Course: AERO 526-Hypersonics

Instructors: Philip Roe

When taught: Every year in the fall semester

Motivation and relevance to aerospace engineering

This course is about aerodynamics under extreme conditions of pressure and

temperature, such as occur in flight at Mach numbers greater than 4.0. Such

conditions arise in space launch and re-entry, in missile design, and in (as yet

speculative) hypersonic passenger transport.

What the course will cover

Hypersonics, as with other branches of aerodynamics, has many aspects, and

several of them are quite different from the corresponding aspects of flight at

lower speeds. The course aims to give a brief account of several of them,

including Trajectory analysis, Physics and chemistry of high temperature gases.

Hypersonic similarity rules, Newtonian theory, Optimum shapes, Shock

attachment, Waveriders, Hypersonic boundary layers, Heat transfer, Elements of

kinetic theory, Transport coefficients. Equilibrium and nonequilibium flows.

Rocket noise, Hypersonic propulsion.

Commitment

Typically 7-8 homework assignments with two midterms and a final. You need to

have done well in Aero 325.

Information for Undergraduates

Typically this class attracts about ten graduate students and five undergraduates.

Because of the highly varied subject matter, the treatment is uneven, sometimes

quite descriptive but occasionally more detailed.

Course: AE535 Rocket Propulsion Instructors: JP Sheehan, Alec Gallimore When taught: Every other year in the fall semester   Motivation and relevance to aerospace engineering  The private space industry has been growing in recent and rocket companies recruit heavily from UM’s Aerospace Department.  A strong foundation in the physics of rocket engines as well as the engineering design of the various components is crucial for the individual student’s success in this field as well as maintaining the University of Michigan’s position as a top aerospace engineering school.  What the course will cover  The course begins with a dense, rapid review of fluid dynamics pertaining to gas flow through a nozzle.  Then it covers the design elements of liquid, solid, hybrid, and nuclear rockets, especially nozzles and propellant delivery systems.  Commitment  This course assigns homework every two weeks and has one midterm and one final exam. Expect to spend 8 hours per week on this class if you have a strong fluid dynamics background (i.e. AE335).  If you have not had this, expect 10­12 hours per week.  Information for undergraduates  This is a good course for undergraduates who are interested in rockets and space systems. EP is exciting technology and highly relevant to modern spacecraft design.  Typically 10 ­ 15 undergraduates take this course.  The have all taken AE335 and found AE535 to be a good extension, focusing more on engineering elements, with some overlap in the fluid dynamics. 

Course: AE536 Electric Propulsion Instructors: Ben Longmier, Tim Smith, JP Sheehan When taught: Every other year in the fall semester   Motivation and relevance to aerospace engineering  There has been a steady trend in the spacecraft industry to move away from chemical and cold gas thrusters for on­orbit maneuvers to electric propulsion (EP) devices which use less propellant to achieve the desired delta­v.  Applications range from station keeping for communications satellite to deep space transportation to bring humans to Mars.  A wide variety of devices are used (Hall thrusters, ion engines, electrothermal thrusters…) each of which is based on different propellant acceleration mechanisms.  Familiarity with these devices is critical for anyone developing space systems.  What the course will cover  The course begins with a dense, rapid review of electromagnetism and plasma physics.  This background is critical to understanding EP systems but is not covered in the aerospace curriculum.  Then we address each of the principle EP devices in turn, discussing their design and how they operate.   Commitment  This course assigns homework every two weeks and has one midterm and one final exam. Expect to spend 8 hours per week on this class if you have some familiarity with electromagnetism.  If you have not had an electromagnetism course, expect 10­12 hours per week.  Information for undergraduates  This is a good course for undergraduates who are interested in space systems.  EP is exciting technology and highly relevant to modern spacecraft design.  Typically ~10 undergraduates take this course.  Those who have not had any course work in electromagnetism struggle through the first half, though many enjoyed the challenge.  Those who had electromagnetism experience enjoyed seeing that physics applied in a useful and exciting way. 

Course: AE544 Aeroelasticity

Instructor: Carlos E. S. Cesnik

When taught: Every other year (odd years), typically in the Fall semester

Motivation and relevance

This course will address issues related to the mutual interaction of elastic, inertial, and

aerodynamic forces with emphasis on aeronautical applications. It introduces students to unsteady

aerodynamics. It is intended that the student will become familiar with the important issues and

philosophies associated with aeroelastic stability and response, will become conversant in the

terminology of aeroelasticity, and will achieve a working understanding of these issues applied to

various aeronautical systems.

Brief course outline

The topics to be covered during the term deal with static and dynamic aeroelastic stability and

response, and unsteady aerodynamics for fixed-wing aircraft. Few special topics are also covered at the

end, time permitting. A post factum syllabus will be handed out at the end of the term.

Students are expected to have mastered the basic aircraft structural analysis and design (as

presented in AE 315) and aircraft aerodynamics (as presented in AE 325). Also, working knowledge of

free vibration modes, normal coordinates, response of multimass and continuous systems, and

variational principles in dynamics (as presented in ME 240, AE 315 and AE 543) are expected.

Workload

The course consists of five homework problem sets, two laboratory reports, and two exams

(first in class, second take home).

Information for undergraduates

This course is intended for someone with an engineering attitude. This means having the

capability and willingness to tackle more advanced problems that may not be well posed and require

assumptions and extrapolations to be made in order to solve them. Moreover, it also requires

interdisciplinary thinking and strong initiative to go beyond the lecture material to books and papers for

the complete understanding of the material. Also, be comfortable with linear algebra, differential

equations, computer programing, and various symbol notations and units across disciplines. In a

nutshell: this is not a typical undergraduate class.

