Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Dynamics of Slender, Flexible Structures
    (2014) Vlajic, Nicholas A.; Balachandran, Balakumar; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Dynamics of slender beam-like structures subjected to rotational motions is studied experimentally, numerically, and analytically within this dissertation. As the aspect ratio of beam-like structures is increased (i.e., as the structures become slender), the structure can undergo large elastic deformations, and in addition, the torsional and lateral motions can be strongly coupled. Two different paradigms of rotor systems are constructed and used to investigate coupled torsional-lateral motions in slender rotating structures. The first rotor model is a modified version of the classical Jeffcott rotor, which accounts for torsional vibrations and stator contact. Analysis and simulations indicate that torsional vibrations are unlikely to exist during forward synchronous whirling, and reveal the presence of phenomena with high-frequency content, such as centrifugal stiffening and smoothening, during backward whirling. The second rotor model is a nonlinear distributed-parameter system that has been derived with the intent of capturing dynamics observed in an experimental apparatus with slender, rotating structures. Nonlinear oscillations observed in the experiments contain response components at frequencies other than the drive speed, a feature that is also captured by predictions obtained from the distributed-parameter model. Further analysis of the governing partial-differential equations yields insights into the origins (e.g., nonlinear gyroscopic coupling and frictional forces) of the nonlinear response components observed in the spectrum of the torsion response. Slender structures are often subject to large deformations with pre-stress and curvature, which can drastically alter the natural frequencies and mode shapes when in operation. Here, a geometrically exact beam formulation based on the Cosserat theory of rods is outlined in order to predict the static configuration, natural frequencies, and mode shapes of slender structures with large pre-stress and curvature. The modeling and analysis are validated with experiments as well as comparisons with a nonlinear finite element formulation. The predictions for the first eight natural frequencies are found to be in excellent agreement with the corresponding experimentally determined values. The findings of this dissertation work have a broad range of applications across different length scales, including drill strings, space tethers, deployable structures, cable supported structures (e.g., bridges and mooring cables), DNA strands, and sutures for non-invasive surgery to name a few.
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    Design and Performance Prediction of Swashplateless Helicopter Rotors with Trailing Edge Flaps and Tabs
    (2010) Falls, Jaye; Chopra, Inderjit; Datta, Anubhav; Aerospace Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This work studies the design of trailing edge controls for swashplateless helicopter primary control, and examines the impact of those controls on the performance of the rotor. The objective is to develop a comprehensive aeroelastic analysis for swashplateless rotors in steady level flight. The two key issues to be solved for this swashplateless control concept are actuation of the trailing edge controls and evaluating the performance of the swashplateless rotor compared to conventionally controlled helicopters. Solving the first requires simultaneous minimization of trailing flap control angles and hinge moments to reduce actuation power. The second issue requires not only the accurate assessment of swashplateless rotor power, but also similar or improved performance compared to conventional rotors. The analysis consists of two major parts, the structural model and the aerodynamic model. The inertial contributions of the trailing edge flap and tab are derived and added to the system equations in the structural model. Two different aerodynamic models are used in the analysis, a quasi-steady thin airfoil theory that includes arbitrary hinge positions for the flap and the tab, and an unsteady lifting line model with airfoil table lookup based on wind tunnel test data and computational fluid dynamics simulation. The predicted swashplateless rotor power is sensitive to the pattern of trailed vorticity from the rotor blade. Trailed vortices are added at the inboard and outboard boundaries of the trailing edge flap, and the flap deflection is used to calculate an effective angle of attack for the calculation of the near and far wake. This wake model predicts the swashplateless rotor requires less main rotor power than the conventional UH-60A helicopter from hover to &mu = 0.25. As the forward flight speed increases, the swashplateless predicted power increases above the conventional rotor, and the rotor lift-to-drag ratio decreases below that of the conventional rotor.