2009 Annual Report of the Department of Aerospace Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Tenured/Tenure Emeritus Faculty Department Head’s Remarks Track Faculty John D. Buckmaster elcome to the 2009 Annual Report of the Joanna M. Austin Rodney L. Burton Illinois Aerospace Engineering Depart- Lawrence A. Bergman Harry H. Hilton Wment. Despite the trying financial times Daniel J. Bodony Allen Ormsbee that we’ve all experienced in the last year, the Michael B. Bragg John E. Prussing department remains quite healthy in all respects. Timothy W. Bretl Lee H. Sentman Our State budget has held steady to date in spite of gloomy predictions of major shortfalls in rev- Ioannis Chasiotis Kenneth R. Sivier enues during the past year. Our enrollments remain Soon-Jo Chung Wayne C. Solomon Craig Dutton strong with 382 undergraduate and 125 graduate Bruce A. Conway Shee Mang Yen students as of this fall. We have worked particularly hard the last several Victoria L. Coverstone years on our graduate student enrollment, which is at an all-time high. J. Craig Dutton Affiliate/Adjunct In terms of our curriculum, we have just completed a major revision of Gregory S. Elliott Faculty our undergraduate program, successfully gained approval of the revision Jonathan B. Freund Kenneth T. Christensen through all levels of the university, and are now in the implementation phase. Similarly, we have completed a major revision to our M.S. degree Philippe H. Geubelle Naira Hovakimyan program, including a new non-thesis option, and are now gaining John Lambros Thomas L. Jackson approval of this revised degree program, with implementation likely to Cedric Langbort Arif Masud begin in the fall of 2010. Next up will be revisions to our Ph.D. program. Ki D. Lee Karel Matous Our research programs are thriving as well. In FY2009 we had the Eric Loth D. Michael McFarland highest level of research expenditures ever within the department, and N. Sri Namachchivaya George H. Miley the initiation of some very exciting new programs. Several of these pro- Michael S. Selig James W. Phillips grams will be featured in the following pages. You can read about a new Petros G. Voulgaris Srinivasa M. Salapaka MURI project led by AE Prof. John Lambros. The work of John and his Scott R. White Nancy R. Sottos colleagues aims to mitigate loads on devices by controlling their mate- rial microstructure to tailor the stress waves generated by impacts. Other Alexander Vakakis featured work includes Sri Namachchivaya’s mathematical modeling of multi-scale stochastic phenomena, a new bone adhesion project of Eric Loth and colleagues, and the ongoing, innovative work of Scott White and colleagues on autonomic, self-healing materials. We are extremely proud of the honors our faculty have achieved. Some highlighted in this publication include Ioannis Chasiotis (NSF PECASE Award), Eric Loth and Philippe Geubelle (elected as ASME Fellows), Scott White (Finalist for international Bepi Colombo Prize), Jonathan Freund Writers (APS Francois Frenkiel Award), and Harry Hilton, Ioannis Chasiotis, and Susan Mumm Mohammad Naraghi (Fourth International Conference on Continuum James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor, Mechanics Best Paper Award). We are also pleased to introduce you to University of Illinois News Bureau Soon-Jo Chung, who has just joined our faculty from Iowa State Univer- Melissa A. Mitchell, Editorial Associate, sity. His research interests are in the areas of autonomous systems and University of Illinois News Bureau robotics, and we are very excited to have him join us. Editor Susan Mumm Our students and alumni also continue to achieve great things. In these Designer pages you will read about the accomplishments of graduate students Gretchen Wieshuber, Studio 2D Manu Sharma, Adam Steele, Greg Busch, and Jacob Englander, as well Photo contributors as about our amazing undergraduate space design teams. Among our featured alumni are Earl Dowell, who recently received the prestigious James W. Phillips, AE Affiliate Professor L. Brian Stauffer Guggenheim Medal, as well as two , Lee Archambault and Duke University Photography Scott Altman, who commanded recent Shuttle missions, and Mike Jerry Thompson, Thompson and McClellan Hopkins, who is in the newest class of candidates. Photography Bill Ingalls So, read and enjoy. We look forward to your comments; our contact infor- NASA mation is readily available on our website at: www.ae.illinois.edu. John Raoux Janet Sinn Hanlon Sincerely, Beckman Institute ITG, Darren Stevenson and Alex Jerez Craig Dutton Bliss Professor and Head 3 Highlights

Bone Adhesion Project pag e 8 Seeing the Smart Materials World Through pag e 4 Equations pag e 6

Bat-Like Aircraft Flight pag e 14

Student News pag e s 16, 20, 21, 22

Autonomic Designer Healing Materials Research pag e 17 pag e 10

Alumni News pag e s 18–19 4 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Illinois-led Project Garners $6.25 Million DoD Grant

“If you oth the electronic components of your cell sor of and Applied Physics from the drop a cell phone and the explosive portions of military California Institute of Technology. weaponry could be better protected by the phone . . . B It’s clear to the team that more than one material smarter materials that scientists including AE Profs. will be needed to achieve the desired results. “We’ll a smart John Lambros and Philippe H. Geubelle plan to need a combination of materials in a heterogeneous casing design. composite system,” Lambros said. would trap The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a Vakakis and Daraio will begin by looking at the fun- and anni- $6.25 million grant for the University of Illinois-led damental physics resulting from model experiments project, “Design of Adaptive Load Mitigating Mate- hilate the on simpler systems such as granular materials that rials Using Nonlinear Stress Wave Tailoring.” The waves and include plastic and metal components. DoD’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative mitigate (MURI) will provide $1.25 million annually for five Using the knowledge Vakakis and Daraio gain, impact years to support the work. Totorelli and Geubelle will do design and optimiza- tion work through computer simulation. Kriven effects.” Calling the project “ambitious,” Lambros said the will use the simulations to develop new processing team wants to control the microstructure of materi- methods and new materials, including granular als that encase critical components. If the equip- materials, ceramics and geopolymers—inorganic, ment is dropped or otherwise damaged, the casing lightweight materials that don’t have to be heated material would channel resulting stress waves to desired locations and away from areas most needing protection. “If you drop a cell phone, you don’t want the interior components damaged so you don’t want the stress waves to reach the interior. Instead, a smart casing would trap and annihilate the waves and miti- gate impact effects,” Lambros said. Likewise, such casings would result in munitions being more insensitive to impact loading, making weapons handling safer for people and equipment, he said. In addition to Lambros, the princi- pal investigator of the project, and Geubelle, other Illinois researchers involved in the project are Profs. Alexander F. Vakakis and Daniel A. Tortorelli of Mechanical Science and Engineering, and Prof. Waltraud Wave propagation in a granular bead chain (a) Polymeric PTFE beads with M. Kriven of Materials Science and embedded sensors (b), record the wave propagating through the chain. Two Engineering. Joining them will be novel wave propagation features are exhibited: (c) Tunability—adding a Chiara Daraio, an assistant profes- pre-compression changes the wave speed profile, as shown experimentally (points) and analytically (lines); (d) Energy trapping (bottom): Force measured at the wall (red line) is only a small fraction of the input force (green line). From Chiara Daraio’s work. Smart Materials 5

Geubelle Kriven Daraio Lambros Tortorelli Vakakis to high temperatures to be made, but that are hard The MURI program supports research by teams of and durable like ceramics. investigators that intersect more than one tradi- tional science and engineering discipline in order to Lambros will do experimental mechanics testing and accelerate both research progress and transition of oversee the entire project, which also will require research results to application. Most MURI efforts the work of a dozen graduate students and three involve researchers from multiple academic institu- postdoctoral research associates. tions and academic departments. Selection was The Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval highly competitive: a total of 152 proposals were Research (ONR), and the Air Force Office of Scien- submitted and 41 were funded. tific Research (AFOSR) conducted the 2009 MURI competition for the DoD. ARO will oversee the Lambros team’s work.

