Ask a Librarian

Threre are lots of ways to contact a librarian. Choose what works best for you.

HOURS TODAY

10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Reference Desk

CONTACT US BY PHONE

(802) 656-2022

Voice

(802) 503-1703

Text

MAKE AN APPOINTMENT OR EMAIL A QUESTION

Schedule an Appointment

Meet with a librarian or subject specialist for in-depth help.

Email a Librarian

Submit a question for reply by e-mail.

WANT TO TALK TO SOMEONE RIGHT AWAY?

Library Hours for Tuesday, March 19th

All of the hours for today can be found below. We look forward to seeing you in the library.
HOURS TODAY
8:00 am - 12:00 am
MAIN LIBRARY

SEE ALL LIBRARY HOURS
WITHIN HOWE LIBRARY

MapsM-Th by appointment, email govdocs@uvm.edu

Media Services8:00 am - 7:00 pm

Reference Desk10:00 am - 3:00 pm

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Special Collections10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Dana Health Sciences Library7:30 am - 11:00 pm

 

CATQuest

Search the UVM Libraries' collections

UVM Theses and Dissertations

Browse by Department
Format:
Print
Author:
McCabe, Justin W.
Dept./Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Year:
2009
Degree:
MS
Abstract:
NASA and the Department of Defense currently have interest in the development of new satellites several orders of magnitude smaller than those of the present day. These next generation satellites will substantially decrease launch costs, increase reliability and enable redundant flight architectures. Due to their reduced size (O[10 cm]) and mass ([less or equal to] 10 kg), these 'nanosats' will require unique propulsion systems capable of precision attitude control and orbital manuevers. To obtain the needed precision the thrust and impulse-bits must be on the order of 10 - 100 [mu]N and 100 - 1000 [mu]Ns, respectively. The significance of the work to date is in the utilization of a two-phase micro scale flow phenomena as the basis for a fuel injection system in a novel, 'discrete' monopropellant MEMS-based thruster design.
In this study we examine the formation of microscopic liquid slugs, or 'microslugs', resulting from converging flows of a simulated liquid propellant and inert gas at a four-way 90° microchannel junction. The primary goal of the current work is to obtain fundamental information which will enable the prediction of slug sizes and frequencies in terms of pressure inlet conditions thereby characterizing the microfluidic system. An experimental system was successfully designed and installed in the University of Vermont Microfluids Lab. The experimental studies show a range of slug characteristics are possible. Currently, we find that liquid slugs lengths of 50 [mu]m - 1.5mm are produced in a highly repeatable manner at frequencies as high as 325 Hz. This work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).