2022 Presenters
View 2022 Presentation Schedule
Session 2 - April 6, 2022
Akshay Jacob Thomas
Department Position: PhD Candidate
Bio: Akshay is a Ph.D. candidate working at the intersection of probabilistic machine learning and additive manufacturing. He currently works at the Composite Manufacturing and Simulation Center under the supervision of Dr. R. Byron Pipes. Akshay earned his bachelors in Mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India, and a masters in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue. He has a special interest in solving multiphysics problems using machine learning involving small data sets or having no data at all. Outside of his interests in statistics and applied mathematics, he likes to experiment with coffee where he is still trying to perfect his latte art.
Title of Research
Bayesian Inference of Fiber Orientation and Polymer Properties in Short Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites
Author(s)
Akshay Jacob Thomas, Eduardo Barocio, Ilias Bilionis, R. Byron Pipes
Abstract
Developing composite manufacturing simulations for short fiber-reinforced polymer (SFRP) composite processes, including injection molding and extrusion deposition additive manufacturing (EDAM) requires extensive experimental material characterization. In particular, characterizing the composite mechanical properties is time-consuming and therefore, micromechanics models are used to fully identify the elasticity tensor. Hence, the objective of this paper is to infer the fiber orientation and the effective polymer modulus and therefore, identify the elasticity tensor of the composite with minimal experimental tests. To that end, we develop a hierarchical Bayesian model coupled with a micromechanics model to infer the fiber orientation and the polymer elastic modulus simultaneously which we then use to estimate the composite elasticity tensor. We motivate and demonstrate the methodology for the EDAM process but the development is such that it is applicable to other SFRP composites processed via other methods. Our results demonstrate that the approach provides a reliable framework for the inference, with as few as three tensile tests, while accounting for epistemic and aleatory uncertainty. The ability of the Bayesian approach to calibrate the material properties and its associated uncertainties, makes it a promising tool for enabling a probabilistic predictive framework for composites manufacturing digital twins.
Session 3 - April 12, 2022
Liam Robinson
Department Position: Undergraduate Senior
Bio: Liam Robinson is a senior undergraduate student in AAE pursuing light curve inversion research with Dr. Carolin Frueh’s Space Information Dynamics group. He is the current mission design lead for Purdue Orbital. He enjoys cooking, climbing, and niche Matlab functions.
Title of Research
Light Curve Inversion for Shape Reconstruction of Human-Made Space Objects (AAESAC)
Author(s)
Liam Robinson
Abstract
Characterizing unknown space objects is a growing field of study within Space Domain Awareness. One simple ground-based observation of an unknown object is its light curve: a set of brightness measurements over time. The light curve depends on object orientation, material composition, shape, and the positions of the sun and observer. If the orientation and material properties of an object are known, its shape can be estimated from the light curve alone in a process called direct light curve inversion. Shape determination is significant in an operational context for intelligence, collision avoidance, and maneuver detection. This work seeks to strengthen and extend current convex inversion techniques to the more general class of non-convex objects. To enable this, a new shadow rendering pipeline is introduced, accelerating light curve simulation and improving data quality. Existing methods based on the Extended Gaussian Image (EGI) are reinforced through resampling, merging, and validation steps, producing more accurate and sparse reconstructed geometry. Approaches for detecting, locating, and introducing simple concavities are proposed. Simple and prominent concave features are optimized using these methods. Under strong assumptions, direct light curve shape inversion for non-convex objects enables the characterization of human-made satellites and debris.
Session 4 - April 13, 2022
Katharine Burn
Department Position: 2nd Year MS Student
Bio: Katharine Burn is a master’s student in the school or Aeronautics and Astronautics studying aerospace systems. Her research as a member of Purdue’s Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace deals with modeling complex systems-of-systems problems using methods such as system dynamics modeling.
Dr. Dan DeLaurentis
Department Position: Advisor, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University
Bio: Dr. DeLaurentis is a professor and advisor in the AAE department as well as a director of the Institute for Global Security and Defense Innovation, and Chief Scientist for the DoD Systems Engineering Research Center. As the head of Purdue’s Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace, his research focuses on the development of theories, methods, and tools for addressing systems-of-systems problems.
