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The authors measured the vibratory forces acting on an airfoil model by performing a ground vibration test (GVT). The airfoil model was manufactured using rapid prototyping. In the experiments, the airfoil model's structural response was also recorded and described. This paper detailedly introduces the entire experiment process and the obtained experimental data agreed well to the actual values.

In this work, a process-structure-property relationship for additively manufactured Al-Si-Mg alloy was constructed, with the aid of an integrated multi-physics model. Specifically, first, a series of thermal simulations were performed to understand molten pool geometry under different additive manufacturing (AM) operating conditions, including laser beam power, scanning speed, and hatch spacing. The porosity formation was predicted based on thermal simulation results, which yield molten pool dimension information for predicting the lack-of-fusion porosity. Dream.3D was utilized to reconstruct synthetic microstructures with different volume fraction of porosity.

A cost effective, portable particulate control system was developed, built, and evaluated at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Prototype of the presented system was developed for experimental assessment and its computational model was also created for CFD simulation. The experimental and computer simulation results showed that the developed system could efficiently and safely remove and dispose accumulated particulate matter (in the size range of 5 ∼ 1000 μm), and be tolerant to the abrasive properties that the particulate matter may have. The developed particulate control system as well as the applied technology can be further optimized and extended to be applied in aerospace and space engineering to remove suspended particles out from the closed cabinet of aircrafts or spacecrafts. The outcome of this project will also impact other commercial sectors and industries.

This paper focus on creating simplified models for plate-like automotive parts which can be used for crashworthiness analysis. Other than the traditional ways that used shell elements with coarse meshing to model plate-like parts for a simplified vehicle model, this paper tried to use superelement and equivalent beam methods to re-model such parts. In this paper, both methods are presented separately and two simplified chassis models are generated applying the two methods. The efficiency of the developed simplified models as well as the presented modeling methods are evaluated and compared through crashworthiness analyses, and finally positive results are achieved.

This paper validates a simplified finite element model of a light duty truck chassis which was previously developed. The simplified model is used for different computational crash simulations including full frontal impact, offset frontal impact, and oblique impact. The simulation results are compared with those obtained from a detailed chassis model. Through the comparisons, it is found that the present simplified model can be successfully used in the full frontal and offset frontal simulations. However, the current simplified model still needs to be innovated in order to correctly predict the detailed model’s crash behavior during the oblique impact. The present simplified model’s computational stability, reliability, accuracy, and efficiency are verified in this project.

This paper presented methods to determine the aerodynamic forces that act on an aircraft wing during flight. These methods are initially proposed for a simplified two degree-of-freedoms airfoil model and then are extensively applied for a multi-degree-of-freedom airfoil system. Different airspeed conditions are considered in establishing such methods. The accuracy of the presented methods is verified by comparing the estimated aerodynamic forces with the actual values. A good agreement is achieved through the comparisons and it is verified that the present methods can be used to correctly identify the aerodynamic forces acting on the aircraft wing models.

A cost effective, portable particulate management system was developed, prototyped, and evaluated for further application and commercialization, which could remove and dispose particulate matter suspended in air efficiently and safely. A prototype of the present system was built for experimental assessment and validation. The experimental data showed that the developed particulate management system can effectively clean the air by capturing the particles inside it. Effects of viscosity of filter medium on the performance of the developed system were also discussed. The present system is very flexible, whose size and shape can be scaled and changed to be fit for different applications. Its manufacturing cost is less than $10. Based on the experimental validation results, it was found that the present system can be further developed, commercialized, and applied for a variety of industries.

A dynamic modeling framework was established to predict status (position, displacement, velocity, acceleration, and shape) of a towed vehicle system with different driver inputs. This framework consists of three components: (1) a state space model to decide position and velocity for the vehicle system based on Newton’s second law; (2) an angular acceleration transferring model, which leads to a hypothesis that the each towed unit follows the same path as the towing vehicle; and (3) a polygon model to draw instantaneous polygons to envelop the entire system at any time point. Input parameters of this model include initial conditions of the system, real-time locations of a reference point (e.g. front center of the towing vehicle) that can be determined from a beacon and radar system, and instantaneous accelerations of this system, which come from driver maneuvers (accelerating, braking, steering, etc.) can be read from a data acquisition system installed on the towing vehicle.

In finite element analysis, mesh density is a critical issue which closely relates to the accuracy of the finite element models while directly determines their complexity level. This paper presents a systematic study on finding the effects of mesh density on the accuracy of numerical analysis results, based on which brief guidelines of choosing the best mesh strategy in finite element modeling are provided. Static, modal, and impact analysis are involved in this study to discuss the effects of element size in finite element analysis.

Differential equations play a prominent role in aerospace engineering by modeling aerospace structures, describing important phenomena, and simulating mathematical behavior of aerospace dynamical systems. Presently, aerospace systems have become more complex, space vehicle missions require more hours of simulation time to complete a maneuver, and high-performance missiles require more logical decisions in there phases of flight. Because of these conditions, a computationally efficient algorithm for solving these differential equations is highly demanded to significantly reduce the computing time. This paper presents an efficient method for solving the differential equations by using variational iteration method, which can be implemented into software package to dramatically reduce the computing time for simulating the aerospace systems thereby significantly improving computer's performance in real-time design and simulation of aircrafts, spacecrafts, and other aerospace vehicles.

A common interaction between a penetrator and a target has been the use of copper and nickel materials. However, a multiscale analysis has not been performed on such a system. Compared to steels, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys and other metallic materials, a description of the mechanical behavior of pure ductile metals such as Cu struck by a penetrator comprises nickel under the high strain rate at different multiscale still remains unknown. In this research, Modified Embedded Atom Method (MEAM) Potential is utilized to study this system and the molecular dynamics simulation is employed in order to provide structure property evolution information for plasticity and shearing mechanisms.

