AERODYNAMICS OF WING TIP SAILS

Observers have always been fascinated by soaring birds. An interesting feature of these birds is the existence of few feathers extending from the tip of the wing. In this paper, small lifting surfaces were fitted to the tip of a NACA0012 wing in a fashion similar to that of wing tip feathers. Experimental measurements of induced drag, longitudinal static stability and trailing vortex structure were obtained.The tests showed that adding wing tip surfaces (sails) decreased the induced drag factor and increased the longitudinal static stability. Results identified two discrete appositely rotated tip vortices and showed the ability of wing tip surfaces to break them down and to diffuse them

EFFECT OF BODY SHAPE ON THE AERODYNAMICS OF PROJECTILES AT SUPERSONIC SPEEDS

An investigation has been made to predict the effects of forebody and afterbody shapes on the aerodynamic characteristics of several projectile bodies at supersonic speeds using analytical methods combined with semi-empirical design curves. The considered projectile bodies had a length-to-diameter ratio of 6.67 and included three variations of forebody shape and three variations of afterbody shape. The results, which are verified by comparison with available experimental data, indicated that the lowest drag was achieved with a cone-cylinder at the considered Mach number range. It is also shown that the drag can be reduced by boattailing the afterbody. The centre-of-pressure assumed a slightly rearward location for the ogive-cylinder configuration when compared to the configuration with boattailed afterbody where it was the most forward. With the exception of the boattailed afterbody, all the bodies indicated inherent static stability above Mach number 2 for a centre-of-gravity location at about 40% from the body nose

LAMINAR MIXING IN SMX STATIC MIXERS

This paper experimentally examines the performance of a commercial static mixer (SMX). Experiments were carried out to obtain the pressure drop across different numbers of mixing elements (4, 8, 12 and 16). The quality of mixing was visually assessed using flow visualization techniques. Experiments were performed for Reynolds number between 50 and 3000 (based on the unobstructed pipe diameter). The presence of the mixing elements in the flow stream promotes a non-laminar, turbulent-like flow which considerably enhances the mixing. Addition of more mixing elements triggered mixing in the flow at lower Reynolds numbers but this was achieved at the expense of higher pressure drop. This work represents the first stage of an on going work to develop correlations to assess the mixing quality and pressure loss in the SMX static mixers

A BLUEPRINT FOR IMPLEMENTING GRAND CHALLENGE SCHOLARS’ PROGRAMME: A CASE STUDY OF TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY

The National Academy for Engineering announced 14 Grand Challenges for the 21st Century engineers to address in order to ensure a sustainable future for the generations to come. These grand challenges are in four broad areas, namely, energy and environment, health, security and learning and computation. This paper reports on a Grand Challenges Scholars’ Programme that is developed to prepare the engineering students to be able to address the grand challenges using the CDIO framework and focusing on five components; research experience, interdisciplinary curriculum, entrepreneurship, global dimension and service learning. The programme is voluntary and the candidates are expected to commit additional learning time. The programme was launched with 16 participants who are expected to graduate in 2016. A preliminary assessment of the programs shows that the participants found the programme useful in developing an array of CDIO skills. The School intends to continue offering this programme with the intention of integrating it with a holistic education approach

THE INFLUENCE OF WAVE PATTERNS AND FREQUENCY ON THERMO-ACOUSTIC COOLING EFFECT

With the increasing environmental challenges, the search for an environmentally benign cooling technology that has simple and robust architecture continues. Thermo-acoustic refrigeration seems to be a promising candidate to fulfil these requirements. In this study, a simple thermo-acoustic refrigeration system was fabricated and tested. The thermo-acoustic refrigerator consists of acoustic driver (loudspeaker), resonator, stack, vacuum system and testing system. The effect of wave patterns and frequency on thermo-acoustic cooling effect was studied. It was found that a square wave pattern would yield superior cooling effects compared to other wave patterns tested

Liquid air as an energy storage:A review

With the increasing demand for energy due to rapid industrialisation and the environmental concerns due to the usage of fossil fuels as the main energy source, there is a shift towards renewable energy. However, the intermittent nature of renewable energy requires energy produced during off-peak hours to be stored. This paper explores the use of liquefied air as an energy storage, the plausibility and the integration of liquefied air into existing framework, the role of liquefied air as an energy storage in addressing the Grand Challenges for Engineering as well as its employability in Malaysia

A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO DEVELOP ENGINEERING PROGRAMME OUTCOMES: A CASE STUDY OF TAYLOR'S UNIVERSITY

Part fulfilment of providing an engineering programme which implements outcome based education includes various outcomes that are tied to what the graduate should achieve after, during and before graduation. The programme outcomes are specifically crafted to encapsulate attributes that must be attained by a student upon graduation. The following paper details the principles used to craft the programme outcomes of an engineering undergraduate degree programme. The principles used were chosen based its importance and innovative content as well as being aligned to the purpose of the university which is running the degree programme. Upon crafting the prescribed outcomes, the paper will also detail how stakeholders were engaged and how their opinion was accounted for in the final crafting of the new set of programme outcomes. The paper also highlights how a gap analysis was performed to capture areas which were not covered by the previous programme outcomes

A BLUEPRINT FOR RESEARCH-LED TEACHING ENGINEERING AT SCHOOLS: A CASE STUDY FOR TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY

Although it is expected that research conducted at universities and institutions of higher learning will have some positive impact on the teaching quality, the literature seem to point in another direction. Available literature reports zero correlation between teaching and research. However, this need not be the case and a number of recommendations to create a positive correlation between teaching and research are proposed. This paper outlines a framework that utilises the Grand Challenges for Engineering and CDIO to create a clear link between teaching and research in Taylor’s School of Engineering. Aligning the academic staff research objectives to the Grand Challenges, creates a sense of purpose that extends beyond the academic staff to their students. Ensuring that students’ projects and other CDIO activities are derived from the academic staff research interests help creates a learning environment in which research and teaching are integrated. This integration is highly desirable as it benefits both the students and the academic staff

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF OPEN LOOP MULTI-STAGE IMPEDANCE PUMPING SYSTEM

Impedance pump is a simple valveless pumping mechanism, where an elastic tube is joined to a more rigid one; a periodic asymmetrical pinching on the elastic tube will produce a unidirectional flow. This pumping concept offers a low energy, low noise alternative at both micro and macro scales. This paper describes an experimental investigation of the performance of a two-stage, open loop impedance pump. The results show that, when compared to a single stage open loop impedance pump, the two-stage impedance pump can achieve a significant pressure head and flow rate increment. A pressure head increment of 240 Pa is obtained in the single stage system compared to 480 Pa for the two-stage system. The corresponding flow rates were 5 mL/s and 8 mL/s respectively. This is an indication that impedance pumping system can be scaled up to achieve a variety of pumping assignments