DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE FOR MONITORING OF OIL AND GAS PLANT

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV is a vehicle that can fly with minimal intervention. This project involves in designing and integrating UAV technologies into a prototype that stabilizes itself while navigating in the harsh conditions of oil and gas plant. The project does not use existing commercial UAVs and flight controller board in the market. A self-fabricated prototype of UAV is built from scratch. The prototype consists of a structure made of aluminum and four brushless DC motor to provide lift-off and maneuver the flight motion. The controls is embedded in a microcontroller and is equipped with electronic speed controllers to drive the motor, sensors such as gyroscopes and accelerometers to give orientation feedback and uses wireless communications via Xbee modules. The microcontroller receives command from a personal computer via the Xbee modules. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed in software called Processing for monitoring and maneuvering purposes. For the chassis, it is modeled using Autodesk Inventor software to ensure design is applicable. The expected outcome of this project is a complete prototype that can be controlled from a personal computer (PC)

System-of-Systems Considerations in the Notional Development of a Metropolitan Aerial Transportation System

There are substantial future challenges related to sustaining and improving efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly transportation options for urban regions. Over the past several decades there has been a worldwide trend towards increasing urbanization of society. Accompanying this urbanization are increasing surface transportation infrastructure costs and, despite public infrastructure investments, increasing surface transportation "gridlock." In addition to this global urbanization trend, there has been a substantial increase in concern regarding energy sustainability, fossil fuel emissions, and the potential implications of global climate change. A recently completed study investigated the feasibility of an aviation solution for future urban transportation (refs. 1, 2). Such an aerial transportation system could ideally address some of the above noted concerns related to urbanization, transportation gridlock, and fossil fuel emissions (ref. 3). A metro/regional aerial transportation system could also provide enhanced transportation flexibility to accommodate extraordinary events such as surface (rail/road) transportation network disruptions and emergency/disaster relief responses

Hover and Wind-Tunnel Testing of Shrouded Rotors for Improved Micro Air Vehicle Design

This dissertation describes an experimental investigation of the effects of varying the shroud profile shape on the performance of MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) -scale shrouded rotors. Hover tests were performed on seventeen models with a rotor diameter of 16 cm (6.3 in) and various values of diffuser expansion angle, diffuser length, inlet lip radius and blade tip clearance, at various rotor collective angles. Compared to the baseline open rotor, the shrouded rotors showed increases in thrust by up to 94%, at the same power consumption, or reductions in power by up to 62% at the same thrust. These improvements surpass those predicted by momentum theory, due to the additional effect of the shrouds in reducing the non-ideal power losses of the rotor. The uniformity of the rotor wake was improved by the presence of the shrouds and by decreasing the blade tip clearance, resulting in lower induced power losses. Strong suction pressures were observed on the shroud inlet surface, at the blade passage region; taking advantage of this phenomenon could enable further increases in thrust. However, trade studies showed that, for a given overall aircraft size limitation, and ignoring considerations of the safety benefits of a shroud, a larger-diameter open rotor is more likely to give better performance than a smaller-diameter shrouded rotor. A single shrouded-rotor model was subsequently tested in translational flight at various angles of attack. In axial flow, at the same collective, the net thrust and the power consumption of the shrouded rotor were lower than those of the open rotor; in edgewise flow, the shrouded rotor produced greater thrust than the open rotor, while consuming less power. Measurements of the shroud surface pressure distributions illustrated the extreme asymmetry of the flow around the shroud, with consequent pitch moments much greater than those experienced by the open rotor. Except at low airspeeds and high angles of attack, the static pressure in the wake did not reach ambient atmospheric values at the diffuser exit plane; this challenges the validity of the fundamental assumption of the simple-momentum-theory flow model for short-chord shrouds in translational flight

12th EASN International Conference on "Innovation in Aviation & Space for opening New Horizons"

