Third Year Projects For B.Eng Students

This form should be filled in electronically then printed or emailed to Keith Lewis at k.m.lewis@man.ac.uk

 

 

Student:                                                          Supervisor: Dr W.J.Crowther

 

Project Title :             Design and analysis of a wind tunnel rig for measuring the aerodynamics of a spinning football

 

Aero

 

Mech

 

Both

Y

 Suitable for: 

 

 

Description:

Footballers are able to produce curved ball flight paths by imparting spin to the ball as they kick it. The basic mechanism whereby lift forces are produced by spin is well known (the Magnus-Robins effect), however, success in measuring the effect in a wind tunnel study has so far been illusive. The main problems concern the mechanical difficulty of supporting and dynamically balancing pressurised footballs. The present project seeks to design a rig for spinning a machined hollow sphere, whose surface can be modified to represent the effect of surface texture on actual footballs. A key part of the design is in developing a drive motor and mechanism that is located inside the model football. This removes the need for spinning support rods, and also allows for future measurement of surface pressures during rotation using a remote data acquisition system.

 

 

 

Objectives: These must be quantifiable

  1. Review previous work on the aerodynamics of spinning spheres
  2. Develop spreadsheet to calculate motor power required based on specified spin-up time and maximum attainable spin rate as a function of rig mechanical properties (moment of inertia, bearing friction, aerodynamic friction)
  3. Calculate maximum aerodynamic and dynamic loads on support frame
  4. Design spinning rig and balance support frame for the 1.35m x 0.95m Wind Tunnel
  5. Develop 3d cad model and manufacturing drawings using Pro Engineer.

 

 

Yes

X

No

 

 Is this a continuation project?

Significant new work required

 

 

Date Received:


Third Year Projects For B.Eng Students

This form should be filled in electronically then printed or emailed to Keith Lewis at k.m.lewis@man.ac.uk

 

 

Student:                                                          Supervisor: Dr W.J.Crowther

 

Project Title :            Animation of flocking flight vehicles using the Matlab Virtual Reality Toolbox

 

Aero

 

Mech

 

Both

X

 Suitable for: 

 

 

Description:

Recent work at Manchester has demonstrated the feasibility of organising large numbers of flight vehicles using a number of simple rules based on the flocking behaviour of birds. Previously, Virtual Reality Mark-up Language (VRML) animations have been developed by hand, however the process is laborious and prone to errors. The present project will use the recently released Virtual Reality toolbox in Matlab to develop animations based on output from an existing Matlab flocking program.

 

 

 

 

 

Objectives: These must be quantifiable

  1. Review previous work on the physics of flocking and demonstrate understanding of the basics of animation using VRML
  2. Demonstrate animation of simple shapes using the Matlab VR tool box
  3. Develop code to produce VRML output from existing flocking program
  4. Develop interactive VR website for demonstrating the effect of flocking rules on flocking behaviour

 

Yes

X

No

 

 Is this a continuation project?

 

 

 

Date Received:

 


Third Year Projects For B.Eng Students

This form should be filled in electronically then printed or emailed to Keith Lewis at k.m.lewis@man.ac.uk

 

 

Student:                                                          Supervisor:

 

Project Title :            Optical attitude sensing for a disc wing data acquisition system

 

Aero

 

Mech

 

Both

 

 Suitable for: 

 

 

Description:

Disc wings are a class of tailless flight vehicles that are stabilised in flight using spin. Typical examples of disc wings include the Frisbee sports disc, the discus and the clay pigeon. Previous work at Manchester has established a theory of flight for disc wings based on wind tunnel tests of a spinning Frisbee. The next stage in the work is validate tunnel measurements through free flight tests using a microcontroller data acquisition system onboard the Frisbee. A key requirement of the flight data acquisiotin system is measurement of disc attitude with respect to the gravity vector. To achieve this, it is proposed to use an optical horison detection system based on an array of light sensors around the disc. Previous work has established the basic charactersitics of the light sensors and a 2d algorithm for predicing attitude based on results from a light box experiment. The present work seeks to extend this to the 3d case with allowance for disc rotation.

 

 

 

 

Objectives: These must be quantifiable

  1. Review previous work on disc wings and optical attitude sensing
  2. Develop a simple mathematical model of light sensor output as a function of disc angular position and attitude
  3. Develop an algorithm for determing attitude from light sensor output and angular orientation
  4. Validate algorithm using expereimntal data

 

Yes

X

No

 

 Is this a continuation project?

 

 

 

Date Received:

 

 

 

Third Year Projects For B.Eng Students

This form should be filled in electronically then printed or emailed to Keith Lewis at k.m.lewis@man.ac.uk

 

 

Student:                                                          Supervisor: Dr W.J.Crowther

 

Project Title :            Investigation of vortex generators for control of shock-induced inlet flow separation

 

Aero

X

Mech

 

Both

 

 Suitable for: 

 

 

Description:

The maximum thrust of high bypass turbo fan engines during take off is often limited by the effects of cross wind induced inlet separation. This problem is alleviated by decreasing the curvature of the side inlet lip, however this has adverse affect on cruise drag. A potential solution is to keep the geometry the same, but use active flow control actuators in the form of micro air jets that are activated when separation is detected. The present project is concerned with investigating the interaction of air jet flow control actuators with inlet lip separation following a shock. The work will be experimental, based in the transonic wind tunnel at Barton. Data will be obtained from surface flow visualisation, schlieren and pressure measurements.

 

 

 

Objectives: These must be quantifiable

  1. Review previous work on inlet flow control
  2. Design 2d inlet lip wind tunnel model with micro air jet orifices
  3. Determine separation location and flow field topology, jets off and jets on
  4. Investigate effect of free stream Mach number and model incidence

 

 

Yes

 

No

X

 Is this a continuation project?

 

 

 

Date Received: