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The beneficial effects of contact disruption in modulation-assisted machining of aerospace alloys have been well documented, but sources for such improvements are not well understood. This study explores the underlying nature of differences that occur in energy dissipation during conventional and modulation-assisted machining by characterizing the relationship between controllable process parameters and their effects on chip formation. Simultaneous in situ force and tool position measurements are used to show that the forces in modulation-assisted machining can be described by empirical force models in conventional machining conditions. These models are found to accurately describe plastic dissipation over a range of modulation conditions and configurations, including in cases where energy expenditure decreases with the application of modulation. These observations suggest that the underlying response in modulation-assisted machining is analogous to that of conventional machining.

The identification of the dominant noise sources in diesel engines and the assessment of their contribution to far-field noise is a process that can involve both fired and motored testing. In the present work, the cross-spectral densities of signals from cylinder pressure transducers, accelerometers mounted on the engine surface, and microphones (in the near and far fields), were used to identify dominant noise sources and estimate the transfer paths from the various “inputs” (i.e., the cylinder pressures, the accelerometers and the near field microphones) to the far field microphones. The method is based on singular value decomposition of the input cross-spectral matrix to relate the input measurements to independent virtual sources. The frequencies at which a particular input is strongly affected by an independent source are highlighted, and with knowledge of transducer locations, inferences can be drawn as to possible noise source mechanisms.

This paper is part of a larger body of experimental and computational work devoted to studying the role of close-coupled post injections on soot reduction in a heavy-duty optical engine. It is a continuation of an earlier computational paper. The goals of the current work are to develop new CFD analysis tools and methods and apply them to gain a more in depth understanding of the different in-cylinder environments into which fuel from main- and post-injections are injected and to study how the in-cylinder flow, thermal and chemical fields are transformed between start of injection timings. The engine represented in this computational study is a single-cylinder, direct-injection, heavy-duty, low-swirl engine with optical components. It is based on the Cummins N14, has a cylindrical shaped piston bowl and an eight-hole injector that are both centered on the cylinder axis. The fuel used was n-heptane and the engine operating condition was light load at 1200 RPM.

An experiment has been developed to investigate the ignition characteristics of ultra-lean premixed H2/air mixtures by a supersonic hot jet. The hot jet is generated by combustion of a stoichiometric mixture in a small prechamber. The apparatus adopted a dual-chamber design in which a small-volume (1% of the main chamber by volume) prechamber was installed within a large-volume main chamber. A small orifice (nozzle) connects the two chambers. Spark initiated combustion inside the prechamber causes a pressure rise and pushes the gases though the nozzle, resulting in a hot jet that would ignite the lean mixture in the main chamber. Simultaneous high-speed Schlieren photography and OH* Chemiluminescence were applied to visualize the jet penetration and the ignition processes inside the main chamber. Hot Wire Pyrometry (HWP) was used to measure temperature distribution of the transient hot jet.

This paper describes a novel design and verification process for analytical methods used in the development of advanced combustion strategies in internal combustion engines (ICE). The objective was to improve brake thermal efficiency (BTE) as part of the US Department of Energy SuperTruck program. The tools and methods herein discussed consider spray formation and injection schedule along with piston bowl design to optimize combustion efficiency, air utilization, heat transfer, emission, and BTE. The methodology uses a suite of tools to optimize engine performance, including 1D engine simulation, high-fidelity CFD, and lab-scale fluid mechanic experiments. First, a wide range of engine operating conditions are analyzed using 1-D engine simulations in GT Power to thoroughly define a baseline for the chosen advanced engine concept; secondly, an optimization and down-select step is completed where further improvements in engine geometries and spray configurations are considered.

One way to develop an understanding of soot formation and oxidation processes that occur during direct injection and combustion in an internal combustion engine is to image the natural luminosity from soot over time. Imaging is possible when there is optical access to the combustion chamber. After the images are acquired, the next challenge is to properly interpret the luminous distributions that have been captured on the images. A major focus of this paper is to provide guidance on interpretation of experimental images of soot luminosity by explaining how radiation from soot is predicted to change as it is transmitted through the combustion chamber and to the imaging. The interpretations are only limited by the scope of the models that have been developed for this purpose. The end-goal of imaging radiation from soot is to estimate the amount of soot that is present.

