This thesis work deals with manufacturing a lightweight composite unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing, material characterization of the composites used in the UAV wing, and preliminary structural analysis of the UAV wing. Manufacturing is performed at the composite laboratory founded in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and with hand lay-up and vacuum bagging method at room temperature the wing is produced. This study encloses the detailed manufacturing process of the UAV wing from the mold manufacturing up to the final wing configuration supported with sketches and pictures. Structural analysis of the composite wing performed in this study is based on the material properties determined by coupon tests and micromechanics approaches. Contrary to the metallic materials, the actual material properties of composites are generally not available in the material handbooks, because the elastic properties of composite materials are dependent on the manufacturing process. In this study, the mechanical properties, i.e. Young&rsquo / s Modulus, are determined utilizing three different methods. Firstly, longitudinal tensile testing of the coupon specimens is performed to obtain the elastic properties. Secondly, mechanics of materials approach is used to determine the elastic properties. Additionally, an approximate method, that can be used in a preliminary study, is employed. The elastic properties determined by the tests and other approaches are compared to each other. One of the aims of this study is to establish an equivalent material model based on test and micromechanics approach, and use the equivalent model in the structural analysis by finite element method. To achieve this, composite structure of the wing is modeled in detail with full composite material descriptions of the surfaces of the wing structure, and comparisons are made with the results obtained by utilizing equivalent elastic constants. The analyses revealed that all three approaches have consistent, and close results / especially in terms of deflections and natural frequencies. Stress values obtained are also comparable as well. For a case study on level flight conditions, spanwise wing loading distribution is obtained using a program of ESDU, and the wing is analyzed with the distributed loading. Reasonable results are obtained, and the results compared with the tip loading case. Another issue dealt in this study is analyzing the front spar of the wing separately. The analysis of the front spar is performed using transformed section method and finite element analysis. In the results, it is found that both methods calculates the deflections very close to each other. Close stress results are found when solid elements are used in the finite element analysis, whereas, the results were deviating when shell elements are used in the analysis.

In this study a centrifugal fan is studied for noise characteristics and measurements in a semi- anechoic room. A semi-anechoic room is constructed inside Fluid Mechanics Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering Department has been qualified with respect to ISO 3745 standard. The fan characteristic is obtained as proposed in AMCA standards 210-75, by simply measuring the voltage and current of the motor during operation and calculating the power consumption of the assembly. Noise measurements are taken using two microphones attached to a multi-channel data acquisition and processing system in the semi anechoic room. Several different configurations of the vacuum cleaner with some parts removed or replaced systematically are considered during the noise measurements. Some of the results showed that the damping material placed inside the motor cover is proved to be very effective in noise reduction. Two different damping materials are examined for comparative evaluation.

In this study, shelf life of three different crosslinked double base (XLDB) propellants stabilized with 2-nitrodiphenylamine (2-NDPA) and n-methyl-4-nitroaniline (MNA) were determined by using the stabilizer depletion method. Depletions of the stabilizers were monitored at different aging temperatures using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Kinetic models of pseudo zero, pseudo first, pseudo second and shifting order were used to find the best model equation that fits the experimental data. The rates of depletion of stabilizers were calculated at 45, 55 and 65&deg / C based on the best fit kinetic models. Using the rate constants at different temperatures, rate constants at room temperature were calculated by Arrhenius equation. The activation energies and frequency factors for the depletion of 2-NDPA and MNA were obtained for all XLDB propellants. Moreover, the results were evaluated based on the NATO standard / STANAG 4117 and the propellants were found stable according to the standard. Vacuum thermal stability (VTS) tests were also conducted to evaluate the stability of XLDB propellants. The propellant that includes the stabilizer mixture of MNA and 2-NDPA was found to have less stability than the propellants that include 2-NDPA only. However, there were rejection (puking) and migration of stabilizer derivatives for the aged samples of propellants that were stabilized with only 2-NDPA. Moreover, formation of voids and cracks were observed in block propellant samples due to excess gas generation.

No description available.