Chasiotis Earns Presidential Early Career Award Grant Supports Investigation of Nanoscale Polymer Behavior

ssociate Prof. Ioannis Chasiotis will be Although in every day applications traveling this fall to Washington, D.C., to polymers are not used directly in Areceive from President Barack Obama a 2008 such very small quantities, when Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and they are combined with nano- Engineers (PECASE). powders and nanotubes to form products such as nanocomposites, The award is the highest honor the U.S. government polymers are compartmentalized bestows upon young professionals at the outset in such small quantities that their of their independent research careers. Chasiotis is physical behavior is radically altered. among 100 individuals being honored in all fields of science and engineering. “Large fractions of the polymer molecules are either not as con- Young scientists and engineers with PECASE awards fined or are tightly confined when also receive a five-year research grant to further polymeric materials are limited to their study in support of critical government mis- nanoscale sizes, forcing them to sions. Supported by the National Science Founda- follow new deformation routes,” tion, Chasiotis’ project has been the study of the Chasiotis said. mechanical behavior of polymeric materials in ultra small volumes. At the nanoscale, these materials In recent years, aerospace firms behave very differently from the way that polymers and other sectors have explored behave when fabricated in large quantities. continued on page 23 6 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Seeing the World Through Equations

hen AE Prof. Navarat- better estimate the true state of a physical system,” nam Sri Namachchivaya he maintains. “Using our research results, we can Wobserves the world give meaningful predictions of multi-scale stochastic around him, he strives to under- phenomena that occur in space and time. We have stand fundamental features that looked at several specific large-scale problems, for can be modeled mathematically. example the operation of the electric power grid In other words, he sees the world and the motion of eddy structures—or vortices—in through equations. the atmosphere and oceans.” A theoretical and applied mecha- Consider the case of vortical structures in the nician for the past 25 years, Sri oceans. On one hand, one could track and predict Namachchivaya sees it as his task their motion using satellite imagery. This is rela- to “develop mathematical methods tively straightforward, but launching a satellite and so as to be able to understand the maintaining it in orbit is a significant undertak- most important physical factors at ing. An alternative means to observe and measure play in a given problem. Interesting environmental factors such as temperature and flow problems are those that lead to a rates is to equip drifters and floats with inexpensive new addition to our mathematical computerized sensors, then place those devices on toolbox.” the oceans. By developing mathematical The thousands if not millions of measurements methods, he understands and is ocean-floating sensors can obtain from complicated able to explain phenomena such as stabilization by phenomena such as a hurricane, however, are very Using our noise and stochastic bifurcations. Bifurcations are different from the information that can be derived research “tipping points” where the behavior of a system from satellite imagery. Sensor-derived informa- changes dramatically even though the system’s tion requires that multi-scale methods, stochas- results, we control parameters have changed only slightly. tics and data assimilation be integrated into the can give investigation. For example, a bifurcation occurs when an aircraft meaning- loses lift due to an angle of attack that is too high: Sensor-driven data can also explain the work- ful predic- a small change in the wings’ attack angle leads to a ings of biological cells. Within each cell are many tions of dramatic change in the aircraft’s overall lift. Sto- tracks upon which walk protein machines known multi-scale chastic bifurcations are those where noise plays an as molecular motors. The motors are enzymes that important role and therefore the use of determinis- convert chemical energy into directed motion. stochastic tic theories does not provide a satisfactory answer. phenom- Since 2007, Sri Namachchivaya has been developing Recently, Sri Namachchivaya has been concerned new signal processing methodologies and informa- ena that with extracting information from the plethora of tion theoretic techniques to discover and extract occur in data that electronic, networked sensors can provide. essential biological information from the movement space and The steady cost reduction of computerized equip- of these motors to predict behavior, to build models time. ment has led to sensors that are greater in number and validate them from data. One of the jobs of the and better in sensitivity than ever before. However, motors is to carry waste out of the cell, and bring this explosion in the amount of data available has nutrients into it. Sri Namachchivaya can observe the also started to overwhelm those responsible for motors’ movement by observing their cargo. deciphering the data and explaining what it means. “I may not be able to see a molecular motor, but “The goal is to combine the information from maybe I can see the loosely attached cargo it is sensor data with knowledge of the mathematical pulling,” he explains, in illustration. “Knowing the properties of the underlying dynamical systems to Equations 7

The left figure shows the mean value of estimated position of the vortices by tracking the single tracer. The right figure shows the conditioned pdf of the position. position of the cargo is how I can estimate the posi- tion of the motor itself.” Sri Namachchivaya also is using sensor-driven data to develop theories that will improve the function of electric power grids. His group uses subspace clustering, neural networks, nonlinear filters and dynamical system theory to determine the coher- ency pattern of the power generators from data. Critical conditions can arise very quickly in power grids, he points out. “If engineers monitoring the operating conditions of electric utility networks could be notified of imminent blackout conditions at least 10 minutes in advance, that should be enough time for them to take corrective measures and avoid disruptions,” he believes. In recent work in delay differential equations, he was able to demonstrate analytically the potential effectiveness of spindle speed variation to eliminate cutting-tool chatter in turning. Observations showed that constant, repetitious use caused the tool to vibrate and chatter to result. Counter-intuitively, the movement would stabilize when variable speeds were used. Sri Namachchivaya’s research showed that random patterns of variable speeds worked well in reducing the chatter. “This is good for the manufacturer, because it’s easier to have a random pattern than to maintain a constant pattern,” he said. The unifying theme was a study of delay differential equations with fluctuating delay. His work provided a more transparent derivation of the chatter sup- pression results than those previously known. 8 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Bone Adhesion Project Gets Grainger Funding

This bone adhesion project of research AE Prof. Eric Loth and Dr. Ilker Bayer is being funded can enable A as part of the Grainger Program tissue- in Emerging Technologies that the engineered University of Illinois College of Engi- implants neering administers. for recon- Loth and Bayer have teamed with structive Prof. Iwona Jasiuk of Mechanical Science and Engineering on the skeletal project, “Novel Biocompatible Bone deformities Adhesion Technology.” and cell- The researchers propose develop- based ther- ing biocompatible adhesives and apies for composites to bond bone to other bone, repair plates or to help make osteoar- A scanning electron microscope photograph shows the nanostructured implants using an original ortho- thritis. microporous surface morphology of the proposed composite adhesives. pedic adhesion technology. More specifically, they propose to design bio-inspired porous nano-composite bone graft deformities and cell-based therapies for osteoar- materials fortified with proteins and antibiotics, thritis and osteoporosis Loth and his group believe. which can set and cure in moist environments while Several different polymer and ceramic combinations promoting new bone generation and/or healing. will be selected, synthesized to form composites and tested experimentally and theoretically to assess the Traditional approaches in bonding bone to bone or quality and characteristics of the resulting adhesives. bone to metal or composite usually involve natural or synthetic polymers or cements but typically This technology may be of great importance in require use of other fasteners such as screws and/ orthopedics for securing scaffolds and implants or chemical pre-treatments with corrosive chemicals. as well as in dental applications involving gluing The researchers propose a novel approach involving implanted teeth or other implants to bone, which is new composite systems consisting of a polymeric a multi-million dollar market. matrix and a ceramic reinforcement to provide supe- The College of Engineering selected this project as rior bonding and strength without pre-treatment. one of ten proposals for the Grainger Program in In the future, this research can enable tissue- Emerging Technologies funding. The Grainger Foun- engineered implants for reconstructive skeletal dation created the program to promote the transla- tion of new academic developments in engineering into commercially viable products and services. It is designed to bridge the gap between traditional funding for basic theoretical research and typical industry funding, which targets already-proven technologies. Loth has been a faculty member since 1990 and Bayer, with expertise in polymers and nano-textured surfaces, has been a post-doctoral scientist since January 2008. Loth Jasiuk Bayer Bone Adhesion 9

Loth Named ASME Fellow

AE Professor Eric Loth has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Fellowship status in the 129-year-old organization is conferred upon veteran members who have contributed significant engineering achievements. Professor Loth has distinguished himself nation- ally and internationally for over 20 years as an engineer and educator in the area of fluid dynamics. His major research accomplish- ments include development of novel simulation methods and fundamental research in aerody- namic, aeroelastic, multi-phase, and supersonic flow phenomena. He has over 75 journal publications (including a Santa Claus Comes to Town in review paper on multiphase flow with more than 90 citations), and over 100 conference papers. Nanocomposite Photo Loth earned his PhD in 1988 from the , with a dissertation on experiments Santa Claus made an early appearance in a photo AE Prof. Eric of multiphase supersonic turbulent flows. He Loth’s research group produced recently. earned a master’s in 1985 from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s in 1983 from The photo won second place among 50 finalists in the Science as West Virginia University, conducting research Art Competition at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in aerodynamic simulations and wind turbine in San Francisco. systems, respectively. Postdoctoral research associate Ilker Bayer said the photo is Loth focused on computational fluid dynamics a scanning electron micrograph of a nanocomposite coating of shock waves with unstructured grids when he surface morphology. began his career at the Naval Research Labora- tory. He joined the AE Department’s faculty “It showed very interesting surface roughness features, one of as an Assistant Professor in 1990, and rose which was the structure that resembles Santa amazingly,” Bayer to Associate and then Full Professor by 2002, said. “We just colored the image to highlight the resemblance. when he was named a Willett Faculty Scholar No image overlaying or other image processing was applied.” of the College of Engineering. In 2008, he was appointed AE’s Associate Head of Undergradu- “The polymer nanocomposite was composed of a dispersion of ate Studies. sub-micron Teflon particles and carbon nanotubes in a polymer Founded in 1880, ASME is a not-for-profit matrix,” Bayer said. professional organization that promotes the art, science and practice of mechanical and In addition to Loth and Bayer, who originally recognized Santa, multidisciplinary engineering and allied sci- AE graduate student Adam Steele added the highlight color and ences throughout the world. The core values of has also been working on the project. ASME are rooted in its mission to better enable mechanical engineering practitioners to contrib- ute to the well-being of humankind. 10 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

New Developments in Autonomic Materials: New Ingredients, Self-Healing Coatings and Force-Sensitive Color Changes

E Prof. Scott White and his collaborators lead to mechanical failure. Autonomic self-healing— in the Autonomic Healing Research group a process in which the damage itself triggers the Amixed up a new recipe for self-healing poly- repair mechanism—can retain structural integrity mers in the past year, then pushed the materials’ and extend the lifetime of the material. boundaries by developing self-healing coatings and Designed to mimic the human body’s ability to an ability for polymers to change color in reaction repair wounds, self-healing materials release a to force. healing agent into the crack plane when damaged, and through chemical and physical processes, restore the material’s initial fracture properties. In November 2007, White and collaborators reported the use of chlorobenzene, a common but toxic organic solvent that in epoxy resins achieved a healing efficiency of up to 82 percent. In their latest work, which combined a non-toxic and Kosher- certified food additive (ethyl phenylactate) and an unreacted epoxy monomer into microcapsules as small as 150 microns in diameter, the researchers achieved a healing efficiency of 100 percent. “Previously, the microcapsules contained only solvent, which flowed into the crack and allowed some of the unreacted matrix material to become mobile, react and repair the damage,” said gradu- ate research assistant Mary Caruso. “By including a tiny amount of unreacted epoxy monomer with the Photo by L. Brian Stauffer solvent in the microcapsules, we can provide addi- Researchers: from left, New recipe for self-healing tional chemical reactivity to repair the material.” Jeffrey Moore, When the epoxy monomer enters the crack plane, a professor plastic includes dash of of chemistry; it bonds with material in the matrix to coat the Nancy Sottos, food additive crack and regain structural properties. In tests, the a professor solvent-epoxy monomer combination was able to of materials The scientists found adding a food additive to recover 100 percent of a material’s virgin strength science and damaged polymers can help restore them to full after damage had occurred. engineering; strength. Scott White, “This work helps move self-healing materials from a professor The repair process, in which solvent-filled microcap- the lab and into everyday applications,” said gradu- of aerospace engineering; sules embedded in an epoxy matrix rupture when a ate research assistant Benjamin Blaiszik. “We’ve only and graduate crack forms, presented a major improvement over begun to scratch the surface of potential applica- research the original self-healing process first described in tions using encapsulated solvent and epoxy resin.” assistants February 2001. “While our previous solvent worked In addition to White, Caruso and Blaiszik, the other Mary Caruso well for healing, it was also toxic,” said White, also and Benjamin co-authors of the paper were AE affiliate and mate- a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Blaiszik. rials science and engineering professor Nancy Sottos Science and Technology. “Our new solvent is both and chemistry professor Jeffrey Moore. non-toxic and less expensive.” The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research During normal use, epoxy-based materials experi- and the U.S. Department of Defense supported ence stresses that can cause cracking, which can Autonomic Healing Research 11

