Facilities
The undergraduate curriculum in Aerospace Engineering
is designed to provide a comprehensive program of study leading to a Bachelor's
Degree. A key part of this program is
the laboratory experience, which is carefully designed to complement the
concepts studied in the classroom and to introduce the student to a variety of
experimental techniques and modern instrumentation.
Objectives of the Undergraduate Laboratories: The objectives of the
undergraduate laboratories in aerospace engineering are to provide the student
with:
i) a sound education in the fundamentals of experimental
methods, diagnostics, and advanced instrumentation;
ii) a laboratory experience that emphasizes a highly personal
and hands-on involvement with challenging experiments, and a chance to learn
through measurement and inference;
iii) physical insights into the subject matter encountered in the
classroom; and
iv) experimentally-derived
results that can be compared with theoretical predictions discussed in the
classroom, thus developing in the student a strong feeling and appreciation for
the need to continually compare theory with observations; and
v) an opportunity to make technical presentations (written and
oral) and respond to questions.
The
Role of the Laboratories in the Curriculum: The laboratory portion of the program of study is designed around the
following courses.
i) Required
laboratory courses in the three fundamental disciplines that are the focus of
the undergraduate aerospace curriculum, namely aerodynamics, flight mechanics,
and structures.
ii) A
computer course and computer applications laboratory that support all of the
other laboratory and lecture courses in the curriculum.
The laboratory courses consist of the
following.
AE 3051 -
Experimental Fluid Mechanics.
The course complements AE 2020 (Low Speed Aerodynamics), AE 3450
(Thermodynamics and Compressible Flow) and AE 3021 (High-Speed Aerodynamics).
AE 3145 -
Structures Laboratory. This
course complements AE 2120 (Introduction to Mechanics), AE 3120 (Introduction
to Structural Analysis) and AE 3121 (Aerospace Structural Analysis)
AE 4525
-Control System Design Laboratory.
This course complements AE 3515 and AE 3521 (Aircraft and Spacecraft
Flight Dynamics).
COE 1361
– Computing for Engineers.
This course supports all laboratory and lecture courses in the
curriculum.
In addition, the Aerospace Computer Lab is a facility
that supports all laboratory and lecture courses in the aerospace engineering curriculum
by providing students access to modern computational resources for performing
class assignments and projects, writing reports and preparing presentations.
Funding and Support for Laboratories: Funding for laboratory equipment is provided from
the Institute, the School, and outside sources.
The school also supports the laboratories through monies for supplies
and personal services. Personal services
take the form of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs)
and support personnel. Two to three
Teaching Assistants are assigned to each of the three experimental
laboratories; they set up the experiments, assist/oversee the student
experimenters and help in grading laboratory reports, all under faculty
supervision. Support personnel include
full-time employees in the aerospace engineering machine shop and electronics
shop, and computer support specialists.
The school policy is that maintenance and repair of instructional
laboratory equipment has the first call on the services of the support
personnel.
Funding for major equipment items purchased in the
past has come primarily from the Institute through the Dean of Engineering, the
Provost’s Office (Academic Affairs), and Student Technology Fees, as well as
some funding from the AE School. It is
anticipated that funding support will continue to come from these sources,
while outside support from both government (e.g., NSF) and industry will
continue to be pursued.
Detailed Planning
A five-year
plan has been prepared by the following faculty members, who are currently
the sole or joint coordinators for these courses:
|
Flight Mechanic & Controls Laboratory |
Dr. JVR Prasad., Professor Dr. P. Tsiotras, Associate,
Professor |
|
Aerodynamics and Propulsion Laboratory |
Dr. J. Seitzman,
Associate Professor |
|
Aerospace Structures Laboratory |
Dr. S. Dancila,
Assistant Professor |
|
Aerospace Computer Laboratory |
Dr. J. I. Craig, Professor |
|
Classroom Facilities |
Dr. J. I. Craig, Professor |
i) Aerospace
Computer Laboratory – The computing support staff in the AE School
supports the Aerospace Computer Lab. The
laboratory is currently open from
Operation of the Aerospace Computer Lab was initiated
in the mid-1980’s with a dozen PC/AT class personal
computers. It was upgraded in 1990 with
32 Macintosh IIci systems, an AppleShare file server,
an optical scanner, and three laser printers.
The lab was upgraded in Spring 1997 with the
addition of 4 high-end Macintosh systems, 4 high-end Windows NT systems and 2
mid-range Windows 95 systems. In 1999,
all of the Macintosh systems were finally phased out and replaced with Windows
NT systems. In 2001, the older Windows
NT systems were upgraded so that all 30 systems currently in the lab are
running either Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
The lab supports a suite of software that is
appropriate to the educational and research objectives of the school. The core includes word processors,
spreadsheets, equation solvers, math systems, graphics systems, network access
software, and all software in the suite of software that students are required
to purchase. In addition, a smaller
number of special purpose software systems are maintained.
The lab hosts specialized software for supporting
classes in computational structural analysis, computational aerodynamics,
simulation, geometric modeling, and multimedia creation and presentation. In 2001, a major computing resource was added
using $65,000 in competitive funding won by Dr. Marilyn Smith and Dr. N.M. Komerath from the Technology Fee allotment program. A Beowulf Cluster system was acquired and
installed in laboratory space in the Weber Space Science and
The laboratory is located in Knight 318 and occupies
approximately 700 square feet of space.