This research reports on an experimental and theoretical study of soil heating/air stripping and steam injection/vacuum extraction for remediation of MTBE and Diesel Contaminated Soils. Two one-dimensional mass transfer models were using to simulate the process of remediaction. Contaminant kinds(MTBE and Diesel)¡A contaminant concentration (152~13,912 mg/kg soil)¡Asoil temperature(38~120¢J)¡Asteam injection pressure(0.5~1.0 atm)¡A and the mass of steam used(0.379~0.730 kg/h)were employed as the experimental factors in this study. In soil heating/air stripping study, rising soil temperature will enhance the MTBE removed efficiency¡A it was shown in the concentration of effluent gas. Further, the flow rate at outlet of column was higher than that at inlet of column, it revealed MTBE transfers from liquid phase to gas phase and was removed by gas flow. The concentration of effluent gas curve in low initial MTBE concentration test was similar with high concentration test, but the mechanisms was quiet different¡Ait need advanced adsorption test to find the reasons. In medium initial MTBE concentration test¡Athe concentration of effluent gas curve showed linear shape. When using steam injection/vacuum extraction treating MTBE contaminated soil, it showed 90¢Mefficiency can be reached in one hour. In steam injection/vacuum extraction study, it showed higher initial diesel contaminant concentration¡Ahigher initial concentration of effluent gas. Further, in high initial diesel concentration test (13.912 g diesel/kg soil test and about 5g/ kg soil tests)¡Athe concentration of effluent gas curves had a dominant drop at early time in remediation, it revealed the injection steam flow was quiet large, so diesel didn¡¦t has enough time to transfer to gas phase, that the gas couldn¡¦t been saturation at outlet of column. But in low initial diesel concentration test (about 1 g diesel/kg soil tests), the concentration of effluent gas curves showed the typical NAPL remediation curve. The different with in high and low initial concentrations might from the complex composition of diesel. Because at the early time in remediaction of high initial diesel concentration, the low carbon numbers diesel could abundantly evaporate, it caused the high concentration of effluent gas. With the remediation time go by, the low carbon numbers diesel exhaust. So the main composition of effluent gas transfer to high carbon numbers diesel, that the concentration of effluent gas curve showed the slowly decline. For high initial diesel concentration test (13.912 g diesel/kg soil)¡A the efficiency was the highest (73.7¢M). For low initial diesel concentration test (about 1 g diesel/kg soil), the efficiency was the lost (about 20¢M). Further, the remediation of diesel contaminated soil exited a rapid removed period. Under the conditions of this study, the rapid removed period could remove more than 95¢Mcontaminant of diesel removed at hold remediation time. The experiment results also showed that larger the mass of steam injection, shorter the rapid removed period, and larger the steam injection pressure, longer the rapid removed period. When using soil heating/air stripping treating diesel contaminated soil, the removed efficiency was worse 10-20¢Mthan the same initial diesel contaminated concentration. In simulating remediation process, the prediction with the MTBE measured concentration yielded good agreement in NAPL model. But to get the better fit of diesel in NAPL model, it might set the ¡§could removed mass¡¨ to initial condition of model. In non-NAPL model, MTBE also showed good agreement with model, and the model enabled the prediction of the initial contaminant level in the soil.

£¸¡B Pyrolysis of 2-methoxy-2¡¦-methylthiostilbene (22a) and 2,2¡¦-di(methylthio)stilbene (22b) gave not only polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) 17¡B18¡B2, but also the products 33, 34. In addition, photolysis of 22a¡B22b¡B2,2¡¦-dimethoxy stilbene (13) gave photocyclic products 31¡B40¡B12¡B45¡B46. ¤G¡B Pyrolysis of 2-dimethylamino-N-(arenylidene)anilines (20a-f) gave not only 1-methyl-2-arylbenzimidazole (25a-f), but also gave 2-arylquinoxaline (26a-e). Furthermore, compound 20f gave 37 and 25f, but didn't give 26f. ¤T¡B Pyrolysis of benzoic 1,2-dimethyl-3-indolyl anhydride gave 1,2-dimethylindole (19) ¡B3-methylquinoline (30) ¡B4-methylquinoline (31).

No description available.