the research. Some of the work was performed at polymer coating and into the steel the university’s Center for Microanalysis of Materi- substrate using a razor blade. The als, partially supported by the U.S. Department of samples were then immersed in a Energy. salt solution and compared over time. The control samples corroded New polymer coatings within 24 hours and exhibited prevent corrosion, even extensive rust formation, most prevalently within the groove of when scratched the scratched regions, but also extending across the substrate Imagine tiny cracks in a patio table healing by surface, the researchers reported. themselves, or the first small scratch on a new car In dramatic contrast, the self- disappearing by itself. This and more may be pos- healing samples showed no visual sible with self-healing coatings White’s group is evidence of corrosion even after developing. 120 hours of exposure. The new coatings are designed to better protect “Our dual capsule healing system materials from the effects of environmental expo- offers a general approach to self- sure. Applications range from automotive paints healing coatings that operates and marine varnishes to the thick, rubbery coatings

across a broad spectrum of coating Photo by Janet Sinn Hanlon on patio furniture and park benches. chemistries,” Braun said. “The Cracks in a brittle coating are “Starting from our earlier work on self-healing microcapsule motif also provides a healed autonomously via a three- materials at the U. of I., we have now created delivery mechanism for corrosion dimensional microvascular network embedded in the underlying self-healing coatings that automatically repair inhibitors, antimicrobial agents, substrate. The network contains themselves and prevent corrosion of the underlying and other functional chemicals.” a healing agent (red) which substrate,” said Paul Braun, a self-healing group polymerizes after contacting the With Braun, the paper’s co-authors member and a University Scholar and professor of catalyst (purple) in the damaged are White and former Beckman materials science and engineering. regions. Institute and materials science To make self-repairing coatings, the researchers first graduate student Soo Hyoun Cho. encapsulate a catalyst into spheres less than 100 A company Braun, White and microns in diameter (a micron is 1 millionth of a other U. of I. researchers formed is meter). They also encapsulate a healing agent into exploring commercialization of the similarly sized microcapsules. The microcapsules are self-healing coatings technology. then dispersed within the desired coating material Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, and applied to the substrate. the U.S. Air Force Office of Sci- “By encapsulating both the catalyst and the entific Research, and Beckman healing agent, we have created a dual capsule Institute funded the work. system that can be added to virtually any liquid coating material,” said Braun, who also is affiliated with Beckman Institute, Frederick Seitz Materials Mechanical stress Research Laboratory, department of chemistry, and Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory. leads to self- sensing in solid When the coating is scratched, some of the capsules Photo by L. Brian Stauffer break open, spilling their contents into the damaged polymers Illinois researchers Paul Braun, region. The catalyst and healing agent react, repair- right, and Scott White have ing the damage within minutes or hours, depending Parachute cords, climbing ropes, created self-healing coatings that automatically repair themselves upon environmental conditions. and smart coatings for bridges that and prevent corrosion of the change color when overstressed The performance of the self-healing coating underlying substrate. are several possible uses for force- system was evaluated through corrosion testing of sensitive polymers the group is damaged and healed coated steel samples com- developing. pared to control samples that contained no healing agents in the coating. Reproducible damage was The polymers contain mechanically active molecules induced by scratching through the 100-micron-thick called mechanophores. Specific chemical reactions 12 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Autonomic Healing Research, continued

are triggered in precisely linked to the triggering stimulus,” said the mechano- Sottos. phores when In their work, the researchers used molecules called pushed or spiropyrans, a promising class of molecular probes pulled with a that serve as color-generating mechanophores, certain force. capable of vivid color changes when they undergo “This offers a mechanochemical change. Normally colorless, the new way to spiropyran used in the experiments turns red or build func- purple when exposed to certain levels of mechanical tion directly stress. into synthetic “Mechanical stress induces a ring-opening reac- materials,” said tion of the spiropyran that changes the color of the Nancy Sottos, a material,” said Douglas Davis, a graduate research Willett Profes- assistant and the paper’s lead author. “The reac- sor of materials tion is reversible, so we can repeat the opening and science and closing of the mechanophore.” engineering and an affiliate of “Spiropyrans can serve as molecular probes to aid in

Photo by Beckman Institute ITG, Darren Stevenson and Alex Jerez the Beckman understanding the effects of stress and accumulated Progressive images of a mechanophore linked elastomer Institute. “And damage in polymeric materials, thereby providing during tensile loading. After the polymer reaches a it opens the an opportunity for assessment, modification and critical strain, a force-induced red color results from door to creat- improvement prior to failure,” Davis said. selective covalent bond cleavage in the mechanophore ing mechano- just prior to failure. To demonstrate the mechanochemical response, the phores that can researchers prepared two different mechanophore- perform different responsive functions, including linked polymers and subjected them to different self-sensing and self-reinforcing, when stressed.” levels of mechanical stress. In one polymer, an In previous work, the group showed they could use elastomer, the material was stretched until it broke mechanical force to induce a reaction in mechano- in two. A vivid color change in the polymer occurred phore-linked polymers that were in solution. Now just before it snapped. The second polymer was A vivid the researchers show they can perform a similar feat formed into rigid beads several hundred microns color in a solid polymer. in diameter. When the beads were squeezed, they changed from colorless to purple. change Mechanically induced chemical activation (also in the known as mechanochemical transduction) enables The color change that took place within both poly- an extraordinary range of physiological processes, mers could serve as a good indicator of how much polymer including the senses of touch, hearing and balance, stress a mechanical part or structural component occurred as well as growth and remodeling of tissue and made of the material had undergone. just before bone. Analogous to the responsive behavior of “We’ve moved very seamlessly from chemistry to biological systems, the channeling of mechanical it snapped. materials, and from materials we are now moving energy to selectively trigger a reaction that alters or into engineering applications,” Sottos said. “With enhances a material’s properties is being harnessed a deeper understanding of mechanophore design by the researchers. rules and efficient chemical response pathways, In critical material systems, such as polymers used we envision new classes of dynamically responsive in aircraft components, self-sensing and self-rein- polymers that locally remodel, reorganize or even forcing capabilities could be used to report damage regenerate via mechanical regulation.” and warn of potential component failure, slow the The paper’s co-authors are Sottos, Davis, White, spread of damage to extend a material’s lifetime, or Braun, Moore, chemistry professor Todd Martinez even repair damage in early stages to avoid cata- and members of their research groups. The U.S. strophic failure. Army Research Office MURI program funds the “By coupling mechanical energy directly to struc- work. tural response, the desired functionality could be Faculty News 13