The room is equipped with an SVGA video projector and can be used for
classroom instruction where each student has immediate access to a
computer. In addition the lab can be
used to host problem-solving sessions for other courses or it can serve as a
place for student design teams to work together on a project.
ii) Classroom Facilities – Classroom instruction in aerospace engineering is
continually being revised, updated and improved to reflect the latest
developments in the field and to incorporate the best and most appropriate
instructional technology. To support
these efforts, all of the classrooms in the AE School are also being
continuously improved with the addition of new but proven A/V technology
appropriate to our program of undergraduate instruction.
iii) Aerospace
Structures Laboratory – The Aerospace Structures Laboratory provides hands-on
experience in structural testing and experimental data collection and analysis
for every aerospace engineering undergraduate.
Space for the laboratory is located in Room 301 of the Montgomery Knight
building. In addition, space is shared
with the Structures and Materials Laboratory in Room 106 of the Montgomery
Knight building, and the Composites Manufacturing Laboratory, located in Rooms
216-217 of the Weber building.
The structures laboratory is currently taught as one
course, AE 3145, offered each semester of the academic year. This one-credit hour class is offered in
three or four sections each semester, with enrollment in each section limited
to twelve students. The course consists
of seven two-week laboratory experiment cycles, with a one-hour lecture offered
during the first week and a three-hour laboratory performed the following week
of each cycle.
The student selects seven
experiments from a supplied list. This
list changes as new experiments are designed and developed. Training is provided to allow each student to
install strain gages in at least one of these experiments. Tests are conducted, data collected,
and formal written reports prepared for each experiment. Where applicable, comparisons between
experimental findings and analyses are made.
Analysis of the data and data visualization are carried out using
spreadsheets and Matlab scripts while reports are
prepared using word processors.
A member of the faculty teaches the laboratory
course for a full year. Two graduate
Teaching Assistants are assigned to assist students in each laboratory
section. One Instron
screw-jack testing machine with modern computer-based controller is available
in Room 301 for structural testing, and a second Instron
8500 series servohydraulic test machine, also
computer controlled, is available in the Structures and Materials Lab. Thus, both static testing with controlled
screw-jack displacements and full dynamic testing under load, displacement, or
strain control can be experienced. The
laboratory is also equipped with a computerized data acquisition system, and
emphasis is placed on the use of this system by the students to automate data
collection from the experiments whenever possible. This is part of a joint effort with the
Aerodynamics Laboratory (AE3051) to develop and implement a unified treatment
of computerized data acquisition and control in tests using advanced
instrumentation.
The laboratory has been upgraded over the past five
years. Through Technology Fee Equipment
Grant funding, the electro-mechanical Instron testing
machine located in the laboratory has been upgraded with a modern digital
controller and a computer with test control software. Using the same funding source, the Instron 8500 servohydraulic test
system in the Structures and Materials Lab has been upgraded with a more
capable digital controller and with a computer and test control software. This system, acquired primarily to support
the instructional laboratories, is shared with the graduate research
program.
The structures laboratory courses provide a
laboratory experience with a student/instructor ratio of about 4/1.
iv) Aerodynamics and Propulsion Laboratory Facilities – The laboratory experience
in Aerodynamics/Propulsion consists of a two-credit-hour junior-level core
course (AE3051). AE3051 aims to
introduce the student to various diagnostic techniques commonly used in fluid mechanics
research, preliminary design, and testing, specifically related to aerodynamics
and propulsion.
Nine different sets of experiments are performed in
AE 3051 during nine laboratory periods stretching over thirteen weeks. Knowledge of low-speed aerodynamics and
two-dimensional compressible flow is assumed; these are covered in AE2020 and
3450, respectively. Each experiment is
built around a series of related measurement techniques. In addition, the student learns to compare
experimental results with the knowledge gained in the lecture courses. Seven of the nine experiments in AE3051
require results summarized into data reports and the other two require full
laboratory reports. The experiments are
performed in teams of three to five, but individual reports have to be prepared
by each student. The reports include the
student's answers to several questions. The
grading of the reports considers various aspects of technical reporting and
laboratory practice. In addition, each
student makes a ten-minute oral presentation to the class, describing the
proposed solution to a hypothetical measurement problem assigned in the last four
weeks of the semester. This
"proposal" is graded on creativity, thought, and thoroughness. The audience is encouraged to ask questions. The data acquisition procedures are largely
computerized and all laboratory reports must be produced using word processing
and computer graphics. However, some
aspects of the experiments are done by human observation, careful alignment and
adjustment, judgment and qualitative sketches.
The facilities required to run AE3051 are located in
Room 403/5 and 42" x 42" low speed wind tunnel in Room 106 of the
main Aerospace Engineering building.
The Combustion Laboratory is housed in the new Combustion
Facilities. A shock tube is set up
parallel to the low turbulence tunnel in the same room. Supersonic flow experiments are carried out
in a Mach 2 tunnel and an in-draft nozzle located in the Combustion Laboratory.
In these three facilities, the undergraduate labs and courses are assigned
priority in scheduling.
v) Flight Mechanics and Controls Laboratory Facilities – The undergraduate
controls laboratory is the main avenue for teaching analysis, modeling and
control of dynamical (mechanical) systems to the undergraduate students in the