Pub Date : 2023-08-28DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090764
M. Akhlaghi, Y. Azizi
This paper investigates the effects of two modifications to a vaned recessed casing treatment. First, the shape of a circular curve was used in the top of the treated casing. Second, a fully curved guide vane was also applied. The goals of the modifications are to enhance the flow recirculation as well as to relieve the low-speed flow, which is normally accumulated within the corners of the vaned recessed casing treatment. The solid casing in addition to the two vaned recessed configurations with 23.2% and 53.5% rotor blade tip axial chord exposure have been studied numerically. The results indicated that two mechanisms are involved in the stall margin enhancement. First, the circumferential pressure gradient is reduced for both configurations. The reduction in pressure gradient largely reduces the development of tip leakage vortex and, thus, the generation of low-speed fluid is diminished. Second, the main flow/tip leakage interface moves toward downstream and the movement of interface toward the leading edge is delayed. The second configuration with a greater rotor blade tip exposure enables extra flow recirculation due to decreasing surface area and, therefore, could be superior to the application of the first casing treatment configuration. The major streamlines within the casing treatment are also discussed. The time-averaged results are presented in this paper, while the unsteady results including instantaneous flow fields, origins of the unsteadiness and frequency analysis are discussed in part II.
{"title":"Investigation of Vaned-Recessed Casing Treatment in a Low-Speed Axial Flow Compressor, Part I: Time-Averaged Results","authors":"M. Akhlaghi, Y. Azizi","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090764","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the effects of two modifications to a vaned recessed casing treatment. First, the shape of a circular curve was used in the top of the treated casing. Second, a fully curved guide vane was also applied. The goals of the modifications are to enhance the flow recirculation as well as to relieve the low-speed flow, which is normally accumulated within the corners of the vaned recessed casing treatment. The solid casing in addition to the two vaned recessed configurations with 23.2% and 53.5% rotor blade tip axial chord exposure have been studied numerically. The results indicated that two mechanisms are involved in the stall margin enhancement. First, the circumferential pressure gradient is reduced for both configurations. The reduction in pressure gradient largely reduces the development of tip leakage vortex and, thus, the generation of low-speed fluid is diminished. Second, the main flow/tip leakage interface moves toward downstream and the movement of interface toward the leading edge is delayed. The second configuration with a greater rotor blade tip exposure enables extra flow recirculation due to decreasing surface area and, therefore, could be superior to the application of the first casing treatment configuration. The major streamlines within the casing treatment are also discussed. The time-averaged results are presented in this paper, while the unsteady results including instantaneous flow fields, origins of the unsteadiness and frequency analysis are discussed in part II.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79943594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The combustion characteristics of a swirl-radial-injection composite fuel grain were experimentally and numerically investigated. This composite grain permits swirl-radial oxidizer injection based on three hollow helical blades, each having a constant hollow space allowing uniform oxidizer injection into the main chamber along the axial direction. The oxidizer enters from channel inlets located along a hollow outer wall. This wall, together with the three blades, is fabricated as one piece from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene using three-dimensional printing. Paraffin-based fuel is embedded in the spaces between adjacent blades. Firing tests were conducted with gaseous oxygen as the oxidizer, using oxidizer mass flow rates ranging from 7.45 to 30.68 g/s. Paraffin-based fuel grains using conventional fore-end injection were used for comparison. Regression rate boundaries were determined taking into account the erosion of the oxidizer channels. The data show that the regression rate was significantly increased even at the lower limit. Images of the combustion chamber flame and of the exhaust plume were also acquired. The flame was found to be concentrated in the main chamber and a smoky plume was observed, consistent with the high regression rate. A three-dimensional simulation was employed. The present design was found to improve fuel/oxidizer mixing and combustion efficiency compared with a fuel grain using fore-end injection. Both the experimental results and numerical simulations confirmed the potential of this swirl-radial-injection fuel grain.