<p>Vacuum insulation panels, VIPs, constitute a new insulation material, 6 to 8 times better than traditional insulation materials, which utilizes the positive influence vacuum has on the thermal properties of certain materials. A VIP is a composite with a flat core enclosed by an envelope preventing the core to fill with gas. The vacuum in the core is vital to reach thermal conductivities down to 0,0035 W/(m K), if the vacuum is lost the panel has reached the end of its service life time. Metal sheets would the preferred material to create an impermeable envelope but would creates a large thermal bridge at the edges of a panel when it folds over the edges of the panel.</p><p>A serpentine edge has been proposed in order to deal with this large thermal bridge. This serpentine edge has been evaluated first as a numeric model in software and then by measuring on a prototype edge element in a hot and cold plate instrument. Measured temperatures were used to validate the numerical model. Results show that a serpentine edge can greatly reduce the thermal bridge if designed correctly.</p><p>Another direction taken in the development of the VIP barrier is to use very thin metal layers, metallization layer or coating, incorporated into multi layered polymer composite film. This creates barrier films with very good barrier properties and only small thermal bridges. The modeling of gas flux through films with more than one coating has only just started. Existing models for flux through multi coated films all assume that flux is only taking place through defects in the coating layers, that all defects are of the same size and that all defects are positioned in square lattices. The model discussed herein use the same assumption of flux through pinholes only but it does take defect sizes and positions into account. Barrier film, from a regular vacuum insulation panel, with double coatings has been evaluated in light microscopy to characterize the defects in each of the coatings. The data found have been fed into the model and the results comply well with reported permeabilities of similar barrier films.</p>

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 78 pages. / Thesis (M.S.E.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: With CdTe based photovoltaics developed by close spaced sublimation reaching efficiencies of over 16%, commercialization of this technology draws serious attention. Today large area industrial modules have not been able to produce the same performance of their laboratory counterparts. This work provides a means for understanding the various technical challenges in developing an effective deposition technology for large area processing. The submodule process investigated provides a model for continuous and sequential processing of subsequent films. The system has a unique design and constructed with the provision for a moving transport module for the substrate transport. The process was developed to deposit large area CdTe (3 x 3 sq. inch) and provides valuable insights for the development of a large area deposition system. Upon optimizing the system for reproducibility, proper deposition conditions were established. / ABSTRACT: Films deposited under various conditions were studied to improve our understanding of the influence of processing conditions on device performance. The key advantage of this technique over others is its high deposition rate, simplicity of operation and high conversion efficiency. Typical deposition times were two minutes and could be reduced to as low as 45 sec with little variation in performance. The four major parameters that influence the films prepared by close spaced sublimation, namely substrate temperature, source temperature, ambient pressure, and spacing were optimized for best device performance. The influence of each parameter on deposition rate and cell efficiency was also studied. The best cells produced by this technology had an efficiency of 13% with Voc=830 mV, FF= 74% and Jsc=21.1 mA/cm2. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Vacuum-Arc Remelting (VAR) is an important process for manufacturing Ti- and Ni-based superalloys. Currently, the sources and mechanisms behind microstructural anomalies produced in VAR superalloy ingots are not well understood. In order to help understand formation processes, a method of characterizing specific anomalies in VAR ingots is desired. This paper presents a method of characterizing the composition and morphology of anomalies in VAR alloy ingots using a combination of serial sectioning and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. This process is demonstrated on a dirty white spot from an Alloy 718 sample. The white spot of interest was serial polished and 2-D XRF EDS maps were acquired at each polish depth. The EDS maps were then stacked to form a 3-D representation of the white spot. In addition, SEM and optical microscopy techniques were used to further characterize the composition and morphology of the dirty white spot. The dirty white spot is composed of both Ti-enriched and Nb-depleted regions. The 2-D EDS maps acquired with the XRF equipment provided adequate contrast for creating a 3-D representation of the Ti-rich region of the dirty white spot. However, contrast was not sufficient to create a 3-D representation of the Nb-depleted region. The XRF EDS equipment combined with SEM and optical microscopy techniques provided valuable information about the morphology and composition of the Alloy 718 dirty white spot. It is concluded that this dirty white spot was produced by fall-in from either the crown or shelf regions during the VAR process. / text