A prototype was designed and machined that allowed a glass window to survive longer during thermal tests.
Sponsored by: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Team Members
Robert Walker Jack Cenci Wentao Wang Alexander Kedzierski Yu Chieh Lin
Instructor: Dr. Robert Allen Kimel
Project Poster
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Project Video
Project Summary
Overview
Our sponsor provided the team with a goal of increasing the survivability of a glass window. In particular, the glass window is on a hypersonic craft travelling at MACH 5. Because the window experiences uneven temperatures from travelling really fast, thermal stresses would cause the window to fail. The challenge our team had was to come up with an engineering design solution to make the glass window survive longer.
Objectives
Improving the survivability of a glass window that experiences strong thermal condition was our team’s objective. Because the glass window shields infrared sensors that are needed to guide the aircraft, the team’s solution could not affect the transparency of the glass.
Approach
– The team had weekly meetings with the sponsor throughout the entire semester. By discussing the project’s goal and possible solutions, potential design concepts were created and proposed.
– Selecting one proposed design concept to physically prototype was the next step. After many discussions about possible solutions, one design was chosen.
– Important literature regarding the thermal behavior of glass was very helpful when deciding on which testing conditions the team would use.
– Before the selected design concept was to be physically created, the team used SolidWorks software to make a digital rendering of the design concept.
– Once the SolidWorks model and testing methods were approved by the sponsor, materials were purchased to fabricate the prototype.
– In total, 35 hours of machining at the Penn State Learning Factory allowed the creation of the prototype.
– Glass window samples were then purchased by the team to test the prototype. A thermocouple configuration was implemented into the prototype to study the heat readings.
– When performing experiments with different glass configurations, powerful heat guns were used to provide the needed heat flux for the experiments.
– The temperatures from the experiments were recorded by the thermocouple reader. By taking footage of all of the experiments, data charts and graphs were made in the team’s final report.
– Results from the experiments were recorded in detail for the sponsor. Analysis allowed the heat flux from the tests to be obtained.
Outcomes
– The sponsor has received our team’s deliverables that conclude strong merit in a double pane window configuration.
– Our teams’ experiments revealed that the double pane configuration was able to withstand the thermal tests, whereas the single pane configurations always broke in our tests.
– The project has conveyed more survivability with a double pane glass window configuration, versus a single pane configuration for the window.
– By taking the results obtained from the project, the sponsor now has the ability to change the initial design that caused this project to be born.
K-12 Materials
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