Aerospace Engineering Program Room 250 Higgins Laboratory 100 Institute Road Worcester, MA 01609

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Project Presentation Day Program

April 23, 2009

Aerospace Engineering Program

8:30-8:35 Opening Remarks, Professor Nikolaos Gatsonis, Director, Aerospace Engineering Program

8:35-9:00 Design Optimization of a Quadrotor Capable of Autonomous Flight

Antonio DiCesare, Kyle Gustafson, Paul Lindenfelzer Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou

9:00-9:25 Design of Shape-Transforming Canopies for Parachutes Kyle Miller, Jeffrey Moffett, Amanda Pollack, Casey Rogan Advisor: Professor David Olinger Sponsor: U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center

9:25-9:50 Design of Microflow Experiments Anthony Del Vecchio, Lawrence Loomis Advisor: Professor Nikolaos Gatsonis

9:50-10:15 Investigation of Plasma Charging Effects Daniel Asselin, David Beavers, Stephen Jakubowski Advisor: Professor John Blandino

10:15 -10:30 Break 10:30-10:55 Design of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and Optimization of Hydrodynamic Properties and Control

Radu David, Maxwell French, Brandon Habin, Akhil Kejriwal, Umut Tekin Advisors: Professor Islam Hussein, Professor William Michalson

10:55-11:20 Design of a Micro-Turbine for Energy Scavenging in Gas Turbine Engines Amanda Kalish, Elyssa Morrow, Michael Powers, Stephen Rose Advisor: Professor David Olinger In collaboration with Justin Urban, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft

11:20-11:45 Production of a Fluid Microjet Using Electrospray and Flow Focusing Dan Christianson, Lindsey McKan, Ron Turba Advisors: Professor John Blandino, Professor Germano Iannacchione

11:45-12:10 Mechanical Autonomous Jellyfish

Jeremy Chapman, Nathaniel Law Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou

12:10-12:35 Design of an Instrumentation System for a Kite Power System Lauren Alex, Eric DeStefano, Luke Fekete, Scott Gary Advisor: Professor David Olinger

12:35 Judges convene, HL201; Students complete surveys; lunch available for stu-dents

4:00 Award Presentation Ceremony, HL116

Program

Raffaele Potami Postdoctoral Research Fellow Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Wael Al-Kouz PhD candidate Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Siju Thomas PhD candidate Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Judge Panel

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 10

Design of an Instrumentation System for a Kite Power System

Lauren Alex, Eric DeStefano, Luke Fekete, Scott Gary Advisor: Professor David Olinger The goal of this project was to design and implement a data acquisition system for a kite power system. Also, the kite power system was optimized for structural and mechanical performance. Kite power has the potential to be much more economical than other forms of wind power. In a system developed by previous MQP teams, a large windboarding kite pulls the end of a long rocking arm which turns a generator and creates electricity. In order to determine the power output of this system, as well as any inefficiencies, four key parameters were measured: torque of the flywheel, angular velocity of the shafts, angle of inclination of the lever arm, and force of the kite on the arm. Four respective sensor instruments were purchased and configured for the system. The sensor outputs were processed using a data acquisition board that was used in conjunction with LabVIEW to record measurements. Using this data, the instantaneous power was determined. To increase power, a second power system was created to utilize both ascending and descending motions of the rocking arm. All components and subcompo-nents were lab tested. The results of this project give further evidence to the credibility of the kite power concept.

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Mechanical Autonomous Jellyfish

Jeremy Chapman, Nathaniel Law Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou The objective of this project was to create a prototype of a low-power un-manned underwater vehicle (UUV) that resembles a jellyfish in appearance and mimics its movement. This task was completed via the design of a unique form of propulsion and by demonstrating underwater navigational control. The propulsion is achieved through the use of Nitinol "muscle wire" that shortens when heated by an electric current, thus contracting part of the shell of the mechanical jellyfish and creating a momentum flux that slowly propels the craft through the water. Navigation is achieved through the use of a photodiode array that senses an underwater optical light source. Controls on the craft determine which photodiode is closest to the light source and subsequently activate the collocated muscle wire.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 2

Design Optimization of a Quadrotor Capable of Autonomous Flight

Antonio DiCesare, Kyle Gustafson, Paul Lindenfelzer Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou This report covers the design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing of an autonomous quad-rotor helicopter. A control system was designed and imple-mented through the use of an onboard microprocessor and inertial measure-ment system. The goal of the helicopter was to maintain a hover at a speci-fied altitude while minimizing lateral drift. Along with the autonomous flight, the helicopter achieved design goals of 10% weight reduction over a previous attempt which in turn increased available flight time.

