Date of Award

2020-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Ahsan R. Choudhuri

Second Advisor

Joel Quintana

Abstract

One of the primary goals of the MIRO Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) is the design and testing of liquid oxygen and liquid methane rocket engines. As of this thesis’ time of writing, two engines are currently undergoing testing at the center’s Technology Research and Innovation Acceleration Park (tRIAC), located in Fabens, Texas. The engines vary in scale starting with a 5 lbf Reaction Control Engine (RCE) to a 500 lbf engine dubbed the Centennial Restartable Oxygen Methane Engine (CROME). It was necessary to develop a control and data acquisition system to support these various test campaigns, thus the Modular Instrumentation and Control Interface Trailer (MICIT) was created. A brief overview of MICIT is provided to familiarize the reader with system. With this thesis being a continuation on previous work, further documentation of the system’s hardware and software can be found in two recent publications (Hansen, 2019) (Rojo, 2019). Serving as the “brain’s behind the operation”, MICIT is required to be highly reliable. As such it was put through various qualification checks before it was approved for testing. These qualification checks were then modified to serve as the instrumentation and control checkouts done at the beginning of every test day. The nature of having a mobile system shared between two different test stands means the harnesses cannot be connected long term, forcing them to be re-connected/disconnected at the start and end of every test day. Having wiring harnesses that are moved so often opens the door to various issues to arise, therefore the system is checked a day before and morning of every test. After being validated multiple times, several issues were found which required additional procedures to be created and implemented. Issues without permanent solutions are detailed in the future proposed works section.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

106 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Zachary Welsh Welsh

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