Conventional hydraulic steering systems keep improving performance and driving comfort by introducing advanced features via mechanical design. The ever increasing mechanical complexity requires the advanced modeling and simulation technology to mitigate the risks in the early stage of the development process. In this paper, we focus on advanced modeling tools environment with an example of a load sensing hydraulic steering system. The complete system architecture is presented. Analytical equations are developed for a priority valve and a steering control unit as the foundation of modeling. The full version of hydraulic steering system model is developed in Dymola platform. In order to capture interaction between steering and vehicle, the co-simulation platform between the hydraulic steering system and vehicle dynamics is established by integrating Dymola, Carsim and Simulink.

In long-duration, closed human habitats in space that include crop growth, one challenge that is faced while designing a candidate waste processor is the composition of solid-waste loads, which include human waste, packaging and food-processing materials, crop spoilage, and plant residues. In this work, a new modeling tool is developed to characterize crop residues and food wastes based on diet in order to support the design of solid-waste technologies for closed systems. The model predicts amounts of crop residues and food wastes due to food processing, crop harvests, and edible spoilage. To support the design of solid-waste technologies, the generation of crop residues and food wastes was characterized for a 600-day mission to Mars using integrated menu, crop, and waste models. The three sources of plant residues and food waste are identified to be food processors, crop harvests, and edible spoilage.

There has always been, from the very first UAV, a need for providing cost-effective methods of deploying unmanned aircraft systems at high altitudes. Missions for UAVs at high altitudes are used to conduct atmospheric research, perform global mapping missions, collect remote sensing data, and establish long range communications networks. The team of Gevers Aircraft, Technology Management Group, and Purdue University have designed an innovative balloon launched UAV for these near space applications. A UAV (Payload Return Vehicle) with a nested morphing wing was designed in order to meet the challenges of high altitude flight, and long range and endurance without the need for descent rate control with rockets or a feathering mode.

Helmholtz resonator has been used in industry for a long time to reduce the noise from exhaust system in vehicle or machinery. Numerous investigations have been done in the past to study the effect of a Helmholtz resonator connected to a pipeline. A general procedure for the analysis of curved or flat, thin two dimensional gas cavities such as thin compressor or engine manifolds or so-called thin shell type muffler elements, which can efficiently utilize the limited space of hermetically sealed compressors or small engine compartments, has been developed by the authors, as long as the thickness of the cavities is substantially small compared to the shortest wavelength of interest. However, to the authors' knowledge, a Helmholtz resonator attached to a rectangular thin muffler element, which is similar to a refrigeration compressor muffler, has not been analyzed.

Results of computations of flows, sprays and combustion performed in an optically- accessible Diesel engine are presented. These computed results are compared with measured values of chamber pressure, liquid penetration, and soot distribution, deduced from flame luminosity photographs obtained in the engine at Sandia National Laboratories and reported in the literature. The computations were performed for two operating conditions representing low load and high load conditions as reported in the experimental work. The computed and measured peak pressures agree within 5% for both the low load and the high load conditions. The heat release rates derived from the computations are consistent with expectations for Diesel combustion with a premixed phase of heat release and then a diffusion phase. The computed soot distribution shows noticeable differences from the measured one.

An experimental apparatus and a numerical model have been designed and developed to examine the lubrication condition and frictional losses at the piston and cylinder interface. The experimental apparatus utilizes components from a single cylinder, ten horsepower engine in a novel suspended liner arrangement. The test rig has been specifically designed to reduce the number of operating variables while utilizing actual components and geometry. A mixed lubrication model for the complete ring-pack and piston skirt was developed to correlate with experimental measurements and provide further insight into the sources of frictional losses. The results demonstrate the effects of speed and viscosity on the overall friction losses at the piston and cylinder liner interface. Comparisons between the experimental and analytical results show good agreement.

Legislation world-wide has made it necessary to find ways to control the level of engine emissions and reduce the damage to our environment. Increasing restrictions have made the elimination of zinc dithiophosphates from crankcase oils and increasing the effectiveness of catalytic converters viable options. Lead and phosphorus containing compounds in the exhaust are known catalyst poisons that shorten the life of current automotive catalysts. Unleaded fuel has successfully resulted in a reduction of harmful emissions due to the fuel. Current government and industry research is actively pursuing replacement of phosphorus additives with phosphorus free additives. Several phosphorus-free oils were developed and are evaluated in bench tests in this study. Test comparisons with phosphorus- containing oils demonstrated satisfactory oxidation stability and wear performance of the phosphorus free oils.