Course: AE545 Aeromechanics of Rotary Wing Vehicles

Instructor: Peretz P. Friedmann

When taught: Every other year in the fall semester (even years)

Motivation and relevance

Rotary wing vehicles, such as helicopters and tilt-rotors, represent approximately 25% of the

vehicles flying. Furthermore, many new unmanned small vehicles and drones are of the rotary wing

type, since this is the only vehicle capable of both efficient hover and forward flight. Despite the

importance of these vehicles in aeronautics the fundamentals of aerodynamics, performance and

dynamics that govern this class of vehicles is only taught at the undergraduate level in a few aerospace

engineering departments (Georgia Tech, University of Maryland and Penn State). There is a

continuously increasing demand for aerospace engineers who have familiarity with this class of vehicles.

Brief course outline

This course provides an introduction to rotary wing aerodynamics, helicopter performance in

hover and forward flight. Next the concepts of trim and stability and control of rotorcraft are treated.

This is followed by introduction to rotary wing aeroelasticity and aeromechanical stability describing

coupled rotor-fuselage dynamics. The course concludes with the treatment forward flight and rotor

vibrations in forward flight.

Workload

The course consists of 4-5 homework problem sets, and a small term project on a topic selected

by the student taken from a list of topics provided by the instructor. There is a take-home final at the

end of the course.

Information for undergraduates

This is a good course for senior undergraduate students who enjoyed AE315 and AE325 and

earned a grade of B+ or higher in these courses. Typically this course is taken by approximately 5

undergraduates and 10 graduate students. Based on student feedback, students think that they have

learned a lot of new material in this course.

Course: AE548 Astrodynamics

Instructor(s): Ilya Kolmanovsky, James Cutler

When taught: Yearly, Fall Semester

Motivation and relevance to aerospace engineering

Astrodynamics is a fundamental subject of study for those seeking to “boldly go where no one

has gone before”. The dynamics of objects orbiting planets and other celestial bodies are important to

understand if you’re attempting to launch your latest rocket or land something on Mars.

What the course will cover

This class reviews the two-body problem and discusses equations of motions, orbit transfers,

time of flight, and rendezvous. Orbital perturbations are also discusses. Low-thrust maneuvers and the

restricted 3-body problem are often covered as well.

Commitment

This course assigns homework typically once a week with one or two midterms and a final.

Often there is a final project as well due at the end of the semester.

Information for undergraduates

This class builds off of AE347 and provides deeper study of astrodynamics. For those interested

in the space side of aerospace, this is a great class to enhance your knowledge of how things move near

Earth and through the solar system.

Course: AERO 552 – Aerospace Information Systems

Instructor: Ella M. Atkins (Jamie Cutler - Fall 2016)

Motivation and Relevance to Aerospace Engineering

Information manipulation is central to all Aerospace careers, from numerical analysis and data

processing to embedded computing. This class will introduce concepts such as data structures and

object-oriented programming to help students with limited computer science background better

understand how digital data is organized, abstracted, and manipulated. A final project will enable

students to apply information systems concepts to sensing and planning for a quadrotor. Students will

have the opportunity learn to fly the quadrotor, program it to navigate semi-autonomously through the

FXB atrium, and process flight data to evaluate their code’s performance.

What the course will cover

The course begins with a rapid review of C++ and object-oriented programming concepts not covered in

ENGR 101. This material alone will better prepare Aerospace students to build code and interface with

computer scientists/programmers in their future career. Automata theory provides the “language” by

which one can graphically describe discrete state Aerospace systems and their dynamics. Search and

planning algorithms enable an agent to make decisions based on its own goals and constraints as well as

properties of its collaborators and the environment, while information theory provides a formal model

for efficient information communication and processing in a noisy real-world environment.

Commitment

Five to six homework assignments, midterm, final, and a course project.

Information for Undergraduates

This class attracts between nine to twenty students with approximately a 2:1 graduate to undergraduate

ratio. No experience beyond Engr 101 is required; students who have not had EECS 280 or equivalent

are mentored by students with more experience during the first assignment to help students with less

experience catch up.

Course: AE584 Navigation, Guidance and Avionics of Aerospace Vehicles Instructor(s): Dimitra Panagou and Anouck Girard When taught: Every year in the winter semester Motivation and relevance to aerospace engineering The purpose of this course is to present mathematical methods used in the navigation and guidance of aerospace vehicles (atmospheric and space vehicles). Broadly speaking, combined navigation and guidance is the problem of how to cause the vehicle follow its desired path, despite disturbances and navigation uncertainties. In other words, we want to go where we are supposed to go, despite the facts that we don’t know exactly where we are and that our motion is undergoing unpredictable disturbances. What the course will cover The course begins with a review of deterministic systems theory (linear time varying and time invariant systems) and stochastic systems theory. Then we cover the analysis and design of navigation systems (inertial navigation, recursive navigation, Kalman filters) and the analysis and design of guidance systems (homing guidance, ballistic guidance). Time permitting we cover topics in midcourse guidance, optimization, optimal guidance and the theory of differential games. Commitment Five to six sets of homework will be assigned. There is a midterm and a final exam. Information for undergraduates This is a good course for senior undergraduate students who enjoyed AE348 (prerequisite).