White is Finalist for Bepi Colombo Geubelle Prize Named

AE Prof. Scott R. White was one of five finalists for the 2008 Bepi ASME Colombo Prize, an international award named in honor of Italian sci- entist Giuseppe Colombo, famous for his contributions to aerospace Fellow technology and exploration. White was considered for his pioneering work in developing self- E Professor Philippe Geu- healing polymers, materials that mimic the autonomic healing belle has been named a response natural to living systems. White’s research team reported Fellow of the American their initial breakthrough in 2001 with an epoxy polymer containing A Society of Mechanical Engineers a microencapsulated healing agent and a catalytic chemical trigger. Cracks in the polymer rupture the embedded microcapsules, releas- (ASME). Fellowship status in the ing the healing 129-year-old organization is con- agent into the ferred upon veteran members crack, healing it. who have contributed significant In subsequent engineering achievements. research White’s team has devel- Over his 15-year professional oped a second career, Geubelle has distin- generation of the guished himself nationally and polymers incorpo- internationally as an engineer rating a vascular and educator in computational network akin to mechanics. His key research Over his biological systems, accomplishments include so that the healing From left, Roger-Maurice Bonnet, Executive 15-year Director of the International Space Science development of novel numerical agent supply can Institute in Bern, Switzerland, and Chairman methods for fracture mechanics, profes- be replenished of the International Jury for the Bepi Colombo computational design and mod- indefinitely, extend- sional Prize; Flavio Manzolini, Councillor for Economic eling of biomimetic self-healing ing the materials’ career, Activities of the Province of Padova, Italy; and and cooling materials, multiscale lifetime greatly. AE Prof. Scott R. White. modeling of heterogeneous Geubelle The research has materials and computational gained worldwide attention and has resulted in White founding a has distin- company, Autonomic Materials Incorporated, in the University of aeroelasticity. guished Illinois Research Park. Applications for the self-healing polymers are Geubelle is the AE Associate himself far-reaching, ranging from aerospace structures, to sporting goods, Head for graduate programs and to microelectronics to coatings and paint. nationally directs the Illinois Space Grant and inter- Candidates for the biannual Bepi Colombo Prize must have produced Consortium. He has supervised research that has contributed to a meaningful advance in a field over 30 graduate students, and nationally related to Prof. Colombo’s research activity, and/or has produced has obtained multiple awards for as an engi- results that impact consumers’ daily lives. his research, teaching and advis- neer and Colombo built his career at the University of Padova, Italy, lecturing ing work. on mechanical vibrations and celestial mechanics, as well as space educator vehicles and rockets. He participated in research at the Harvard Among his honors have been in compu- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, then at Caltech and Jet Propul- the 1998 and 2009 American tational sion Laboratory. Institute of Aeronautics and Colombo is known for his discovery of the spin-orbital coupling of Astronautics Illinois Chapter’s mechanics. Mercury, the planning of multiple fly-by of Mercury in 1972-1973, Teacher of the Year Award; the the conceptual design of the Solar Probe mission, the promotion of 2007 Best Fatigue and Fracture the Skyhook concept applications, a new type of orbiting gravity gra- paper published in the Journal diometer, and the interpretation of the azimuthal brightness variation of Engineering Materials and of ring A of Saturn as a spiral structure. He studied new concepts Technology; the 1999 and 2006 concerning space transportation, large space structures and evolution University of Illinois College of of space technology for space sciences and applications. He also was one of the pioneers of many tethered satellite applications. Engineering Xerox Research Award; the 2000 University of continued on page 23 14 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

New AE Professor Developing Bat-Like Aircraft Flight

quipped with a vision to in surveillance, particularly in urban settings where develop aircraft that mimic obstacles hamper movement and satellite control is Ethe autonomy and agility of blocked. bats, Soon-Jo Chung began this fall Chung is working on a MAV with an engineered semester as a new assistant profes- neural control system that mimics bats’ ability to sor in Aerospace Engineering. synchronize their wings’ flapping and joint move- Coming to Illinois from Iowa State ments, allowing them to respond to changes in University, the biomimeticist brings environment. Meanwhile, his ongoing research with him a three-year, $300,000 Air on vision-based navigation is expected to make Force Young Investigator research a break-through with a superior information-to- grant he received this year for his weight ratio. A small camera allows the vehicle to project, “Bio-Inspired Integrated see obstacles while an onboard computer generates Sensing and Control of Flapping a map for navigation. Flight for Micro Aerial Vehicles.” So far, Chung has successfully developed a small According to Chung, “Bat-inspired indoor that can autonomously navigate flapping flight holds promise for a path. He also has produced a robotic bat that, creating micro-aerial vehicles docked on a test bed, has a range of eight indepen- (MAVs) where rigid fixed wings dent movements in flapping its wings. The next step drop substantially in aerodynamic is to combine the two advances in a vehicle light performance. The successful enough to fly. Chung reverse-engineering of flapping flight will poten- While expanding this research, Chung will continue tially lead to an innovation in aircraft design, and developing new theories and methods to coordinate push the frontier of our understanding of neuro- the movements of individual space or aerial vehicles biological mechanisms underlying animal flight and in formation, a project that comprised his doctoral locomotion.” work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The suc- “There’s a lot to learn from bio cessful systems,” Chung said. “Bats can reverse- fly with damaged wings. They are engineer- so agile and highly maneuverable; they can make rapid 180-degree ing of turns autonomously and they can flapping fly indoors without colliding with flight will obstacles.” potentially Bats’ wings are designed to allow lead to an the animals to move acrobatically. innovation Thousands of tiny hairs on the wing membranes provide sensory in aircraft information that controls the design shape and pitch of the wings. This enables bats to adjust their flight in response to wind gusts and obstacles. These qualities are desirable for Chung is working on a MAV with an engineered neural control system small aircraft that could be used that mimics bats’ ability to synchronize their wings’ flapping and joint movements, allowing them to respond to changes in environment. Faculty News 15

