Date of Award:

5-2010

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Department name when degree awarded

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Heng Ban

Committee

Heng Ban

Committee

Farrell Edwards

Committee

Charles Swenson

Committee

Stephen Whitmore

Committee

Byard Wood

Abstract

A magnetic fluid system could potentially replace mechanically moving parts in a satellite as a means of increasing system reliability and mission lifetime, but rather than a standard ferrofluid with magnetic particles, liquid oxygen (LOX) may be a more adequate working fluid. As a pure paramagnetic cryogen, LOX is already heavily used in space, but still requires basic research before being integrated into system development. The objectives of the research conducted were to verify LOX as a magnetic working fluid through experiment and establish a theoretical model to describe its behavior. This dissertation presents the theoretical, experimental, and numerical results of a slug of LOX being pulsed by a 1.1 T solenoid in a quartz tube with an inner diameter of 1.9 mm. The slug oscillated about the solenoid at 6-8 Hz, producing a pressure change of up to 1.2 kPa. System efficiency based on the Mason number was also studied for various geometric setups, and, using a one-dimensional, finite-differenced model in Matlab 2008a, the numerical analyses confirmed the theoretical model. The research provides groundwork for future applied studies with complex designs.

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Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on August 2, 2010.

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