Date of Award

Spring 4-2014

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Daewon Kim

First Committee Member

Sathya Gangadharan

Second Committee Member

Mark Ricklick

Abstract

Liquid sloshing within propellant tanks of launch vehicles and other major vehicles has been a major concern. Various methods have been utilized for the damping of slosh through Propellant Management Devices (PMD) accomplishing a wide range of results. Exploratory research conducted at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Fuel Slosh Test Facility in development of an innovative PMD is presented. Embedding floating micro-baffles with a magnetoactive material such that the baffle can be manipulated when exposed to a magnetic field preserves the benefits of both floating and static baffle designs. Activated micro-baffles form a rigid layer at the free surface and provide a restriction of the fluid motion. Proposed micro-baffle design and magnetic activation source method along with proof-of-concept experiments comparing the scope of this research to previous PMD methods are presented. A computational fluid dynamics approach is outlined to compliment these experimental results.

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