{"title":"Combustion Characteristics of a Swirl-Radial-Injection Composite Fuel Grain with Applications in Hybrid Rockets","authors":"Ruoyan Wang, Xin Lin, Zezhong Wang, Kun Wu, Zelin Zhang, Jiaxiao Luo, Fei Li, Xilong Yu","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090759","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090759","url":null,"abstract":"The combustion characteristics of a swirl-radial-injection composite fuel grain were experimentally and numerically investigated. This composite grain permits swirl-radial oxidizer injection based on three hollow helical blades, each having a constant hollow space allowing uniform oxidizer injection into the main chamber along the axial direction. The oxidizer enters from channel inlets located along a hollow outer wall. This wall, together with the three blades, is fabricated as one piece from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene using three-dimensional printing. Paraffin-based fuel is embedded in the spaces between adjacent blades. Firing tests were conducted with gaseous oxygen as the oxidizer, using oxidizer mass flow rates ranging from 7.45 to 30.68 g/s. Paraffin-based fuel grains using conventional fore-end injection were used for comparison. Regression rate boundaries were determined taking into account the erosion of the oxidizer channels. The data show that the regression rate was significantly increased even at the lower limit. Images of the combustion chamber flame and of the exhaust plume were also acquired. The flame was found to be concentrated in the main chamber and a smoky plume was observed, consistent with the high regression rate. A three-dimensional simulation was employed. The present design was found to improve fuel/oxidizer mixing and combustion efficiency compared with a fuel grain using fore-end injection. Both the experimental results and numerical simulations confirmed the potential of this swirl-radial-injection fuel grain.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"205 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89398038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-28DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090763
M. Akhlaghi, Y. Azizi
In this paper, unsteady characteristics of a modified vaned-recessed casing treatment with 23.2% rotor blade tip axial chord exposure were studied numerically. The modifications to the traditional vaned-recessed casing treatments were composed of geometrical amendments to the casing treatment’s guide vanes and the top of the treated casing. The solid casing and the casing treatment configurations were simulated using the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations (URANS), and the results were validated by experimental results. Firstly, standard deviation and frequency analysis were performed to find the sources of unsteadiness. Secondly, velocity components analysis, including velocity triangles, was presented instantaneously to clarify their effects on rotor tip flow fields as well as stall margin improvement. Thirdly, unsteady interactions between the rotor and casing treatment flow fields, including flow structure and pressure distributions, were discussed. In the end, flow streamline patterns, in addition to the physical mechanism of the vaned-recessed casing treatment, were also discussed. The results indicated that unsteadiness plays an important role in the flow mechanism and cannot be ignored. The unsteadiness increases as the mass flow is reduced toward the stall/surge condition. Moreover, the analysis of velocity components demonstrated that the casing treatment has distinct behavior at the last operating points before the onset of the stall for solid casing and casing treatment configurations in terms of axial velocity change.
本文对23.2%动叶尖轴向弦暴露的改进型叶槽机匣非定常特性进行了数值研究。对传统叶片凹槽套管处理的改进包括对套管处理导叶和处理套管顶部的几何修正。采用非定常reynolds - average Navier-Stokes方程(URANS)对固体套管和套管处理构型进行了模拟,并通过实验验证了模拟结果。首先,进行标准差分析和频率分析,找出不稳定的来源。其次,进行了速度分量分析,包括速度三角形分析,阐明了速度分量对旋翼叶尖流场及失速裕度改善的影响;第三,讨论了转子与机匣处理流场的非定常相互作用,包括流场结构和压力分布。最后,讨论了叶片凹陷套管处理的流线形态和物理机理。结果表明,非定常在流动机理中起着不可忽视的重要作用。当质量流量减小到失速/喘振状态时,非定常性增加。此外,速度分量分析表明,在失速开始前的最后操作点,固体套管和套管处理配置在轴向速度变化方面具有不同的行为。
{"title":"Investigation of Vaned-Recessed Casing Treatment in a Low-Speed Axial-Flow Compressor, Part II: Unsteady Results","authors":"M. Akhlaghi, Y. Azizi","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090763","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, unsteady characteristics of a modified vaned-recessed casing treatment with 23.2% rotor blade tip axial chord exposure were studied numerically. The modifications to the traditional vaned-recessed casing treatments were composed of geometrical amendments to the casing treatment’s guide vanes and the top of the treated casing. The solid casing and the casing treatment configurations were simulated using the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations (URANS), and the results were validated by experimental results. Firstly, standard deviation and frequency analysis were performed to find the sources of unsteadiness. Secondly, velocity components analysis, including velocity triangles, was presented instantaneously to clarify their effects on rotor tip flow fields as well as stall margin improvement. Thirdly, unsteady interactions between the rotor and casing treatment flow fields, including flow structure and pressure distributions, were discussed. In the end, flow streamline patterns, in addition to the physical mechanism of the vaned-recessed casing treatment, were also discussed. The results indicated that unsteadiness plays an important role in the flow mechanism and cannot be ignored. The unsteadiness increases as the mass flow is reduced toward the stall/surge condition. Moreover, the analysis of velocity components demonstrated that the casing treatment has distinct behavior at the last operating points before the onset of the stall for solid casing and casing treatment configurations in terms of axial velocity change.