The negative consequences of unsafe behaviors on the job heavily contribute to the rising costs of doing business in terms of both organization dollars and diminished human quality of life. Developing a safety culture provides a positive proactive approach toward creating a working environment where safety is a top priority. An integral part of accomplishing this task is directly related to training individuals on how the interactions that occur among organizational members and the messages their behaviors send influence others' behaviors. This can be best addressed through communication skill development initiatives including mutual responsibility, trust, avoiding punitive strategies and facilitating assertiveness.

Operation & support costs for military weapon systems accounted for approximately 3/5th of the $500B Department of Defense budget in 2006. In an effort to ensure readiness and decrease these costs for ground vehicle fleets, health monitoring technologies are being developed for Condition-Based Maintenance of individual vehicles within a fleet. Dynamics-based health monitoring is used in this work because vibrations are a passive source of response data, which are global functions of the mechanical loading and properties of the vehicle. A common way of detecting faults in mechanical equipment, such as the suspension and chassis of a ground vehicle, is to compare measured operational vibrations to a reference (or healthy) signature to detect anomalies.

This paper introduces an integration-level analysis tool to provide feedback for high-level trade spaces. The Purdue University Lunar C3I Model integrates approximations of several domain-specific models to simulate for many years the effect of network and asset parameters. This paper discusses the communication, anomaly response, and autonomy simulation models in depth. Results of these models provide specific examples of integration-level figures of merit that can be useful for comparing different campaign implementations. These figures of merit are contrasted with related domain-specific figures of merit in order to demonstrate the need for higher-level system integration decisions. A final example of integration-level results and interpretation discusses the autonomy level of the Altair lunar lander.

This paper presents hydraulic topographies using a network of valves to achieve better energy efficiency, reliability, and performance. The Topography with Integrated Energy Recovery (TIER) system allows the valves and actuators to reconfigure so that flow from assistive loads on actuators can be used to move actuators with resistive loads. Many variations are possible, including using multiple valves with either a single pump/motor or with multiple pump/motors. When multiple pump/motors are used, units of different displacements can be chosen such that units are controlled to minimize time operating at low displacement, thus increasing overall system efficiency. Other variations include configurations allowing open loop or closed loop pump/motors to be used, the use of fixed displacement pump/motors, or the ability to store energy in an accumulator. This paper gives a system level overview and summarizes the hydraulic systems using the TIER approach.

The Indiana Space Grant Consortium is one of 52 members of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (“Space Grant”), which was initiated by NASA in 1988. Space Grant is designed to be a source of NASA-related information, awards, and programs to enhance education, outreach, and workforce development for the United States. Based on the land grant model of public university education, Space Grant seeks to spread the vision of NASA to increase science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) awareness; NASA-related education; workforce development; outreach and research activities. This paper describes the evolution of these activities in Indiana.

Kriging models are frequently used as metamodels during system design optimization. In many applications, a kriging model is used as a deterministic model of a computationally expensive analysis or simulation. In this paper, a kriging model is employed as a probabilistic model on a one-dimensional and two two-dimensional test problems. A probabilistic model is a model in which the parameters are random variables resulting in a probability distribution of the output rather than a deterministic value. A probabilistic model can be used in design to quantify the knowledge designers have about a subsystem and the lack of knowledge or uncertainty in the model. Using a kriging model as a probabilistic model requires that the correlation of observations is only a function of the distance between the observations and that the observations have a Gaussian probability distribution.

Experimental modal analysis (EMA) provides many parameters that are required in numerical modeling of dynamic and vibratory behavior of structures. This paper discusses EMA on an exhaust system of an off-road car. The exhaust structure is tested under three boundary conditions: free-free, supported with two elastomeric mounts, and mounted to the car. The free-free modal parameters are compared to finite element results. The two-mount tests are done with the mounts fixed to a rigid and heavy frame. The rigidity of the frame is verified experimentally. The on-car test is done with realistic boundary conditions, where the exhaust structure is fixed to the engine manifold as well as the two elastomeric mounts. The two-mount and the on-car tests result in highly complex mode shapes.