Monday, December 8, 2008
Writer: Kimberly Draper
news@utsi.edu
The local Tennessee American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics (AIAA) section recently held its 2008 awards ceremony
at the Arnold Lakeside Club. Awards presented included the Hap
Arnold award, two Billy J. Griffith awards, a special award and the
AIAA Booster award.
The General Henry H “Hap” Arnold Award, the most prestigious award
offered by the section, was given to Prof. Gary Flandro of
University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) for his work in
combustion instability. After 40 years of research, he is credited
with creating a revolutionary engineering tool, the Universal
Combustion Device Stability (UCDS) process.
During early 2008, Dr. Flandro and the Gloyer Taylor Labs team
applied the UCDS tool to solve a critical issue with NASA’s Ares I
booster. As has been widely publicized, there is a serious thrust
oscillation issue with the Ares I vehicle, which would produce
vibration loads in the crew capsule sufficient to injure the crew.
Dr. Flandro and his team performed a sensitivity analysis on the
Reusable Solid Rocket Motor-Five design, which identified the motor
parameter that was most effective at reducing the amplitude of the
thrust oscillations and identified an unexpected and relatively
simple means to eliminate the thrust oscillations.
Based on this collective effort, NASA has altered their plans to
address the thrust oscillation issue. The agency is now considering
the recommended modification to the motor design as a potential
solution for the thrust oscillation issue.