Chris Debenham
Department Position: 2nd Year MS Student
Bio: Chris Debenham is an MS student from Salt Lake City, Utah studying aeronautical and astronautical engineering with an emphasis on systems of systems. His thesis research focuses on applications of system dynamics and long-term planning for the cislunar economy.
Title of Research
System Dynamics Model of STEM Retention Rates in Higher Education
Author(s)
Katharine Burn, Dr. Dan DeLaurentis, Chris Debenham
Abstract
It has been observed that the percentage of students graduating with STEM degrees from institutions of higher education has been declining since the 1980’s. This trend could lead to a shortage of STEM candidates entering the workforce in the coming years. In an effort to better understand the various influences of students’ pathways to STEM careers, a system dynamics model of the “STEM pipeline” is being developed. The STEM pipeline describes the system encompassing a student’s journey to a career in STEM and consists of K-12 education, higher education, and the STEM workforce. System dynamics modeling has historically been used to study the STEM pipeline, but previous studies have lacked emphasis on the higher education portion of the system. The system dynamics model being developed for this research focuses on the impact various policies have on STEM retention rates in institutions of higher education. Through the development of the model, the goal of this research is to identify which policy changes could have the greatest effect on STEM retention rates nationwide.
Eli Sitchin
Department Position: 2nd Year MS student
Bio: Eli Sitchin is a second-year master’s student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, having previously received his B.S. from Purdue in May 2020. He currently works as a research assistant for Dr. DeLaurentis at the Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace, and plans to graduate in May 2022.
Title of Research
Developing Effectiveness Measures for MBSE Analysis Tools in Hypersonic Vehicle Design
Author(s)
Eli Sitchin
Abstract
Systems engineers make frequent use of analysis tools to evaluate system models throughout the design process. Designers must therefore ensure that these tools perform accurate analyses of the systems they’re designed to evaluate. In this work, we develop effectiveness measures for System Developmental Dependency Analysis (SDDA), a tool designed to predict the development schedule of system-of-systems, and can also be applied to complex engineered systems. We will examine the requirements for both verification and validation measures, from which we generate several candidate measures for each process. We will also apply these effectiveness measures to an example problem of a hypersonic vehicle conceptual design, as hypersonic flight vehicles pose a significant design challenge due to the narrow performance envelope in which they operate. We will explore several possible development timelines to explore how deviations from the timeline predicted by SDDA affects these effectiveness measures.
Charles D'Onofrio
Department Position: 1st Year MS Student
Bio: My name is Charles D'Onofrio and I am a masters student in the aerospace engineering department concluding my first year. Prior to attending Purdue, I worked for NAVAIR's Propulsion and Power department as a turbofan design and project engineer ensuring the AV-8B Harrier remained relevant and lethal to the US Marines through its out-of-service date. Many of the projects I worked on for NAVAIR, and my own personal transformative life experiences working as an emergency medical technician, convinced me to pivot my career towards a system-of-systems approach to developing the next generation of cutting-edge technology. Whether working to increase the lethality of our nation's military, or innovating the next lifesaving emergency response tools, it excites me to work with technology that operates on the razor thin edge between life and death. I am driven to redefine the nation's emergency response system in terms of seconds, rather than minutes, by integrating First Responder Network Drones (FRNDs) with the tactical elements of an emergency response team and the national airspace. Achieving this vision is my purpose for attending Purdue -- a school whose academic resources, faculty, and student body, offer me a fantastic chance of success. Other than pursuing my vision, my hobbies include brewing my own beer, cooking, and experiencing new cultures and places by travelling to them. To cancel out the effects of my brewing, cooking, and travelling hobbies, I also spend many hours at the gym!
Title of Research
Drones in Emergency Response - Will They Make a Difference?