Chung earned that degree in estimation and control in 2007, Freund Chosen for APS and earned his master’s, also at MIT, in 2002 in aeronautics and Frenkiel Award astronautics. He was summa cum laude in earning his bache- lor’s in aerospace engineering in 1998 from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technol- ogy (KAIST), a leading science onathan B. Freund, associate professor in Aero- and engineering school in Asia. space Engineering, has been selected as the 2008 winner of the Francois Frenkiel Award, a prestigious Chung came to Iowa State in J honor given by the American Physical Society’s Division 2007, spending two years as of Fluid Dynamics. Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering. Prior to that, he Freund was chosen for his paper, “Leukocyte mar- spent six years as a research gination in a model microvessel,” published in the assistant in the MIT Space February 20, 2007, online edition of Physics of Fluids. Systems Laboratory and half The Frenkiel Award recognizes significant contributions a year as a research engineer to fluid mechanics that have been published by young in the New Initiative Office of investigators in Physics of Fluids during the preceding the National Optical Astro- year. nomical Observatories in Tucson, Freund’s research concerned the fluid mechanics of Arizona. He was also a consul- white blood cells when a body responds to physiologi- tant for NASA’s Lunar Reconnais- cal inflammation. Said Freund, “As part of inflammation, the white cells sance Orbiter during 2007. somehow get preferentially pushed toward the walls of vessels. There In addition to the 2008 AFOSR have been lots of ideas about why this happens. My simulation model Young Investigator Award, suggests that it just involves the interaction with the red cells.” Chung’s honors include Iowa Continuing, he said, “I was also able to look at the detailed flow when State’s Aerospace Engineering’s a white cell is near the wall and explain, in part, why, once there, it is in Most Inspiring Professor Award, a relatively stable configuration. I developed a sophisticated simulation Fall 2008 and Spring 2009; tool to study these mechanisms.” This Iowa State’s Aerospace Engi- simulation neering’s Most Interesting Line Freund has appointments in Aerospace Engineering and in Mechanical shows 23 of Research Award, Fall 2008 Science and Engineering at Illinois. His research areas include aerody- red cells and and Spring 2009; Outstanding namic sound, compressible turbulence, numerical methods, large-scale one white Faculty Award from Iowa State’s parallel computing, molecular dynamics simulation of nanometer scale cell flowing in a periodic VEISHEA celebration in 2009; flows and heat transfer in solids. model of a the 2008 IEEE International Con- Prior to coming to Illinois in 2001, Freund had been an assistant profes- microvessel. ference on Electro/Information sor at the University of California, Los Angeles, for three and a Technology Best Paper Award; half years. He had earned his bachelor’s, master’s and a finalist for the 2006 American PhD in mechanical engineering from Stan- Institute of Aeronautics and ford University in 1991, 1992 and Astronautics Guidance, Naviga- 1998, respectively. tion and Control Conference Best Student Paper; an AT&T Freund’s Asia/Pacific 2000 Leadership work Award; and a 1998 KAIST Action had been Committee Presidential Award. selected in 2000 for the Chung is a Senior Member of APS Divi- AIAA and has been nominated sion of Fluid as Technical Area Co-Chair of Dynamics the 2010 AIAA Guidance, Navi- Gallery of gation, and Control Conference. Fluid Motion. 16 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Boeing Recognizes AE Grad Student Wins AE Graduate Student NASA/GSRP Fellowship in International Competition

E graduate student Manu Sharma E graduate student Jacob A. Englander has was honored in the Boeing 2008 been chosen for a National Aeronautics and AStudent of the Year Awards. ASpace Administration fellowship for his work on developing an autonomous design tool for inter- Sharma received an honorable mention for planetary spacecraft missions. his project involving the experimental inves- tigation of compressible hypersonic flow The NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Gradu- using the recently constructed Hypervelocity ate Student Researchers Program Fellowship will Expansion Tube (HET) facility. He was heavily support Englander’s PhD work for the next three involved in the installation of the tube itself, years. the test section, data acquisition system, Typically, according to Englander, when NASA vacuum pump, gas lines and pressure decides to send a probe to a planet that is dif- instrumentation. Sharma ficult to reach, such as Jupiter, Saturn, or Mercury, “I was responsible for the design of a novel primary diaphragm cutting mechanism and the test section sting and model mounts. Specifically, the long- term goal of my Ph.D. is to examine the high- temperature effects that are a defining hallmark of hypersonic flow. Thermochemical processes such as dissociation and vibrational excitation can have a substantial impact upon hypersonic aerodynam- ics. Towards investigating these high-temperature effects, we have selected a Mach reflection as a canonical flowfield and have used schlieren visu- alization, pitot pressure and wavespeed measure- ments and imaging spectroscopy to characterize the flowfield,” Sharma said. According to the company, the competition attracted a record number of qualified entries from around the world, including Australia, India, Singa- pore, South Africa and the United Kingdom, as well Englander as the United States. analysts manually design a sequence of rocket burns Boeing’s sponsorship is one of its many efforts and gravity assist maneuvers to get the spacecraft aimed at encouraging students to pursue careers there efficiently. Numerical methods are used to in aerospace-related engineering fields. The world- optimize each maneuver in the sequence. wide competition is open to any full- or part-time engineering student pursuing a recognized degree. This method becomes problematic because The winning student’s work must be judged as likely the best sequence of maneuvers may to impact the future of aerospace engineering in be non-intuitive, so it may not areas such as new or enhanced capabilities, systems, occur to designers if they are processes or tools; new levels of performance; and doing the work the traditional improved life cycle costs. way, by hand. Unfortunately, the significant amount of time it would take to run all possible sequences on Designer Materials 17

a computer makes the process prohibitive to simulate. AE Researchers’ Paper Chosen Englander’s goal for the project as Best from Continuum is to develop an autonomous method for choosing an optimal Mechanics Conference sequence of maneuvers and events, and then optimize each maneuver in the sequence. “The method has to be fast and group of AE researchers has earned the Best Paper Award from Instead of robust because we don’t want a major continuum mechanics conference held in February in designing our program to crash in the Cambridge, the United Kingdom. A structures middle and have to start over, The International Association of Mechanical Engineers/World Scientific wasting hours or even days of around and Engineering Academy and Society (IAME/WSEA) chose the paper, computer time,” Englander said. standard “Theory of designer nano-viscoelastic composites,” from the Proceed- The method also has to be ings of the Fourth International Conference on Continuum Mechanics. materials’ adaptable to handle many dif- properties, Sharing in the honor are Emeritus Prof. Harry H. Hilton, Associate Prof. ferent types of missions. Finally, Ioannis Chasiotis and Mohammad Naraghi, who completed his doctoral Hilton and any code developed would be degree in AE in May. Naraghi is now a post-doctoral research associate his col- integrated into NASA Goddard’s at . GMAT (General Mission Analysis laborators Toolkit) so that Goddard engi- The paper resulted from the group’s new approach in analyzing poten- attempt to neers could use it to design real tial structural materials. Instead of designing structures around standard determine missions. materials’ properties, Hilton and his collaborators attempt to determine the proper- the properties of ideal materials that would best suit the structure’s Englander said Bradley Wall, uses. ties of ideal MS 2004, PhD 2007, and now materials an assistant professor at Embry This way of looking at structural analysis and design is unique because Riddle Aeronautical University, it defines materials that do not yet exist. The work determines what that would and Christian Chilan, MS 2002 attributes the materials should have to produce optimum results. best suit Computer Science, did previ- The formulas produced through the research also allow materials the struc- ous work on this concept. AE designers to input variables like cost, performance and weight. ture’s uses. Prof. Bruce Conway advises Englander. The award winning paper is an application to nano-viscoelastic compos- ites of the general theory of designer materials developed previously by Hilton, Daniel H. Lee and Abdoul A. El Fouly. Currently Hilton, Lee and Craig G. Merrett are conducting research to generalize the fundamental paper still further to encompass entire flight vehicles (, control, stability, propulsion, structures). They estimate that for a large transport aircraft this would entail solving some 800,000,000 simultaneous equations and will necessitate the use of the IBM-NCSA peta-scale computing system, which will become operational in 2011. Conway Lee and Merrett are PhD candidates in AE.