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81023223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-28DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090762
W. Verhagen, B. F. Santos, F. Freeman, Paul van Kessel, D. Zarouchas, T. Loutas, R. Yeun, I. Heiets
Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) is a policy that uses information about the health condition of systems and structures to identify optimal maintenance interventions over time, increasing the efficiency of maintenance operations. Despite CBM being a well-established concept in academic research, the practical uptake in aviation needs to catch up to expectations. This research aims to identify challenges, limitations, solution directions, and policy implications related to adopting CBM in aviation. We use a generalizable and holistic assessment framework to achieve this aim, following a process-oriented view of CBM development as an aircraft lifecycle management policy. Based on various inputs from industry and academia, we identified several major sets of challenges and suggested three primary solution categories. These address data quantity and quality, CBM implementation, and the integration of CBM with future technologies, highlighting future research and practice directions.
{"title":"Condition-Based Maintenance in Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities","authors":"W. Verhagen, B. F. Santos, F. Freeman, Paul van Kessel, D. Zarouchas, T. Loutas, R. Yeun, I. Heiets","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090762","url":null,"abstract":"Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) is a policy that uses information about the health condition of systems and structures to identify optimal maintenance interventions over time, increasing the efficiency of maintenance operations. Despite CBM being a well-established concept in academic research, the practical uptake in aviation needs to catch up to expectations. This research aims to identify challenges, limitations, solution directions, and policy implications related to adopting CBM in aviation. We use a generalizable and holistic assessment framework to achieve this aim, following a process-oriented view of CBM development as an aircraft lifecycle management policy. Based on various inputs from industry and academia, we identified several major sets of challenges and suggested three primary solution categories. These address data quantity and quality, CBM implementation, and the integration of CBM with future technologies, highlighting future research and practice directions.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82579698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It is well-established that the honeycomb sandwich composite structures are easily prone to damage under low-energy impact. Consequently, it would lead to a dramatic decrease in structural load-bearing capacity and a threat to overall safety. Both experimental and numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the impact damage behavior of honeycomb sandwich composite specimens. The damage mode, damage parameters, and contact force-time curves of three types of panel materials with T300, T700, and T800 are obtained under different impact energies of 10 J, 20 J, and 40 J by the drop-weight impact experiment. Moreover, digital image correlation (DIC) tests are used to measure the deformation and strain of the lower panel. The experimental results reveal that the degree of damage increases with increasing impact energy. Particularly, the T300 panel specimen exhibits visible fiber fracture when subjected to an impact energy of 40 J. The impact process involves matrix cracking, fiber fracture, and delamination of the upper panel occurring first, followed by immediate crush damage to the honeycomb core and, finally, slight fiber damage to the lower panel. Due to its higher strength, the T800 panel specimen exhibits the highest damage resistance compared to the T700 and T300 panel specimens. To consider the microscopic failure criteria and various types of contact during the impact process, a finite element model of honeycomb sandwich composites is established, and numerical simulation analysis of low-energy impact is performed to determine the damage mode, damage size, and contact-force curves. Comparative analysis demonstrates good agreement between the simulation and experimental results. The findings of this study provide valuable technical support for the widespread application of honeycomb sandwich composites in the aviation field.