Author(s)
Charles D'Onofrio
Abstract
2 minutes is all it takes for a small flame to grow into a structure enveloping life threatening blaze. Modern house fires burn at lung scorching clothing melting temperatures of 600 degrees F. They release black asphyxiating smoke and, in addition to the typical byproducts of combustion, poisonous gases such as hydrogen cyanide. Every passing second increases the chances that the fire claims a life and destroys property. This risk not only effects house residents, but first responders as well, as each year over a dozen of our nations heroes tragically perish as a direct consequence of harsh conditions at a structural fire. The vision behind this project is to improve fire survivability, optimize emergency response time, and reduce safety risks to first responders by integrating First Responder Network Drones (FRNDs) with the tactical elements of an emergency response team and the national airspace. The specific subject of this work focuses on: (1) defining metrics against which to adjudicate the success of FRNDs in meeting their objectives, (2) developing FRND operational requirements and mission profiles, and (3) modeling, using Agent Based Models (ABM) and multi-agent models, FRND's ability to reduce first responder risk and improve first responder performance.
Session 5 - April 19, 2022
Eric Williamson
Department Position: Undergraduate Senior
Bio: Eric Williamson is a current senior in AAE intending to continue his master’s studies at the University after graduation. He specializes in astrodynamics and space.
Nate Yarger
Department Position: Purdue AAE alumnus
Bio: Nate Yarger is a Purdue AAE alumnus (B.S. 2020, M.S. 2021) currently serving as a design engineer at Aerojet Rocketdyne. Nate helped create the student team in his freshman year and worked to grow it through graduation.
Ben Walbaum
Department Position: Purdue alumnus
Bio: Ben Walbaum is a Purdue alumnus (B.S. 2021) currently working as a propulsion system engineer at Sierra Space. He and Nate Yarger were the original founders of this project.
Erik Salata
Department Position: Graduate Student
Bio: Erik Salata is a current graduate student at Purdue (B.S. 2020, M.S. 2022) specializing in propulsion and performing research at Zucrow Labs.
Title of Research
Development of Undergraduate Capabilities for the Formulation, Mixing, and Testing of Solid Rocket Propellant at Scale
Author(s)
Eric Williamson, Nate Yarger, Ben Walbaum, Erik Salata, Eli Harris, Harry Amadeo
Abstract
The Purdue Space Program Solids team is a group of undergraduate students at Purdue University, aiming to develop experimental solid rocket motors for use in the annual Spaceport America Cup competition. Founded in 2017, the team has since worked toward a goal of developing a 30,000 Ns or “O” class rocket motor, despite significant challenges. As an unestablished undergraduate team, the group faced several uphill battles. The team lacked the trust from the university to handle energetics without the support of a faculty member, the team lacked proper funding, and the facilities available were not well suited to large scale solid rocket motor production. While these hurdles were all individually addressed, the team was simultaneously able to use many pre-made analysis tools to perform ballistics, structural, and thermal analysis. The team designed a subscale and full-scale motor based on these analyses. The team successfully hot fired their first sub-scale rocket motor in spring 2019, had a partial success in the summer of 2021, and are aiming to pursue two full scale tests before the end of the semester.
Jannuel V. Cabrera
Department Position: 3rd year PhD student
Bio: Jannuel Cabrera received a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University in 2016 and a Master's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University in 2018. He started his doctoral studies in 2019 after being bitten by the "PhD bug". He is currently working with Prof. David Spencer on a morphable entry system for smallsat aerocapture applications. When he isn't hunched over his computer, Jannuel likes to play disc golf and softball as well as go on hikes.
Title of Research
A Morphable Entry System for Small Satellite Aerocapture at Mars
Author(s)
Jannuel V. Cabrera
Abstract
Small satellite propulsion systems are currently limited in their delta-V capabilities, making orbit insertion a significant challenge for interplanetary small satellites. Aerocapture is an orbit insertion technique that uses a single pass through the atmosphere of the target planet to convert a vehicle’s hyperbolic approach trajectory into a captured elliptical orbit. Because of the significant velocity decrement provided by aerodynamic drag, this technique can significantly reduce the required propellant for orbit insertion, which is of great benefit to small satellites. This research envisions achieving small satellite aerocapture at Mars with the morphable entry system, a vehicle concept that uses shape morphing for trajectory control. Using a six degree-of-freedom aerocapture simulation environment, a Monte Carlo dispersion analysis was conducted to assess the robustness of this vehicle for aerocapture at Mars. 1001 trajectories subjected to random environmental perturbations were simulated. The results indicate that the morphable entry system is sufficiently robust to off-nominal flight conditions to enable a 99% aerocapture success rate. A total delta-V budget of 222 m/s was also found to be sufficient for insertion of 99% of the captured cases into orbit. This research demonstrates that shape morphing is a feasible method for trajectory control during aerocapture.
