Georgia Tech's propulsion research focuses on aircraft engines that use oxygen from the atmosphere, as opposed to rocket engines that operate in airless space using an onboard oxidizer.
"The main objective is to develop new technologies to help NASA improve engine technology in the next 25 years," says Ben T. Zinn, Regents and David S. Lewis Professor in aerospace and mechanical engineering.
Zinn and Dimitri Mavris, the Boeing Associate Professor of Advanced Aerospace Systems Analysis, are co-directing this research effort for the NASA-funded University Research, Engineering and Technology Institute (URETI) for aero-propulsion. Georgia Tech's URETI is one of seven receiving $3 million a year for five years, with the potential for an additional five years of funding.
The new propulsion-power center researchers are seeking basic improvements to make civilian and military aircraft engines work more efficiently, Zinn explains. In the long term, the research could help produce hybrid systems that would work in both the atmosphere and in outer space. Mavris, who directs the Aerospace System Design Lab at Georgia Tech, will contribute to the initiative with research on integration and the design tools needed to optimize the new systems.
These studies involve 15 Georgia Tech faculty members, plus research staff and graduate students. The researchers are collaborating with staff at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, NASA's jet engine center.
Working with Zinn and Mavris' group are Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) scientists led by David Parekh, director of GTRI's Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory, and Krishan Ahuja, Regents Researcher and professor of aerospace engineering. Parekh's team is exploring the use of fuel cells to power aircraft, while Ahuja's team is focusing on jet-engine noise control.
Georgia Tech file photo
|
|
Robert Loewy, right, William R.T. Oakes Professor and chairman of the School of Aerospace Engineering, says students' education and future careers will benefit from their involvement in new NASA-funded research at Georgia Tech.
(300-dpi JPEG version - 721k)
|
|
Researchers in the School of Aerospace Engineering are also helping develop third-generation reusable launch vehicles under the auspices of another URETI led by the University of Florida in association with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The vehicle is a "hypersonic space plane" called Vega, says John Olds, an aerospace engineering associate professor, who is coordinating the research at Georgia Tech.
As currently conceived, the Vega vehicle takes off on a runway like an airplane and accelerates to hypersonic speeds, first activating multi-mode ramjet/scramjet engines and then a tail-rocket to go to orbit.
"It's a trans-atmospheric vehicle – very sleek-looking," Olds says. "There are a lot of opportunities in this program for academic research in propulsion, materials, flight controls, and systems design and integration." The craft, which may operate without a pilot, is expected to become active between 2020 and 2025. It could fly to Earth orbit as many as 100 times a year.
Olds, director of the Space Systems Design Lab at Georgia Tech, leads system analysis for the launch-vehicle program. He collaborates with Georgia Tech aerospace faculty members Suresh Menon and Jerry Seitzman on the project.
courtesy of John Olds
|
|
Researchers in the School of Aerospace Engineering are helping develop third-generation reusable launch vehicles under the auspices of a NASA-funded research center led by the University of Florida in association with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The vehicle is a "hypersonic space plane" called Vega, says John Olds, an aerospace engineering associate professor, who is coordinating the research at Georgia Tech.
|
|
In addition to the URETI studies, Georgia Tech faculty members are contributing to the research and training efforts of NASA's new National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), which supports the mission of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Georgia Tech and GTRI researchers are participating in research, education, technology transfer and outreach efforts related to all six of Langley's "core competencies": aerodynamics, thermodynamics and aero-acoustics; structures and materials; revolutionary aerospace systems concepts and analysis; airborne systems; atmospheric science; and systems engineering.
Aerospace Professor Daniel Schrage serves as the Georgia Tech Liaison Professor for the NIA. He led Georgia Tech's efforts to be included in the six-university consortium that makes up the NIA. Each university received $300,000 in seed money for the first year. The NIA is initially funded for five years with expected renewal for an additional 15 years, creating the potential of $379 million in research grants and contracts for the 20-year period, Schrage says.
courtesy of John Olds
|
|
|
|
Several NIA-funded research projects are just getting under way. One concept calls for GTRI to participate in a multidisciplinary air-vehicle project, says James McMichael, associate director of GTRI's Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory. The study would explore development of an uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) called an Entomopter using a combination of information technology, engineering technology and "biologically inspired" approaches.
For example, a biologically inspired design in a UAV could include flapping wings for propulsion and lift. And its flight controls might employ such biology-related information technologies as neural networks and fuzzy-logic-based controls, while genetic algorithms might aid in design optimization.
GTRI may also contribute to the development of a "personal air vehicle" – a kind of airborne automobile, McMichael adds.
NIA funds are also supporting Olds' analysis of robotic probes for exploration of Mars and/or Titan, a moon of Saturn. The probes use an aerocapture technique that Olds describes as a heat shield, or "aerobrake," installed on the front of the spacecraft to decelerate the craft as it nears the planet or moon. "This technique allows less fuel to be used because you don't have to use the main engine to hit the brakes when you descend into the gravity well of another planetary body," Olds explains. "With less fuel needed, you can carry more payload for a given launch mass."
Other projects NIA is supporting include one by Mavris to reduce sonic booms from fly-overs by supersonic planes, and thus prevent damage to glass in homes and buildings. Meanwhile, Professor Steve Johnson in the School of Materials Science and Engineering is studying high-temperature, lightweight structural materials for spacecraft and aircraft.
NIA and other NASA-funded research efforts are providing multiple benefits to NASA, Georgia Tech and other participating universities, says Robert Loewy, William R.T. Oakes Professor and chairman of the School of Aerospace Engineering. With the NIA, NASA is forging stronger ties between the space agency and academia, which should result in research of a higher quality and relevance, he notes. Meanwhile, universities are benefiting with more efficient contracting procedures through the NIA and better-educated students ready for successful careers.
"A major aspect is that all of this research is associated with the theses and dissertations of students," Loewy says. "It's all part of an educational program. As a result, students working with these NASA-funded faculty members go into industry, government and other universities and take this advanced knowledge with them. It helps our defense, the economy and continues the education of young people – all in addition to the advances we gain in knowledge."
For more information, contact Robert Loewy, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0150. (Telephone: 404-894-3002) (E-mail:
robert.loewy@ae.gatech.edu)
Rick Robinson is a Tennessee-based freelance writer.
Back to the Top
Contents
Research Horizons
GT Research News
GTRI
Georgia Tech
Send questions and comments regarding these pages to
webadmin@edi.gatech.edu
Last updated: August 11, 2003
