Date of Award

Spring 5-2016

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Sathya Gangadharan

First Committee Member

Mark Ricklick

Second Committee Member

Sirish Namilae

Abstract

Sloshing of liquid upon the application of an external force is a natural phenomenon as the free surface is allowed to move without any constraints. Study of slosh is an ongoing research for many decades and many novel inventions in Propellant Management Devices (PMDs) such as the rigid baffles and elastomeric membranes have been implemented to counteract the free surface effect in both passive and active membrane known as Magneto-Active Propellant Management Device (MAPMD) to actively control the free surface effect and reduce fuel slosh is explored in this research. Being a hybrid membrane, it would initially offer passive resistance to liquid motion and when activated would form a semi-rigid structural layer suppressing the free surface motion. This would eliminate the use of bulky baffle structures thereby decreasing the overall weight of the tank while increasing its volume. Two configurations of the membrane were made out of Metglas 2605SA1 alloy for this study and were tested for their effectiveness. To justify the hybrid membrane as a viable Propellant Management Device (PMD), proof-of-concept experiments involving low amplitude at 1.8 mm and high amplitude at 3.0 mm actuator displacement were carried out. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were setup with parameters as that of the experiment to verify and validate the experimental setup. Results of this study demonstrated an overall improvement on the damping effectiveness from the existing hybrid active Propellant Management Device (PMD).

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