Session 6 - April 20, 2022
Dong Eun Lee
Department Position: 4th Year Ph.D. student
Bio: Lee is a Ph.D. student in Propulsion working at the Propulsion and Energy Lab and Zucrow Labs under the supervision of Professor Li Qiao. His research work focusses on studying pre-chamber turbulent jet ignition applied to an advanced gasoline spark ignition engine through both experimentation and numerical analysis.
Title of Research
Jet Ignition Process of Passive Pre-chambers in a Modified Constant-volume, Optically-accessible, Ultra-Lean burn Gasoline Engine
Author(s)
Dong Eun Lee, Tianxiao Yu, Li Qiao
Abstract
Improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines is a critical step towards reducing carbon emissions in the transportation sector, because the majority of the near-term powertrain solutions will still require an engine. Although spark ignition (SI) engines have the benefits of low cost and high-power density, there is a strong need to further improve thermal efficiency and reduce emissions of SI engines. One approach is to dilute the mixture with excess air or EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) to lower the combustion temperature and thus the NOx emissions. The challenges, however, lie in difficult ignition of highly diluted mixture and poor combustion stability due to limited ignition energy. To enable stable combustion at higher dilution levels, a more powerful ignition source is required. Pre-chamber jet ignition, an advanced ignition technology, has demonstrated the potential for enabling stable combustion beyond the dilution level obtained in traditional SI engines. An experiment has been developed to investigate the passive pre-chamber jet ignition performance in a gasoline engine configuration and at an ultra-lean burn operation. The apparatus adopted a modified GM gasoline engine in Zucrow Labs, in which a single-cylinder custom block with an optically accessible piston was installed to allow jet visualizations and instrumentations.
Suman Chakraborty
Department Position: 5th year Ph.D. candidate
Bio: Suman Chakraborty is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, working in the Propulsion and Energy Lab under the guidance of Prof. Li Qiao. His research deals with the study of liquid fuel behavior under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature, something which is quite common in modern day combustion systems. Suman uses Molecular Dynamics (MD) along with other theoretical thermodynamic models to study phase change behavior, interfacial science and non-equilibrium transport of multi-component systems. Suman earned his Bachelor's from Jadavpur University (India) in Civil Engineering and Master's from IIT Bombay (India) in Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining Purdue, his research was focused on the study on Riemann problems and hybrid turbulence modeling and their application in open-source platforms like SU2 and OpenFOAM respectively. Outside of academics, Suman has interests in cooking, hiking, travel, soccer and exploring the food scene of new places he visits. ☺️
Title of Research
Interface, Phase Change and Molecular Transport in Sub, Trans and Supercritical Regimes for Hydrocarbon Mixtures
Author(s)
Suman Chakraborty
Abstract
To the critical point and beyond! Modern day combustion engines like the SpaceX Raptor can operate at high chamber pressures of 300 bar. A liquid fuel when injected under such harsh conditions often experience conditions close to or beyond its own critical point. Meaning, the liquid will be subjected to pressure and temperature (P&T) conditions corresponding to transcritical or even supercritical regimes during the mixing and evaporation process. Modeling of liquid behavior under such extreme conditions present a serious challenge mainly because of departure from ideal gas behavior and lack of a physical interface. Some salient questions to answer would be: what P&T conditions trigger the transition from the classical two-phase atomization to the one-phase diffusion-controlled mixing? and how to model the non-equilibrium heat and mass transport near the critical point? Molecular Dynamics (MD) has been used as a tool in this research to study phase transition and non-equilibrium interfacial flux of hydrocarbon fuels, subjected to high P&T conditions. The ongoing research focuses on using MD simulations to study the gas/liquid interfacial region and fill some of the knowledge gaps existing in modeling liquid fuel vaporization and mixing. This can help open doors to more efficient and cleaner combustion systems.