UA Students Study Combustion on NASA’s Flying Laboratory

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A group of University of Alabama engineering students recently conducted a series of experiments on combustion that may one day help decrease America’s dependence on imported energy sources and the negative environmental impact of combustion. They also experienced what few people ever will — weightlessness.

For several days in April, the UA student team known as the “Bama Burners,” participated in the 2002 Johnson Space Center’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, in Clear Lake, Texas. The program provided a unique academic experience for undergraduate students to propose, design, fabricate and evaluate a reduced-gravity experiment of their choice. The students experienced a “weightless” testing environment by spending several hours aboard a Boeing KC-135A jet which performed parabolic maneuvers to create reduced-gravity conditions, taking off from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The same type of aircraft is used in training astronauts for space travel.

The team’s research project was titled “APACHE,” for All Purpose Autonomous Combustion of Hydrocarbons Experiment. According to Dr. John Baker, associate professor of mechanical engineering and faculty co-advisor of APACHE, the goal of the project was to develop a better understanding of combustion phenomena in a reduced-gravity environment. The Burners achieved this by examining the behavior of laminar diffusion flames using slot burners. A diffusion flame exists when the fuel and oxidizer are not mixed prior to combustion, as in a candle flame, and studies of these flames are used to gain insight into more complex combustion processes, said Baker.

“When burning a flame on earth, the hot air rises. Gravity affects a flame, which can make it hard to understand its behavior. So by removing gravity, we can better understand how things burn,” explained Baker. “This could lead to the development of more effective technology to help decrease our dependency on the fuels we use today.” Approximately 85 percent of the energy used in the United States is the result of combustion processes, Baker added.

The team included mechanical engineering students Stormy Speer of Northport, Lance Strickland of Homewood, Matthew Green of Jasper, David Fulmer of Tuscaloosa, Nathan Coburn of Tuscaloosa and Justin Sheffield of Dothan; aerospace engineering student Ashley Moore of Frankfort, Ky.; and computer science student Anne Thomas of Hatley, Miss. They had worked together on the project every day since the fall of 2001. Speer, Strickland, Moore and Thomas were on the “flight crew,” while the others were part of the ground crew and related outreach activities. Dr. Beth Todd, associate professor of mechanical engineering and co-advisor of the UA team, traveled with the students to Houston.

During the flights, the Burners collected data, videotaped the experience, and also had time left over to enjoy “floating” in zero gravity. Speers, the group’s leader, described her experience with weightlessness as, “Feeling like I was hanging upside down. I loved it.”

Beginning in fall 2002, the team will provide educational outreach presentations about the research project, showing a video of their flight experiments to prospective engineering students at recruitment events such as Engineering Day at the UA College of Engineering, and during the College’s SITE (Student Introduction to Engineering) summer program. They will also give presentations at Girl Scout Engineering Day and at K-12 schools in the Tuscaloosa area.

For more information on APACHE, or to request a presentation, contact Dr. John Baker at 205/348-4997.