{"title":"Experiment and Numerical Simulation on Damage Behavior of Honeycomb Sandwich Composites under Low-Energy Impact","authors":"Xiaoxia Zheng, Bohan He, Yuexian Zou, Q. Yang, Yupeng Cao, Zhiqiang Li, Yaokun Han","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090756","url":null,"abstract":"It is well-established that the honeycomb sandwich composite structures are easily prone to damage under low-energy impact. Consequently, it would lead to a dramatic decrease in structural load-bearing capacity and a threat to overall safety. Both experimental and numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the impact damage behavior of honeycomb sandwich composite specimens. The damage mode, damage parameters, and contact force-time curves of three types of panel materials with T300, T700, and T800 are obtained under different impact energies of 10 J, 20 J, and 40 J by the drop-weight impact experiment. Moreover, digital image correlation (DIC) tests are used to measure the deformation and strain of the lower panel. The experimental results reveal that the degree of damage increases with increasing impact energy. Particularly, the T300 panel specimen exhibits visible fiber fracture when subjected to an impact energy of 40 J. The impact process involves matrix cracking, fiber fracture, and delamination of the upper panel occurring first, followed by immediate crush damage to the honeycomb core and, finally, slight fiber damage to the lower panel. Due to its higher strength, the T800 panel specimen exhibits the highest damage resistance compared to the T700 and T300 panel specimens. To consider the microscopic failure criteria and various types of contact during the impact process, a finite element model of honeycomb sandwich composites is established, and numerical simulation analysis of low-energy impact is performed to determine the damage mode, damage size, and contact-force curves. Comparative analysis demonstrates good agreement between the simulation and experimental results. The findings of this study provide valuable technical support for the widespread application of honeycomb sandwich composites in the aviation field.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76990717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-27DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090758
Jie Li, Di Shen, Fu-ping Yu, Renmeng Zhang
With the rapid advancement of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, the widespread utilization of UAVs poses significant challenges to urban low-altitude safety and airspace management. In the coming future, the quantity of drones is expected to experience a substantial surge. Effectively regulating the flight behavior of UAVs has become an urgent and imperative issue that needs to be addressed. Hence, this paper proposes a standardized approach to UAV flight through the design of an air channel network. The air channel network comprises numerous single air channels, and this study focuses on investigating the characteristics of a single air channel. To achieve optimal outcomes, the concept of the artificial potential field algorithm is integrated into the deep Q-learning algorithm during the establishment of a single air channel. By improving the action space and reward mechanism, the resulting single air channel enables efficient avoidance of various buildings and obstacles. Finally, the algorithm is assessed through comprehensive simulation experiments, demonstrating its effective fulfillment of the aforementioned requirements.
{"title":"Air Channel Planning Based on Improved Deep Q-Learning and Artificial Potential Fields","authors":"Jie Li, Di Shen, Fu-ping Yu, Renmeng Zhang","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090758","url":null,"abstract":"With the rapid advancement of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, the widespread utilization of UAVs poses significant challenges to urban low-altitude safety and airspace management. In the coming future, the quantity of drones is expected to experience a substantial surge. Effectively regulating the flight behavior of UAVs has become an urgent and imperative issue that needs to be addressed. Hence, this paper proposes a standardized approach to UAV flight through the design of an air channel network. The air channel network comprises numerous single air channels, and this study focuses on investigating the characteristics of a single air channel. To achieve optimal outcomes, the concept of the artificial potential field algorithm is integrated into the deep Q-learning algorithm during the establishment of a single air channel. By improving the action space and reward mechanism, the resulting single air channel enables efficient avoidance of various buildings and obstacles. Finally, the algorithm is assessed through comprehensive simulation experiments, demonstrating its effective fulfillment of the aforementioned requirements.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82737413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-27DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090757
Barış Başpınar
This paper focuses on robust controller design for a generic helicopter model and terrain avoidance problem via artificial intelligence (AI). The helicopter model is presented as a hybrid system that covers hover and forward dynamics. By defining a set of easily accessible parameters, it can be used to simulate the motion of different helicopter types. A robust control structure based on reinforcement learning is proposed to ensure the system is robust against model parameter uncertainties. The developed generic model can be utilized in many helicopter applications that have been attempted to be solved with sampling-based algorithms or reinforcement learning approaches that take the dynamical constraints into consideration. This study also focuses on the helicopter terrain avoidance problem to illustrate how the model can be useful in these types of applications and provide an artificial intelligence-aided solution to terrain avoidance.
