engineering

This report compares two different gamma ray spectrometers in terms of performance, operation, and apparatus and also investigates the design and integration challenges of using gamma ray spectrometers in space. The first spectrometer is a one-dimensional high purity germanium (HPGe) spectrometer and the second is a multidimensional NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometer (MGRS). The key results show that the HPGe exhibits 15 to 27 times better energy resolution than the MGRS, but the MGRS is 52 times more sensitive and removes 177 % more of the background radiation.

3d Cfd On An Open Wheel Race Car Front Wing In Ground Effects, Thomas A. Price

Aerospace Engineering

The purpose of the report is to investigate the ability of the Fluent 6.3 k-ε Realizable turbulence model with standard wall functions to model the flow around the front wing of Cal Poly’s 2008 Formula SAE car. The three primary areas of interest are ground effects, the wing wheel interaction, and the wing tip vortices. Fluent was successful at modeling the increase suction from the ground effects, and the upwash due to the wing tip vortices. The results also displayed how the high pressure region in front of the tire propagates forward and interacts with the pressure distribution around the …

Analysis And Design Of A Propulsion System Trade Study Tool For A Boeing 376 Series Communications Satellite, Kevin Dunk

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Damage Arrestment Devices In Composite Plate Sandwiches With Fastener Holes, Mark Anderson, Nancy Hung Choy, Lacey Jones, Rita Kourskaya

Aerospace Engineering

Composite materials such as a carbon fiber are used in a variety of new technologies including aircraft, spacecraft, and motor vehicles. Carbon fiber has a high strength to weight ratio, a key advantage over other material options. This report discusses the use of composite damage arrestment devices (DADs) in composite sandwich panels with a foam core. There are three different curing cycles tested for the DADs: pressure only, vacuum only, and vacuum with 1000 lbs of pressure. Using a Tetrahedron Heat Press to cure the composite specimen and an Instron Machine to perform tensile testing, data was collected for each …

Composite I-Beam Fabrication And Testing In Response To 14th Annual Sampe Bridge Competition, Kodi Rider, Niño Noel Las Piñas, Hans Mayta

Aerospace Engineering

Composites are a type of material that generally combines two materials yielding mechanical properties that are different than its constituent parts. These constituents are classified as either a fiber or a matrix. The objective of this project is to create a carbon-fiber composite I-beam that meets the specifications of the SAMPE student bridge competition. The I-beam consists of carbon fiber unidirectional and woven laminas, as well as aluminum honeycomb and high density polystyrene foam to stiffen the structure. The bridge contest rules limit the dimensions and weight of the bridge. The cross-section must be within 4 inches x 4 inches …

Thermal Analysis Of The Cubesat Cp3 Satellite, Jonas Friedel, Sean Mckibbon

Aerospace Engineering

Due to inconsistencies found in the on-orbit thermal data from the CubeSat CP3 satellite between 2007 and 2011, further analysis is performed on a larger number of data from August 2010 through April 2011, aiming to find an explanation for the overall increasing measured temperatures and shortening peak periods. Therefore, the satellite power data as well as orbital anomalies are analyzed leading to the conclusion that the satellite was temporarily (January – March 2011) orbiting with significantly increased sun exposure causing the higher temperatures. The shortened temperature peak periods are explained by alternating albedo values as the main influence in …

Determination Of The Surface Boundary Layer Using A Quadrotor, Andrew Haviland

Aerospace Engineering

Wind velocity data was taken by a quadrotor UAV using accelerometers, gyroscope, and a barometer. Data was taken at different altitudes over a single position to determine the boundary layer at the surface of the earth. The data taken was compared to the results from numerical methods to determine if this is a practice application for a quadrotor. A few weeks before the test was set to get underway, the quadrotor suffered a very hard crash while testing the GPS and altitude hold function and wasn’t able to completely recover from it. Theoretical results and experiment proposal are covered.