Epoxy resins show a combination of thermal stability, good mechanical performance, and durability, which make these materials suitable for many applications in the Aerospace industry. Different types of curing agents can be utilized for curing epoxy systems. The use of aliphatic amines as curing agent is preferable over the toxic aromatic ones, though their incorporation increases the flammability of the resin. Recently, we have developed different hybrid strategies, where the sol-gel technique has been exploited in combination with two DOPO-based flame retardants and other synergists or the use of humic acid and ammonium polyphosphate to achieve non-dripping V-0 classification in UL 94 vertical flame spread tests, with low phosphorous loadings (e.g., 1-2 wt%). These strategies improved the flame retardancy of the epoxy matrix, without any detrimental impact on the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites. Finally, the formation of a hybrid silica-epoxy network accounted for the establishment of tailored interphases, due to a better dispersion of more polar additives in the hydrophobic resin

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 259)

This bibliography lists 774 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in November, 1990. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 309)

This bibliography lists 212 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Oct. 1994. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 276)

This bibliography lists 705 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Feb. 1992. Subject coverage includes: design, construction, and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Rotary Wing Aerodynamics

This book contains state-of-the-art experimental and numerical studies showing the most recent advancements in the field of rotary wing aerodynamics and aeroelasticity, with particular application to the rotorcraft and wind energy research fields

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 295)

This bibliography lists 581 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System in Sep. 1993. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

The conceptual design of novel future UAV's incorporating advanced technology research components

There is at present some uncertainty as to what the roles and requirements of the next generation of UAVs might be and the configurations that might be adopted. The incorporation of technological features on these designs is also a significant driving force in their configuration, efficiency, performance abilities and operational requirements. The objective of this project is thus to provide some insight into what the next generation of technologies might be and what their impact would be on the rest of the aircraft. This work involved the conceptual designs of two new relevant full-scale UAVs which were used to integrate a select number of these advanced technologies. The project was a CASE award which was linked to the Flaviir research programme for advanced UAV technologies. Thus, the technologies investigated during this study were selected with respect to the objectives of the Flaviir project. These were either relative to those already being developed as course of the Flaviir project or others from elsewhere. As course of this project, two technologies have been identified and evaluated which fit this criterion and show potential for use on future aircraft. Thus we have been able to make a contirubtion knowledge in two gaps in current aerospace technology. The first of these studies was to investigate the feasibility of using a low cost mechanical thrust vectoring system as used on the X-31, to replace conventional control surfaces. This is an alternative to the fluidic thrust vectoring devices being proposed by the Flaviir project for this task. The second study is to investigate the use of fuel reformer based fuel cell system to supply power to an all-electric power train which will be a means of primary propulsion. A number of different fuels were investigated for such a system with methanol showing the greatest promise and has been shown to have a number of distinct advantages over the traditional fuel for fuel cells (hydrogen). Each of these technologies was integrated onto the baseline conceptual design which was identified as that most suitable to each technology. A UCAV configuration was selected for the thrust vectoring system while a MALE configuration was selected for the fuel cell propulsion system. Each aircraft was a new design which was developed specifically for the needs of this project. Analysis of these baseline configurations with and without the technologies allowed an assessment to be made of the viability of these technologies. The benefits of the thrust vectoring system were evaluated at take-off, cruise and landing. It showed no benefit at take-off and landing which was due to its location on the very aft of the airframe. At cruise, its performance and efficiency was shown to be comparable to that of a conventional configuration utilizing elevons and expected to be comparable to the fluidic devices developed by the Flaviir project. This system does however offer a number of benefits over many other nozzle configurations of improved stealth due to significant exhaust nozzle shielding.The fuel reformer based fuel cell system was evaluated in both all-electric and hybrid configurations. In the ell-electric configuration, the conventional turboprop engine was completely replaced with an all-electric powertrain. This system was shown to have an inferior fuel consumption compared to a turboprop engine and thus the hybrid system was conceived. In this system, the fuel cell is only used at loiter with the turboprop engine being retained for all other flight phases. For the same quantity of fuel, a reduction in loiter time of 24% was experienced (compared to the baseline turboprop) but such a system does have benefits of reduced emissions and IR signature. With further refinement, it is possible that the performance and efficiency of such a system could be further improved. In this project, two potential technologies were identified and thoroughly analysed. We are therefore able to say that the project objectives have been met and the project has proven worthwhile to the advancement of aerospace technology. Although these systems did not provide the desired results at this stage, they have shown the potential for improvement with further development.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo