Research Teams from the Army Research Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have conducted the first measurements of spray break up of a firing gas turbine combustor (ARC-M1) using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Labs (April 2018). The powerful X-ray beams provided by the Advanced Photon Source allows high speed imaging of spray during the initial breakup phase, which is generally a dense multi-phase region inaccessible using other diagnostics techniques. Dr. Mike Kweon (Propulsion Division Chief of the Vehicle Technology Directorate at ARL) and Professor Tonghun Lee from UIUC led the effort which were also attended by other high level officials from the Army Research Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory.

 

The Center for UAS Propulsion has officially launched to provide research support for development of next generation technologies related to propulsion systems in UAVs. The scope of research in the center will encompass all aspects of UAV propulsion systems including, but not restricted to (1) multi-fuel capable engines, (2) novel high temperature materials, (3) flow dynamics, and (4) hybrid electrification architectures.