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Design of Shape-Transforming Canopies for Parachutes

Kyle Miller, Jeffrey Moffett, Amanda Pollack, Casey Rogan Advisor: Professor D. J. Olinger Sponsor: U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, MA Design of a single-parachute cargo delivery system that can significantly alter its glide slope and descent characteristics via mid-flight shape transformation can reduce current costs and simplify cargo drops. Current systems use multiple canopies to deliver cargo to a predetermined drop zone. Two design concepts were chosen for review based on given constraints and tested through computer simulation and real-world experiments. Developing two parallel transformation concepts has permitted comparison of key performance parameters. In addition to the canopies, a servo-based remote-controlled command system was designed to initiate the transformation. Current tests show that, with further study and research, a single-parachute cargo delivery system could be a viable alternative to the systems currently in use. 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 8

Production of a Fluid Microjet Using Electrospray and Flow Focusing

Dan Christianson, Lindsey McKan, Ron Turba Advisor(s): Professor John Blandino, Professor Germano Iannacchione The purpose of this MQP is designing, building, and testing an apparatus which can support both electrospray and flow focusing. Electrospray is the process of accelerating a positively charged fluid towards an extractor elec-trode in order to create a fine stream of droplets from a liquid jet. Flow Fo-cusing is the process of creating an axisymmetrical stream of fluid by using a pressurized gas to drag the jet stream through an exit orifice using shear forces. The results of this MQP show images which display how jet stream varies as a function of different independent variables.

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Design of a Micro-Turbine for Energy Scavenging in Gas Turbine Engines

Amanda Kalish, Elyssa Morrow, Michael Powers, Stephen Rose Advisor: Professor David Olinger In collaboration with Justin Urban, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Gas turbine engine tests are important in determining engine performance and efficiency. The gas turbine energy industry is looking to use wireless sen-sors as a way of cutting time and money during engine tests, however, a method must be found to power these sensors. This project investigates the design, fabrication, and testing of a micro-turbine system to be placed into the fan flow of the gas turbine engine in order to scavenge energy from the flow to power wireless sensors.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 4

Design of Microflow Experiments

Anthony DelVecchio, Lawrence Loomis Advisor: Professor Nikolaos Gatsonis This project involves the integration of a small vacuum chamber facility (SVaC) de-signed for microflow experiments. The structure that supports the bell jar and asso-ciated equipment is designed and fabricated for a maximum load of 363 kg with a deflection of less than 1 mm . This project also estimates computationally the mass flow rate of a gas at pressure 0.01-10 Pa flowing through an orifice of diameter between 1-100 microns into a bell jar pressure of 10-5-10-2 Torr based on the avail-able pumping speed of the SVaC.

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Investigation of Plasma Charging Effects

Daniel Asselin, David Beavers, Stephen Jakubowski Advisor: Professor John Blandino The objective of this MQP was to complete the design, assembly, and test of a dusty plasma discharge chamber (DPDC) that would be used to evaluate the effect of dust contamination on plasma properties and the effect of the plasma on dust charge. Data are collected using a Langmuir probe and a charge detection mass spectrometer (CDMS). Major improvements were made to the dust contamination dispensing sys-tem and the Langmuir probe positioning system. The dust dispenser was redesigned to provide more consistent particle flow rates. Further adjust-ments were made to the DPDC to enhance its ability to maintain an argon plasma discharge. Preliminary testing was completed and verified the ability to generate a plasma. Both the Langmuir probe and CDMS were integrated with the DPDC and tested.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 6

Design of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and Optimization of Hydrodynamic Properties and Control

Radu David, Maxwell French, Brandon Habin, Akhil Kejriwal, Umut Tekin Advisor(s): Professor Islam Hussein, Professor William Michalson Autonomous vehicles are becoming more and more prevalent in military, pri-vate industry and residential applications. Unfortunately, research currently being done in the area of autonomous underwater craft is often hindered by expense. It was desired to build a craft at WPI which could serve as an inex-pensive test-bed for future research and implementation of control algo-rithms, etc. The vehicle’s construction required the design and manufacture of a number of components including water-jet stabilization thrusters, propel-ler driven main thrusters, a complete multi-hub electronic sensor and drive control system and individual sensors such as a tri-axial sonar unit as well as a capacitance based water-leak sensor. A Lexan heat forming process was also developed for hull construction.