{"title":"Robust Controller Design for a Generic Helicopter Model: An AI-Aided Application for Terrain Avoidance","authors":"Barış Başpınar","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090757","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on robust controller design for a generic helicopter model and terrain avoidance problem via artificial intelligence (AI). The helicopter model is presented as a hybrid system that covers hover and forward dynamics. By defining a set of easily accessible parameters, it can be used to simulate the motion of different helicopter types. A robust control structure based on reinforcement learning is proposed to ensure the system is robust against model parameter uncertainties. The developed generic model can be utilized in many helicopter applications that have been attempted to be solved with sampling-based algorithms or reinforcement learning approaches that take the dynamical constraints into consideration. This study also focuses on the helicopter terrain avoidance problem to illustrate how the model can be useful in these types of applications and provide an artificial intelligence-aided solution to terrain avoidance.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77925618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-25DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090753
Jin Gao, Ziyi Kang, Weiheng Sun, Youyin Wang, Junlong Zhang, W. Bao
With the in-depth research on hypersonic aerodynamics and hypersonic propulsion technology, humans are growing closer to space travel. Recent studies have shown that the pre-cooled air-turborocket (ATR) or turboexpander engines are some of the potential propulsion methods for reusable space vehicles and single stage-to-orbit (SSTO) missions because they have a high specific impulse at low Mach numbers, which can overcome the problem of the “thrust gap” in turbine-based combined-cycle (TBCC) engines. The ATR engine needs an additional oxidizing agent and the turboexpander engine usually uses hydrogen as fuel, which has low energy density and poor safety. To address this problem, this paper proposed a high-energy-density (HED) hydrocarbon-fueled turboexpander engine, and its feasibility has been proven through a simplified thermodynamic model. Through detailed thermodynamic analysis based on the energy and pressure balance, this paper analyzed the performance characteristics of the engine to evaluate its capacity to work in a wide speed range at low Mach numbers. The results show that the endothermic hydrocarbon-fueled turboexpander engine has good specific impulse in Mach 0∼4 at an equivalence ratio of 0.7∼1.3, and the turboexpander engine can be combined with the dual-mode scramjet and become an efficient acceleration method for SSTO missions and the reusable spacecraft.
{"title":"Feasibility and Performance Analysis of High-Energy-Density Hydrocarbon-Fueled Turboexpander Engine","authors":"Jin Gao, Ziyi Kang, Weiheng Sun, Youyin Wang, Junlong Zhang, W. Bao","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090753","url":null,"abstract":"With the in-depth research on hypersonic aerodynamics and hypersonic propulsion technology, humans are growing closer to space travel. Recent studies have shown that the pre-cooled air-turborocket (ATR) or turboexpander engines are some of the potential propulsion methods for reusable space vehicles and single stage-to-orbit (SSTO) missions because they have a high specific impulse at low Mach numbers, which can overcome the problem of the “thrust gap” in turbine-based combined-cycle (TBCC) engines. The ATR engine needs an additional oxidizing agent and the turboexpander engine usually uses hydrogen as fuel, which has low energy density and poor safety. To address this problem, this paper proposed a high-energy-density (HED) hydrocarbon-fueled turboexpander engine, and its feasibility has been proven through a simplified thermodynamic model. Through detailed thermodynamic analysis based on the energy and pressure balance, this paper analyzed the performance characteristics of the engine to evaluate its capacity to work in a wide speed range at low Mach numbers. The results show that the endothermic hydrocarbon-fueled turboexpander engine has good specific impulse in Mach 0∼4 at an equivalence ratio of 0.7∼1.3, and the turboexpander engine can be combined with the dual-mode scramjet and become an efficient acceleration method for SSTO missions and the reusable spacecraft.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"118 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77388311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-25DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090754
Raúl Parada, Victor Monzon Baeza, David N. Barraca-Ibort, Carlos Monzo
Wireless broadband coverage has reached 95% worldwide. However, its trend is expected to stay the same in the following years, presenting challenges for scenarios such as remote villages and their surrounding environments. Inaccessibility to these areas for installing terrestrial base stations is the main challenge to bridge the connectivity gap. In addition, there are emergencies, for instance, earthquakes or war areas, that require a fast communication reaction by developing networks that are less susceptible to disruption. Therefore, we propose a low-cost, green-based nanosatellite system to provide complete coverage in hard-to-reach areas using long-range communication. The system comprises a pilot station, a base station, and a CubeSat with sensor data collector capabilities acting as a repeater. Our system can be built within hours with a 3D printer using common material, providing a flexible environment where components can be replaced freely according to user requirements, such as sensors and communication protocols. The experiments are performed in Spain by two test sets validating the communication among all components, with RSSI values below −148 dBm and the longest distance above 14 km. We highlight the reduction in the environmental impact of this proposal using a balloon-based launch platform that contributes to sustainable development.