Hilton Naraghi Chasitois 18 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

Dowell Receives Prestigious Guggenheim Medal

E Alumnus Earl H. Dowell, BS 1959, William major contributions to the flight safety of fighter Holland Hall Professor at Duke University in aircraft and have also had a major impact on the ADurham, North Carolina, is the 2008 recipi- design of both military and civilian aircraft. ent of the Daniel Guggenheim Medal. In addition to his research, Dowell made extraor- The award was presented during the AIAA Aero- dinary contributions to engineering education space Spotlight Awards Gala on May 13, 2009, at especially as a former Dean of Engineering at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Duke University where he had major impact on Center, Washington D.C. The Medal recognizes not only the development of the school’s unprec- Dowell for pioneering contributions to nonlinear edented prominence but also on countless graduate aeroelasticity, structural dynamics and unsteady students. aerodynamics that had a significant influence on Throughout his distinguished career, Dowell also aeronautics, participated generously with professional service and for con- and service on high-level advisory panels including tributions to the Air Force and NASA. education and public service Dowell is the principal author of the leading text- in aerospace book in aeroelasticity, A Modern Course in Aeroelas- engineering. ticity, now in its 4th edition, and also a co-author of the now classic Aeroelasticity of Plates and Shells, With this award, and of the most recent Dynamics of Very High Dowell has Dimensional Systems. Additionally, he is the author amassed all the or co-author of over 250 technical papers. major honors in his field, includ- Dowell’s other honors include Fellow of the Ameri- ing the Walter can Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow of the J. and Angelina American Academy of Mechanics, past president H. Crichlow of the American Academy of Mechanics, current Trust Prize and service on the National Research Council, and Please credit Duke University Photography for the photo. the Spirit of St. others. Louis Medal. He is also a member of the National His accomplishments have been recognized with the Academy of Engineering and an Honorary Fellow AIAA Theodore von Kármán Lectureship in Astro- of the American Institute of Aeronautics and nautics, AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics and Astronautics. Materials Award, and the American Academy of Since 1983, Dowell has been the William Holland Mechanics Distinguished Service Award. Hall Professor, Mechanical Engineering at Duke The Daniel Guggenheim Medal, jointly sponsored by University. Prior to this he was Professor at Princeton the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro- University and Assistant Professor at the Massachu- nautics, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, setts Institute of Technology. Throughout his career, American Helicopter Society, and Society of Auto- Dowell continued vibrant research activities and motive Engineers, was established in 1929 for the made outstanding and lasting seminal contributions purpose of honoring persons who make notable providing solutions to some of the most important achievements in the advancements of aeronautics. problems in aeroelasticity, unsteady aerodynamics and structural dynamics. These endeavors led to Alumni News 19

AE Alumni Command Flights, Join 2009 Astronaut Class

wo AE alumni commanded space shuttle flights in 2009, while a third alumnus joined the ranks Tof the 2009 astronaut candidate class. Veteran space flier Lee “Bru” Archambault, BS 1982, MS 1984, commanded the shuttle Discovery’s February mission to the International Space Station. Scott Altman, BS 1981, another veteran in space, commanded Atlantis’ mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in May. In July, Lt. Col. Michael S. Hopkins, BS 1992, brought to four the number of astronauts produced by the Aerospace Engineering Department at Illinois (the fourth is Col. Steven R. Nagel, BS 1969). Archambault, a U.S. Air Force colonel, led a mission to deliver the space station’s fourth and final set of AP Photo by John Raoux solar array wings, completing the station’s back- Space shuttle Atlantis crew, from right, commander bone, or truss. Scott D. Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, mission specialist, K. Megan McArthur, mission specialist John The arrays were designed to provide the electricity Grunsfeld and mission specialist Andrew Feustel, to power science experiments and increase the crew mission specialist Michael Good and mission specialist size to six in May. During the servicing mission to Michael Massimino, leave the Operations and Checkout building enroute to board the shuttle at Kennedy Space Hubble, Altman’s crew installed two new instru- Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, May 11, 2009. ments, repaired two inactive ones, and performed the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least The Atlantis mission was Altman’s 2014. fourth shuttle flight since joining Archambault joined the U.S. Air the space program in 1995. He Force in 1985 and has logged over has previously flown to the Inter- 4,250 flight hours in more than national Space Station and on an 30 different aircraft, including the earlier Hubble Space Telescope F-117A Stealth Fighter. He guided servicing mission. that craft through 22 combat Michael Hopkins was one of nine men and missions in the Gulf War between Hopkins women selected from among 3,500 1990 and 1991. Later he served applicants for the 2009 astronaut as an instructor pilot and class. Relocating to NASA’s Johnson to aid aircraft weapons develop- Space Center in Houston in August, ment before joining NASA in June Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls Hopkins had been working as 1998. He and other members of Leading NASA’s STS-119 space special assistant to the Vice Chair- the STS-119 crew were honored shuttle crew, Commander Lee man (Joint Chiefs of Staff) at the on May 1 with a White House visit Archambault presented President Pentagon. with President Barack Obama. Barack Obama with a montage in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 1, 2009, in Washington, D.C. 20 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

AE Grad Student is Finalist for Lemelson Prize; Wins Cozad Venture Competition

E graduate student Adam Steele was named among eight finalists across the University of AIllinois at Urbana-Champaign campus for the $30,000 Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize. The prestigious award is an extension of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize that has recognized outstanding student inventors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1995. In addition, SongAlive, a company that Steele helped form, has won First Prize for being the Most This is an image of water droplets resting on a Fundable Venture in the 2009 V. Dale Cozad New superhydrophobic nanocomposite coating. Water rolls Venture Competition. With a team of programmers freely with very low surface friction on the coating due Steele and web designers, Steele created a social music to its suitably designed surface morphology and surface website aimed at harnessing the creative power of chemistry. individuals around the world. AE Prof. Eric Loth and Dr. Ilker Bayer, a postdoctoral research associate, advise Steele, who has created a biomimetic nanocomposite paint that exhibits extremely low friction to liquids, making it self- cleaning and non-wetting. This paint is both envi- ronmentally friendly and incredibly tough, enabling it to be used in a variety of applications. Steele is also developing products to assist visually- impaired individuals in the avoidance of eye-level This is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image showing the micro surface morphology of This is an image of Steele in the cleanroom where he a superhydrophobic nanocomposite. The spherical does some of his nanocomposite surface analysis. This agglomerations that can be observed are composed particular instrument is a sputter coater. of nanoparticles and polymer, giving the surface nano-texture as well, which is critical for stable superhydrophobicity.

collisions and in extending their current outdoor navigation technology to large indoor spaces. Steele earned his bachelor’s in aerospace engineer- ing from Penn State University, and his master’s in AE at Illinois in 2008. Student News 21

