Blog 12 – Holiday Project Update

~During my mentorship over winter break, my mentor showed me some cross section shapes that are widely used in aircraft. These include hat stiffened panels(bonded hat), the integral blade stiffened, honey comb designs, and  C channels. Other designs I also came across were the sine wave spars and box beams(integral blade sandwich).

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?
1. Over winter break, for my senior project, I mostly worked on my first independent component. My mentor and I decided that it would be best if we could come up with the final designs that we could use as a baseline. In other words, we wanted to have a set cross section wing design that is widely used in commercial aircraft. This is actually the second phase of my independent component(information about my first independent component can be found throughout my blog posts which are labeled “Independent Component”). The reason my mentor and I wanted to have set baseline designs is because we wanted to move on to experimentation as soon as possible. Even outside of mentorship, I spent a significant amount of time doing research for the independent component. Most of my research was about  cross section designs and shapes that we can use for my project.
2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
1. From what I did over winter break, the most important thing I learned was that there are countless of possible cross section wing designs. Moreover, they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, my mentor showed me an interesting honeycomb design that is used in aircraft. The specific design he showed me was made from metals. Because my first independent component focuses more towards additive manufacturing, many of the designs we will be testing will be made of readily available materials. Although metals are widely used in  aircraft, they are often only used in subtractive manufacturing. When my mentor showed me the honeycomb design, he basically reminded me that I should not try to immediately rule out any materials that we can use.
3. Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?
1. For my third interview, I will probably interview my mentor, Dr. Eric Fodran. Although I have already interviewed him for the mentorship interview, we did not really talk much about my essential question. Moreover, I want to use this opportunity to start thinking about possible ideas for the second independent component.