{"title":"LoRa-Based Low-Cost Nanosatellite for Emerging Communication Networks in Complex Scenarios","authors":"Raúl Parada, Victor Monzon Baeza, David N. Barraca-Ibort, Carlos Monzo","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090754","url":null,"abstract":"Wireless broadband coverage has reached 95% worldwide. However, its trend is expected to stay the same in the following years, presenting challenges for scenarios such as remote villages and their surrounding environments. Inaccessibility to these areas for installing terrestrial base stations is the main challenge to bridge the connectivity gap. In addition, there are emergencies, for instance, earthquakes or war areas, that require a fast communication reaction by developing networks that are less susceptible to disruption. Therefore, we propose a low-cost, green-based nanosatellite system to provide complete coverage in hard-to-reach areas using long-range communication. The system comprises a pilot station, a base station, and a CubeSat with sensor data collector capabilities acting as a repeater. Our system can be built within hours with a 3D printer using common material, providing a flexible environment where components can be replaced freely according to user requirements, such as sensors and communication protocols. The experiments are performed in Spain by two test sets validating the communication among all components, with RSSI values below −148 dBm and the longest distance above 14 km. We highlight the reduction in the environmental impact of this proposal using a balloon-based launch platform that contributes to sustainable development.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73401940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-25DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10090752
V. Bâcu, C. Nandra, A. Sabou, T. Stefanut, D. Gorgan
Near-Earth Asteroids represent potential threats to human life because their trajectories may bring them in the proximity of the Earth. Monitoring these objects could help predict future impact events, but such efforts are hindered by the large numbers of objects that pass in the Earth’s vicinity. Additionally, there is also the problem of distinguishing asteroids from other objects in the night sky, which implies sifting through large sets of telescope image data. Within this context, we believe that employing machine learning techniques could greatly improve the detection process by sorting out the most likely asteroid candidates to be reviewed by human experts. At the moment, the use of machine learning techniques is still limited in the field of astronomy and the main goal of the present paper is to study the effectiveness of deep convolutional neural networks for the classification of astronomical objects, asteroids in this particular case, by comparing some of the well-known deep convolutional neural networks, including InceptionV3, Xception, InceptionResNetV2 and ResNet152V2. We applied transfer learning and fine-tuning on these pre-existing deep convolutional networks, and from the results that we obtained, the potential of using deep convolutional neural networks in the process of asteroid classification can be seen. The InceptionV3 model has the best results in the asteroid class, meaning that by using it, we lose the least number of valid asteroids.
{"title":"Assessment of Asteroid Classification Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks","authors":"V. Bâcu, C. Nandra, A. Sabou, T. Stefanut, D. Gorgan","doi":"10.3390/aerospace10090752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090752","url":null,"abstract":"Near-Earth Asteroids represent potential threats to human life because their trajectories may bring them in the proximity of the Earth. Monitoring these objects could help predict future impact events, but such efforts are hindered by the large numbers of objects that pass in the Earth’s vicinity. Additionally, there is also the problem of distinguishing asteroids from other objects in the night sky, which implies sifting through large sets of telescope image data. Within this context, we believe that employing machine learning techniques could greatly improve the detection process by sorting out the most likely asteroid candidates to be reviewed by human experts. At the moment, the use of machine learning techniques is still limited in the field of astronomy and the main goal of the present paper is to study the effectiveness of deep convolutional neural networks for the classification of astronomical objects, asteroids in this particular case, by comparing some of the well-known deep convolutional neural networks, including InceptionV3, Xception, InceptionResNetV2 and ResNet152V2. We applied transfer learning and fine-tuning on these pre-existing deep convolutional networks, and from the results that we obtained, the potential of using deep convolutional neural networks in the process of asteroid classification can be seen. The InceptionV3 model has the best results in the asteroid class, meaning that by using it, we lose the least number of valid asteroids.","PeriodicalId":50845,"journal":{"name":"Aerospace America","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85952711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}