Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
For the testing of the golf club head, two probes were developed to measure the turbulent intensity in the flow. The probes, based on Rossow’s (1993) three probe system, compared the dynamic pressure of the flow with the stream-wise dynamic pressure in the flow. The resultant measurements could then produce the ratio of the cross-stream fluctuations in velocity to the time-averaged velocity. The turbulence intensity calculations would provide insight on the turbulence in the boundary layer flow and wake.
The objective of this experiment was to investigate the correlation between the starting pitch angle of a Dragon Boat paddle and the ensuing total stress and force on the paddle during the first stroke. During the first stroke (i.e., starting at rest) the stress on the paddle can be equated with the force output. To do this, a paddle was modified with a strain gauge and other equipment, and tests were run varying the pitch angle. The results showed that while the most positive starting angle yielded the highest stress and force on the paddle, there was no discernible trend correlating the angle to the stress. Further experimentation must be run to determine which other factors influence the stress.
The following analysis was conducted at the Arizona State University open loop wind tunnel. Two 1/24-th scale NASCAR models were placed in a wind tunnel test section and were adjusted to study drafting that commonly occurs at superspeedway racetracks. The purpose of the experiment was to determine how drafting affects a leading and trailing car through changes in distance. A wind tunnel model was developed consisting of two 2019 NASCAR Chevy Camaro race car models, two bar-style load cells, and a programmed Arduino UNO. Two trials were run at each drafting distance, 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 car lengths apart. Each trial was run at a wind tunnel velocity of 78 mph (35 m/s) and force data was collected to represent the drag effects at each drafting location. Based on previously published experimentation, this analysis provided important data that related drafting effects in scale model race cars to full-scale vehicles. The experiment showed that scale model testing can be accurately completed when the wind tunnel Reynolds number is of the same magnitude as a full-scale NASCAR. However, the wind tunnel data collected was proven to be fully laminar flow and did not compare to the flow characteristics of typically turbulent flow seen in superspeedway races. Overall, the analytical drag analysis of drafting NASCAR models proved that wind tunnel testing is only accurate when many parameters are met and should only be used as a method of validation to full-scale testing.
Long distance travel around the globe can potentially be revolutionized with the use of an intercontinental rocket that uses low earth orbit as its medium. This transport system can increase growth in many new businesses like tourism travel between the continents. This research evaluates the technical and non-technical possibilities of using a double-stage reusable rocket, where the second stage is also a reusable, rocket-powered passenger vehicle using a low earth orbit space journey with a stabilized re-entry method that ensures passenger comfortability. A potential network of spaceports spanning the globe is postulated within a range of 4,000 km to 8,000 km(2,160 nm to 4,320 nm) of each other, and each located within an hour by any other means of ground transport to population hubs greater than four million. This will help further connect the world as the journey from one major city to another would take at most an hour, and no point on the habited continents would be more than 4,000 km(2,160 nm) from a spaceport. It is assumed that the costs of an international first class flight ticket are in the thousands of dollars range showing how there is a potential market for this type of travel network. The reasoning and analysis, through a literature review, for an intercontinental rocket vehicle is presented along with the various aspects of the possibility of this kind of travel network coming to fruition in the near future.
Long distance travel around the globe can potentially be revolutionized with the use of an intercontinental rocket that uses low earth orbit as its medium. This transport system can increase growth in many new businesses like tourism travel between the continents. This research evaluates the technical and non-technical possibilities of using a double-stage reusable rocket, where the second stage is also a reusable, rocket-powered passenger vehicle using a low earth orbit space journey with a stabilized re-entry method that ensures passenger comfortability. A potential network of spaceports spanning the globe is postulated within a range of 4,000 km to 8,000 km(2,160 nm to 4,320 nm) of each other, and each located within an hour by any other means of ground transport to population hubs greater than four million. This will help further connect the world as the journey from one major city to another would take at most an hour, and no point on the habited continents would be more than 4,000 km(2,160 nm) from a spaceport. It is assumed that the costs of an international first class flight ticket are in the thousands of dollars range showing how there is a potential market for this type of travel network. The reasoning and analysis, through a literature review, for an intercontinental rocket vehicle is presented along with the various aspects of the possibility of this kind of travel network coming to fruition in the near future.
