Publication Date
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
George Huang, Ph.D. (Advisor); Haibo Dong, Ph.D. (Advisor); Greg Minkiewicz, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Scott Thomas, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Zifeng Yang, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSEgr)
Abstract
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been investigating the heavy fuel conversion of small scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). One particular platform is the Army Shadow 200, powered by a UEL Wankel rotary engine. The rotary engine historically is a proven multi-fuel capable engine when operating on spark ignition however, little research into advanced more efficient compression concepts have been investigated. A computational fluid dynamics model has been created to investigate the feasibility of a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) rotary engine. This research evaluates the effects, rotor radius to crankshaft eccentricity ratio, known as K factor, equivalence ratio, and engine speed and how they affect the response of horsepower, maximum temperature, and peak pressure to determine the feasibility of HCCI operation. The results show that the advanced HCCI strategy is promising to significantly improve efficiency of the rotary engine.
Page Count
83
Department or Program
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Year Degree Awarded
2014
Copyright
Copyright 2014, all rights reserved. My ETD will be available under the "Fair Use" terms of copyright law.
