Research

The Department of Aerospace Engineering engages in a broad spectrum of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research and graduate education activities. The department offers graduate programs leading to the master of engineering, master of science, and doctor of philosophy degrees in aerospace engineering and in engineering mechanics.

Active research programs include theoretical, computational, and experimental fluid dynamics; aerothermochemistry and hypersonic aerodynamics; helicopter rotor aerodynamics; aircraft icing and aerodynamics; gas turbine aerodynamics and heat transfer; microfluidics and micro-scale heat transfer; advanced flow diagnostics and instrumentation; integrated airframe/propulsive flows; astrodynamics and orbital mechanics; experimental and computational solid mechanics; material behavior at the micro- and nano-scale; fracture mechanics; surface characterization and tribology; elastic wave mechanics and ultrasonics; nondestructive evaluation; thermal barrier coatings; ultralight and multifunctional structures and composite materials; superalloys; aircraft and spacecraft control and flight dynamics; advanced guidance for launch vehicles and spacecraft; wind engineering; fluid/structure interactions; and power generation.

Research facilities include laboratories for experimental work in low-speed aerodynamics, ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation, structural materials testing, composite material fabrication and testing, experimental stress analysis, advanced flow diagnostics, and flow visualization.  Major research equipment includes a low-speed, 30-by-36-inch, single-pass wind tunnel with multiple test sections and inlets; microburst and tornado simulators with a translating microburst-like jet (6-foot diameter) and a tornado-like vortex (4-foot diameter) for model testing on a 20-foot by 45-foot ground plane; a large (6 by 8 foot), closed-circuit wind tunnel with state-of-the-art instrumentation for low-speed wind engineering and boundary layer testing, including thermal and controlled gust capability; multiple computer-controlled material and structural testing machines; modal analysis; structural intensity and acoustic intensity systems; and ultrasonic nondestructive testing systems.  Advanced flow diagnostic systems are also available, such as high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV), stereoscopic PIV, planar laser induced fluorescence, and molecular tagging velocimetry and thermometry systems. Computational facilities include a network of Windows-based PCs and Linux-based workstations and servers. Various data-acquisition computers and high-performance workstations and servers are used in several laboratories and discipline areas of research and are linked to the campus and college networks. Students and faculty also access the college, university, and off-campus high-performance computing systems.