My Aero Eng Senior Paper (tech stuff for those who want to read)

[ErinH]

**The file size is rather large, so I've posted it on rapidshare:
http://rapidshare.com/files/109684077/Final_Report_Aero_SR20.pdf.html**

I'm about to graduate college with an Aerospace Eng degree. Last week is finals, and graduation date is May 11th.
As some of you may remember, my Senior Design course focuses on MUAV (micro unmanned aerial vehicles); fully autonomous craft designed for the Army to carry out recon missions.

Our design is to carry the MUAV's under a much larger helicopter. The MUAV's will be attached to a 25x25x0.25" plate that will have certain points magnetized so the MUAV's will 'snap' into place. This plate poses a problem in the way of release and retrieval. It is highly possible that the MUAV will not be able to make it through the larger "mothership"'s downwash. And more over, the downwash because of the plate directly under the plate could be so turbulent that the MUAV's couldn't even get out to the downwash. So, being the 'aerodynamics' guy in the group I was tasked with covering this aspect. I wrote some Matlab code in addition to using a professor's code, and also had some CFD done on the. I finished up my paper earlier this afternoon. I know some of you guys here might enjoy the read, so I've attached my paper along with the code for those who know Matlab and want to tinker with things.

Below is a sample of the CFD I had done on the plate. I'm really excited about my end product as are my professors. I just wanted to share with you guys here and maybe provide some 'cool' talk out of the norm lately. Keep in mind that I've never had a helicopter theory class nor have never studied it. i got a crash course this semester and enjoyed it so much I'm considering getting my Masters in the field... which would be odd since I work in Space Propulsion, lol. *shrugs*

 

[stratman]

Erin you're my new hero! I'm the biggest Military Channel fan, it blows my mind how small and sophisticated military/recon hardware is getting, reminds me a bit of Terminator. I saw one program that they showed micro turbines the size of a quater!

 

[Matt34]

The taskforce I fall under has a UAV unit assigned to them so we always have "eyes in the sky" for every mission. Great asset to have when trying to track down the bad guys. If fact if I get out to the Air Field again I'll see if I can sneak a pic or two of the Predators they had parked out there.

The downwash of a chinook is no joke. Having one take off 50ft behind you will knock you on your face.

 

[ErinH]

The taskforce I fall under has a UAV unit assigned to them so we always have "eyes in the sky" for every mission. Great asset to have when trying to track down the bad guys. If fact if I get out to the Air Field again I'll see if I can sneak a pic or two of the Predators they had parked out there.

The downwash of a chinook is no joke. Having one take off 50ft behind you will knock you on your face.

Well, luckily we're not using a Chinook, lol.


Our detachment/retrieval will be airborne, so no ground force going on. That should help us a bit.

 

[mtrycrafts]

If fact if I get out to the Air Field again I'll see if I can sneak a pic or two of the Predators they had parked out there.

Just make sure nothing is classified. All you need is to post classified pictures