AE Teams Sweep Space Design Competition

erospace Engineering teams from the Univer- sity of Illinois swept all awards in the 2007– A2008 Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation. The competition required teams to design a space vehicle to complete a specified task, focusing both on mission completion and on the total costs. The competition asked entrants to design a vehicle to retrieve various artifacts from Apollo moon mis- sions and return them from the moon to the Earth. Eligible Apollo mission artifacts were those from Apollo 12 through Apollo 17; artifacts from Apollo 11 were off-limits. Advised by AE Prof. Victoria Coverstone, five Illinois teams competed, doing the work as their senior design projects. Three teams took home prizes. “Each team conceptualized a unique approach to Members of AE’s First Place 2007–2008 Undergraduate completing the mission,” Coverstone said. “Our Space Design Competition Team: (back row, from left) The com- students are innovative and technically savvy. It Abdul Rahman El Fouly, Charles Spellman, William petition comes as no surprise that they swept the national Andrewski, Michael Larsen; (front row, from left) Joel required competition.” Nordness, Brianna Aubin, Josh Birnbaum, Seth Baynar. teams to AIAA set up the contest as though a mysterious design entrepreneur was offering a $1 billion prize for designed to then come back to a return capsule, teams to recover items ranging in value from 100 also carried on the landing craft. The capsule would a space to 500 points. The first team to return items worth then fire and make the trip back to Earth. vehicle to 250 points would be the winners. Among the items The technical side of the mission involved designing complete were a U.S. flag, a moon buggy antenna, Alan a lander, rover and return capsule, planning orbital a specified Shepard’s golf ball, and other discarded items. trajectories and propulsion, and determining how task, focus- Brianna Aubin, a member of Team Lunatics that to bring the capsule back and recover it. Teams also ing both took home first prize, said her team’s goal was to had to plan the business end of the project and find recover Shepard’s golf ball because it was worth the means to pay for it. Aubin said her team cited on mission the most points at 500. Aubin’s team designed a grants, advertising, loans, investors and payments to completion landing craft that would get to the moon to release use the rover for public outreach and experiments. and on the a rover to search for the artifacts. The rover was total costs. 22 AE Illinois 2009 Annual Report

AE Group Worked to Improve Athletes’ Results in Paralympics

A group of aerospace engineering undercarriage taping was one of several theories students worked to improve the put to the test. racing speeds of athletes who com- A couple of the other ideas did yield noticeable, peted in Beijing in the September measurable results. For instance, the research team 2008 Paralympic Games that took found that athletes who position their heads and place in China’s capital city. torsos in a tucked, rather than upright, position, The students—under the tutelage realize a 10 percent reduction in drag. of former department head Mike The students also studied the effect of attaching Bragg (now an associate dean in various sizes of fairings to the scale models they the College of Engineering) and tested. Similar in function to the windshield on research scientist Andy Broeren some motorcycles (also known as a fairing), the bul- (now with NASA)—conducted let-shaped attachment “smoothes airflow around a series of experiments with riders, reducing aerodynamic drag,” Busch said. half-scale and smaller models of racing wheelchairs and their own Their most successful attempt on that front yielded mini-sized version of a crash-test a 12 percent drag reduction. dummy in the department’s wind The best overall benefit, however, appeared to be tunnel. Some of the students began combining a fairing with the racer in the tucked working on the project in Broeren’s position. With that configuration, drag was reduced senior design course in Fall 2007 by 25 percent. “We figured we would have a few and later formed a registered student organization called the Racing Wheelchair Aerodynamics

Photos by L. Brian Stauffer Design Team. Greg Busch said the The team’s goal was to figure out engineering how the U. of I. racers—and other team hopes to competitive racers—can make aero- be able to test dynamic improvements that would their theories ultimately enhance performance using human racers on the speeds. track this fall. “There are very few examples Such tests might include in the literature on wheelchair measuring the aerodynamics,” said research team total power member Greg Busch. “There is a lot needed to of intuitive thought on how to do propel a chair it. For instance, to keep the frontal around a track. area of the chair small, or for the racers to tuck their heads.” Bleakney said some racers have tried other tricks, including taping Greg Busch, aerospace engineering graduate student, left, and Adam contact paper to the undercar- Bleakney, UI wheelchair track coach hold a racing wheelchair model that was riage of the chair. As it turns out, tested in the on campus. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer “that doesn’t do anything mea- surable,” said Busch, noting that 23

percentage-point differences,” Chasiotis, continued from page 5 Geubelle, continued from Busch said, “but 25 percent was page 13 a big surprise.” the use of polymer-based composites for large-scale Illinois College of Engineering Other variables the engineering structures, such as the Boeing 787. Although the Everitt Teaching Award; the students investigated included main structural material to fabricate the fuselage 2001 American Society for Com- the design of the chairs’ front of a Boeing 787 will be a carbon fiber composite, posites Best Paper Award, 16th wheel—spoked or solid—and nanocomposite materials are becoming the means Technical Conference, Polymer positioning the rider’s feet to impart multifunctionality and improve upon the Matrix Composite Division; a tucked under the body versus durability of existing laminate and woven carbon 1998 National Science Founda- feet dangling. and glass fiber composites. The use of different tion Career Award; and a 1994 U. of I. coach and Paralympics forms of composites reduces the structure’s weight, NATO postdoctoral fellowship. competitor Bleakney said he providing obvious savings in energy, and, potentially, A Bliss Faculty Scholar in the and the student athletes were in maintenance costs. College of Engineering since excited about the initial findings However, to this point, the mechanical behavior of 2005, Geubelle also is a faculty of the engineering team because such materials has not been scientifically investi- member of the Computa- prior to this, ideas about what gated, so their design is often being done in a trial tional Science and Engineering worked and what didn’t were and error manner. “The design of nanostructured program, and has joint appoint- largely unproven. materials proceeds with using properties for the ments in Mechanical Science “Because we had no scientific polymer constituents that are not correct, and, and Engineering, Civil and Envi- data, everything was ad hoc,” consequently, computations and predictions do ronmental Engineering and the he said. “That’s what’s exciting not agree with the experimental measurements for Beckman Institute for Advanced about the work and the data nanostructured composites,” Chasiotis said. Science and Technology. we’ve got now. It gives us a His research group has the expertise to measure the He has played key leadership base to work off of, for starting mechanical behavior of polymeric nanofibers at dif- roles in various engineering testing on the field to see if the ferent time and size scales by developing advanced societies by chairing technical data in the wind tunnel corre- experimental methods that hinge upon the technol- committees and co-organizing lates to the real world.” ogy of micro-electro mechanical devices. conferences and symposia. “When this research is realized,” Chasiotis main- Geubelle earned a bachelor’s in tains, “we envision being able to identify the limits mechanical engineering from and the potential of nanostructured polymeric Catholic University of Louvain, materials, therefore gaining the ability to design and Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium fabricate composite materials with advanced prop- in 1988. He earned a master’s erties that will improve, and, potentially, revolution- and PhD in aeronautics from the ize the way aerospace and other structures are built California Institute of Technology in the future.” in 1989 and 1993, respectively.

Contact Information Department of Aerospace Engineering Phone: +1-217-333-2651 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fax: +1-217-244-0720 306 Talbot Laboratory, MC-236 104 South Wright Street Website: www.ae.uiuc.edu Urbana, Illinois 61801 Email: [email protected] Department of Aerospace Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 306 Talbot Laboratory, MC-236 104 South Wright Street Urbana, Illinois 61801

Jacob Englander