Since 2011, NASA’s Space Technology Mission directorate has sponsored the research of graduate students who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for the nation's science, exploration and economic future. Five of the 2020 NSTGRO recipients come from Purdue; four of them from Mechanical Engineering.

Zach Ayers

Zach studies laser diagnostics of high-pressure combustion, with Terrence Meyer. His project is titled "A study of propellant mixing effects on rotating detonation rocket engines using high-speed measurements of temperature and mixing dynamics."  Rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs) have the potential to replace traditional rocket engines due to their superior cycle efficiencies, simple architecture, and high power density. However, their development is hindered by the community's inability to accurately predict their performance using computational models. While several studies have attributed the differences between computational predictions and experimental results to the models' inability to accurately capture the propellant mixing process, this theory has yet to be validated. To help elucidate the effects of the mixing process on RDRE performance, this study aims to provide the modeling community with experimental data from a RDRE with mixing conditions ranging from non-premixed to fully premixed. Laser-based diagnostic techniques including fuel tracer planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (CARS) will be used to evaluate these effects in an optically accessible RDRE.

Amanda Braun

Amanda researches with Terrence Meyer.  Her project is titled "In-situ temperature, velocity, and density measurements in high-speed flows using burst-mode filtered Rayleigh scattering." Further characterization and understanding of the high-speed flow dynamics in transonic to hypersonic regimes is important for the development, testing, and improvement of complex space and rocket vehicles.  Laser diagnostics, such as Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS), provide the opportunity to make non-intrusive, in situ measurements without the use of physical probes at rates fast enough to resolve complex dynamics such as boundary layer development and shock wave evolution.  The study will investigate the feasibility and performance of a wavelength-agile, burst-mode FRS system for quantitative measurements of temperature, velocity, and density at kHz-MHz rates in transonic to hypersonic flows. 

Josh Ludwigsen

Josh is co-advised by Steve Son and Terrence Meyer. His project is "Non-Intrusive Measurements of the Effects of Small Particulates on Near Surface Rocket Exhaust Plumes." The impingement of rocket exhaust plumes with lunar and Martian surfaces results in a significant amount of dust propelled at large speed outward. This effect was seen during the Apollo 12 landing where the lunar module’s engine propelled lunar soil 163 meters to the Surveyor III craft resulting in damage to the craft’s surface and points to the danger of landing multiple craft in close proximity to each other. There is a current need for data involving the interaction of the lander exhaust plumes with dust covered surfaces to help in developing mitigation strategies for future Martian and lunar colonization plans. Their research aims to utilize state of the art laser diagnostics within rocket exhaust plumes to measure the velocity and distribution of dust particles as they interact with the plume as well as measure the difference within the plume structure caused by the introduction of the dust particles.

Joseph Peoples

Joseph is a heat transfer researcher under Xiulin Ruan.  His project is titled "Ultra-efficient Micropatterned Variable Emissivity Coatings Engineered for Extreme Environments." Space technology relies on radiation thermal management because space is a vacuum; heat cannot be dissipated via convection or conduction. Creating nanocomposite coatings with dynamic radiative properties is imperative for space technology, as space has extremely drastic changes in thermal environments from -400 degrees Fahrenheit to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Their research is investigating how to create a radiative thermal switch that is activated passively via temperature, so that when technology experiences extremely cold environment the coating is insulating, trapping the heat inside the technology -- but when the technology experiences extremely hot environments, it is expelling heat to cool the system down.  These types of micro-patterned nanocomposite coatings could be applied to the exterior of satellites, spacecraft, or even extraterrestrial vehicles (such as the Mars rover).