Dr. Serkan Özgen
12 December, 2009 |
1. Topic: Development of an UAV with no conventional control surfaces.
Definition: An alternative system will be designed and implemented that will replace the conventional control systems in small UAVs. The feasibility of such a design will be demonstrated by actually building and flying such a UAV.
2. Aerodynamical and Flight Mechanical Analyses of Morphing Unmanned Air Vehicles
Definition: The thesis aims at understanding the aerodynamical and flight mechanical characteristics of a morphing Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) and developing necessary tools and methods for analysis and design. Latest trends in UAV technology emphasize on multi-mission capability and mission flexibility. As an example, UAVs that can switch their shapes during flight from a long range or long endurance configuration (where high aspect ratio is required) to a high speed configuration (where low aspect ratio is preferred) allow them to adapt to different segments of the mission profile. Also, different missions with different design requirements can be fulfilled by a single aircraft type. The same technology has the potential for application to control system design, where important weight savings and mechanical simplifications can be achieved by the elimination of conventional control systems.
Design of a morphing UAV using novel materials, aerodynamical and flight mechanical analysis of the vehicle using CFD and experimentation in wind andor water tunnels, production and actual flight testing of such a vehicle are all within the context of the thesis. The critical issue is the transitional flight from one configuration to another.
The thesis will be supervised jointly by faculty members in the Aerospace and Chemical Engineering Departments of METU.
3. Investigation of stability characteristics of liquid jets with arbitrary cross section.
Jet flow instabilities and their relevance to atomization problem will be investigated by upgrading an existing code developed for calculation of instability chracateristics of liquid jets taking flow and fluid properties like liquid viscosity, surface tension and electric charges into account. The topic has relevance to combustion processes, paintingcoating technologies as well as inkjet printing processes. |