This paper presents the design of two cleaning systems following systems engineering design approach. An in situ cleaning system was designed for removing engine oil stains and metal swarf and shavings that adhere to rollers of conveying lines which convey cylinder head as well as other heavy engine components. The other system was to clear and collect metal debris accumulated in the grooves of an engine block internal assembly line. Prototypes were fabricated for the designed cleaning equipment for further testing and assessment. In the system engineering design process, preliminary, intermediate, and detailed design were conducted following an identification of the design problem, within that process a sequence of tasks such as synthesis, analysis, prototyping, and assessment were completed.

This paper presents a computational study to investigate effects of crystal orientations on plasticity and damage of copper crystal at atomic scale. In the present study, a single crystal copper model was created as a target, which was struck and penetrated by a single crystal nickel. Three orientations, single slip system [1 0 1, 1 2 -1, -1 1 1], double slip system [1 1 2, 1 1 0, 1 1 -1], and octal slip system [1 0 0, 0 1 0, 0 0 1], were applied to the copper crystal. Their effects on plasticity and damage behavior of the single crystal copper were studied and compared using molecular dynamics simulations. Modified Embedded Atom Method potentials were applied to determine the pair interactions between the copper and nickel atoms.

A theoretical and experimental analysis is conducted to study the influences of key design parameters on the backlash of the roller enveloping hourglass worm gear. Two equations, the gear engagement equation and the tooth profile equation have been derived and represented in terms of four key parameters arising from the backlash of the worm gear by applying the gear meshing theory. Based on the derived equations, an efficient approach for reducing or eliminating the backlash of such a novel warm gear is developed. Specifically, the influences of center distance, roller radius, transmission ratio, and the radius of base circle on the contact curves and the tooth profile have been systematically investigated through numerical analysis, modeling and simulation. Next, a roller enveloping hourglass worm gear is manufactured and used for assessing the efficiency of the developed method in reducing and/or eliminating the backlash.

The moisture/water absorption and microvoids/cracks progression are two well-understood mechanisms that have significant degradation effects on the mechanical properties/behaviors of the polymer-based composites. To theoretically investigate the effects of above two mechanisms, we develop a simple fiber reinforced polymer composites model by employing the internal state variable (ISV) theory. The water content and the anisotropically distributed damage of the composites are considered as two ISVs (the water content is described by a scalar variable and the damage is defined as a second order tensor) whose histories are governed by two specific physically-based evolution equations. The proposed model can be easily cast into a general theoretical framework to capture more polymer composites behaviors such as viscoelasticity, viscoplasticity and the thermal effect.

In this paper, a new beam element is developed for the purpose of capturing thin-walled beam’s collapse mechanisms under dynamic load such as impact load and will be validated in the next phase. Such beam element can be used to create simplified finite element models for crashworthiness analysis and simulation and, therefore, will significantly reduce the modeling effort and computing time. The developed beam element will be implemented into LS-DYNA and validated through crashworthiness analysis and simulation. This paper introduces the approach of deriving the new element formulation.

The autonomous collision avoidance problem for multi-trailer vehicle maneuvering is investigated in this paper. Different from conventional vehicle systems that contain one single moving part or multi-parts that can be considered as one rigid body, the interconnection between the tractor and each trailer, and interactions between trailers in the multi-trailer system introduce a high dimensional and highly complex dynamic system for the controller design. The external disturbance and parametric uncertainties further increase the difficulty in system identification and state space formulation. To implement a real time control system for various scenarios where the locations and states of the obstacles are not known beforehand, a supervisory algorithm is designed to convert the control problem to a discrete event system. The model predictive control (MPC) using limited lookahead policy is employed in the proposed algorithm.

Oven and flame tests were designed and conducted to evaluate the heat resistance of a ceramic coating material, Cerakote C-7700Q, and evaluate its viability to replace the intumescent coating as one painting material for helicopter engine cowlings. The test results showed that the currently used painting scheme of the engine cowlings failed the 220°C oven test while after replacing the epoxy seal coat with the Cerakote, the new painting system passed the 220°C test in regards to painting bubbling. This study explained why serious appearance defects occurred in the inner skin of the engine cowling when the aircraft is hovering and suggested that one most time- and cost-effective solution is to repaint the current engine cowlings with a new three coating system of Cerakote, surface protection HS7072-622, and intumescent paint as a fireproof lacquer.

A robot mining system was developed by the State Space Robotic undergraduate student design team from Mississippi State University (MSU) for the 2016 NASA Robotic Mining Competition. The mining robot was designed to traverse the Martian chaotic terrain, excavate a minimum of 10 kg of Martian regolith and deposit the regolith into a collector bin within 10 minutes as part of the competition. A Systems Engineering approach was followed in proceeding with this design project. The designed mining robot consisted of two major components: (1) mechanical system and (2) control system. This paper mainly focuses on the design and assessment process of the mechanical system but will also briefly mention the control system so as to evaluate the designed robotic system in its entirety. The final designed robot consisted of an aluminum frame driven by four motors and wheels. It utilized a scoop and lifting arm subsystem for collecting and depositing Martian regolith.

This paper focuses on generating equations of motion for a Vehicle model. The generated equations can be used for rigid body analysis such as vibration analysis, frequency domain analysis, and time domain analysis. The paper starts with the equations of motion of a 6-degree-of-freedom (DOF) system and demonstrates detailed approach in building the equations. Next, the equations of motion are built for a 12-DOF vehicle model, which can be used as an approximated Vehicle model in most cases. Finally, the rigid body of an accurate Vehicle model is created and the equations of motion are constructed following the presented method.