EEC Planning: Track 1 BPE for Development of Hypersonics Research Collaborations

EEC 规划：用于发展高超音速研究合作的 Track 1 BPE

• 批准号: 2217753
• 负责人: Christopher Combs
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2217753&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EEC; Planning; Track; BPE; Development

Hypersonic technology development is a key element of the re-emerging global space race, and has the potential to revolutionize commercial air transport, space access, and national defense. The U.S. space science and engineering industry faces a large fraction of its workforce eligible for retirement in the near future, a lack of younger workers with skills or experience to grow into those roles, and a possible shortage of graduates qualified to conduct relevant research and development. In the aerospace sector, improving diversity will be critical towards achieving civilization-changing goals like interplanetary travel, hypersonic flight, electric aircraft, and low-emission propulsion technology. This project will provide an opportunity for a diverse coalition of academic partners (including UTSA, Howard, & MIT) to address these current and future challenges in the aerospace workforce with a specific emphasis on hypersonic research and workforce development. UTSA is a minority serving institution, Howard is a historically black research university, and MIT is a world-recognized leader in engineering education and research. This partnership will leverage unique research infrastructure at these institutions (including a new hypersonic wind tunnel at UTSA) to provide life-changing experiences to a highly diverse group of students. This planning grant will enable the proposing team to foster and grow this collaboration, leading to considerable future research and development in hypersonics. Research activities will be tightly integrated with educational outreach at each partner institution, serving as a platform to engage a diverse group of students in aerospace research while diversifying the future aerospace workforce. Velocities faster than five times the speed of sound or Mach 5—approximately 4,000 miles per hour—are generally considered to be hypersonic. Hypersonic system designs are currently limited by a lack of experimental data for high-speed flows, representing a critical need for validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. For example, several fundamental physical phenomena that can significantly impact hypersonic vehicle performance and structural integrity—including shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions, turbulent transition, and non-equilibrium chemistry effects—continue to pose problems for the development of predictive CFD models for hypersonic flow, requiring additional research efforts grounded in basic science. The assembled team has identified this unique opportunity to bring together a collection of scientists and researchers with expertise in both experimental and computational hypersonic aerodynamics. UTSA has also recently constructed a world-class Mach 7 wind tunnel for unique experimental measurements, while each of the partner institutions possess considerable computational resources. This technical capability, coupled with the engineering education background provided by Dr. Karina Vielma, positions this group to offer valuable research experiences to under-represented students in the in-demand field of hypersonics. With this planning grant, the PI team will explore the exciting potential of this collaboration and develop a concrete framework for fostering growth of hypersonics research at these institutions, including developing future submissions to NSF programs. The UTSA-Howard-MIT team will complete a number of activities to accomplish these objectives. Activities will include monthly meetings with the collaborating team, student and faculty exchanges & site visits, engagement with NSF program managers, joint seminars, preliminary data collection, collection of feedback and surveys from impacted student groups, and development of future NSF proposals. It is expected that this effort will lead to a long-lasting partnership that will mutually benefit all parties involved. In the short term, the planning grant to solidify this partnership, exchange ideas, visit respective campuses, and write proposals to NSF programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

高超音速技术的发展是重新兴起的全球太空竞赛的关键要素，有可能彻底改变商业航空运输、太空准入和国防。美国太空科学和工程行业的大部分劳动力都面临着退休的问题。在不久的将来，缺乏具有技能或经验的年轻工人来胜任这些角色，并且可能缺乏有资格进行相关研究和开发的毕业生。在航空航天领域，提高多样性对于实现改变文明的目标至关重要。就像星际旅行一样，高超音速飞行、电动飞机和低排放推进技术该项目将为学术合作伙伴（包括 UTSA、霍华德和麻省理工学院）的多元化联盟提供机会，重点解决航空航天劳动力中当前和未来的挑战。 UTSA 是一所少数族裔服务机构，霍华德大学是一所历史悠久的黑人研究型大学，而麻省理工学院是世界公认的工程教育和研究领域的领导者。这种合作关系将利用这些机构独特的研究基础设施。 UTSA 的高超音速风洞）将为高度多样化的学生群体提供改变生活的体验，这项资助计划将使提案团队能够促进和发展这种合作，从而导致未来高超音速研究活动的紧密开展。与每个合作机构的教育推广相结合，作为一个平台，让不同的学生群体参与航空航天研究，同时使未来的航空航天劳动力多样化，速度超过音速或马赫数 5 倍。每小时 4,000 英里——通常被认为是高超音速系统，目前由于缺乏高速流动的实验数据而受到限制，因此迫切需要验证计算流体动力学 (CFD) 模型。能够显着影响高超声速飞行器性能和结构完整性的物理现象（包括冲击波/边界层相互作用、湍流转变和非平衡化学效应）继续给高超声速预测 CFD 模型的开发带来问题UTSA 最近还建造了世界一流的 7 马赫风。隧道进行独特的实验测量，而每个合作机构都拥有大量的计算资源，再加上 Karina Vielma 博士提供的工程教育背景，使该小组能够为国内代表性不足的学生提供宝贵的研究经验。 -需求领域通过这笔规划拨款，PI 团队将探索这种合作的令人兴奋的潜力，并制定一个具体的框架，以促进这些机构的高超音速研究的发展，包括开发未来向 NSF 项目提交的材料。实现这些目标的一系列活动包括每月与合作团队举行会议、学生和教师交流及实地考察、与 NSF 项目经理的接触、联合研讨会、初步数据收集、收集受影响学生的反馈和调查。预计这一努力将形成长期的合作伙伴关系，使所有相关方在短期内互惠互利，并通过规划拨款巩固这种伙伴关系、交流想法、参观各自的校园。 ，并向 NSF 项目撰写提案。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。