This report describes the findings of an experiment designed to explore the nature of human hearing using binaural sound. The experiment also set out to determine a way to accurately find positional data from sound. Binaural recordings were made of high frequency sounds at various angles and the data was postprocessed to find the group delay and difference of intensity between the two channels. To do this, two methods were used. The first relied on manually analyzing the data by visually looking for the points of interest. The second method used a MATLAB program to scan the data for the points of interest by using a Fourier analysis. It was determined that while the first method has the potential to provide better results it is impractical and not representative of how human hearing works. The second method was far more efficient and demonstrated the reliance of human hearing on the difference of intensities. It was determined that through the use of the second method accurate positional data could be obtained by comparing the differences with experimental data.
A robust autopilot control system for a ground vehicle was designed, fabricated, and implemented on a remote control car. The autopilot system consists of navigation, guidance, and three controller subsystems. The autopilot’s hardware subsystems are an Arduino processor, GPS receiver, 9 DOF inertial measurement system, and an SD card data logger. A complete system simulation was developed and used to verify the integrated design and algorithms, prior to field testing. The simulation results indicated the system performs as designed, with no anomalous behaviors observed. Simulations were also used to assess and verify each of the three controllers’ robustness qualities. The complete hardware system was field tested and verified fully functional against complex mission scenarios. The system performed as designed, with no anomalous behaviors observed. The system performed successfully in the presence of external disturbances (e.g., rocks, holes, dirt piles in the vehicle’s path), which demonstrated and verified the design is robust. Additional robustness testing consisted of doubling the vehicle’s polar moment of inertia and verifying this did not have any adverse effects on system performance. All the planned tasks were completed and the project’s objectives were met.
Today, the vision of Commercial Supersonic Travel is often dreamed possible with innovation. Modern tech-business plans to reinvent commercial SuperSonic Transport (SST), while gaining reliable venture capital investment and proactive social backing. However, the concept’s global viability remains questionable, as regulation opposes its integrability. As a result, SST has become industrially forgotten. This research paper challenges the neglect of SST through routing optimizations derived from an industry’s collective research, while outlining decisive use-cases. Initially, this paper describes the difficulty in SST’s integration through its logistical tasks, demanding designs, and lacking efficiency. After that, the paper defines an optimization strategy, through software-analyzed flight paths, for overall supersonic operations. This strategy was proven to shorten established SST flights by 6%, while enabling the implementation of newfound SST paths. Here, optimization averaged 3.3% on density-derived routes and 5.4% on software-derived routes. More importantly, this paper demonstrated routing optimization enables MACH 1.6 aircraft to achieve MACH 2 flight times. Further, this paper attempts to justify SST through an analysis of its market, financials, and social perspectives. With that, the paper justifies an ideal SST customer earns 630$/hr, while such measurements vary amongst flight types. Finally, this paper conceptualizes that SST, with optimization, promises a noteworthy business, while developments in aircraft designs may revamp the aerospace industry completely.
The objective of this thesis is to conduct a case study into the Bell X-2, an early supersonic research aircraft utilizing a modern perspective and computational tools. The Bell X-2 was the second in a series of supersonic research aircraft created by Bell Aviation Corporation, designed to help engineers to explore this new region of flight. The goal of the X-2 was to gather data on high Mach Number and high-altitude flight as well as aerodynamic heating. The X-2 had poor lateral stability resulting in it being unstable at high Mach Numbers and moderate angles of attack. The program was full of new and unforeseen technical challenges resulting in many delays and tragedies. The program ended when stability problems resulted in a fatal crash destroying the aircraft and killing the test pilot. This case study addresses the historical background of the program, human influence, the stability problems encountered and conducting a stability analysis of the aircraft. To conduct the stability analysis, the potential flow solver, VORLAX, was used to gather aerodynamic coefficient data of the X-2 and determine if these stability problems could be determined from the data obtained. By comparing the results from VORLAX to a wind tunnel study, I determined that the poor lateral directional stability and control coupling issues were foreseeable in the initial design.