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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Pre Feasibility Study of Powered Hot Air Balloon for Multipoint River Ferry
Principal Investigators: Prof. R. S. Pant Aerospace Engineering Department, IIT-Bombay Dr. S. Selvarajan Scientist, C-CADD NAL Bangalore
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this consultancy project is to design an aerostat meeting the operational requirements to be specified by SASE, and to generate documents and plans using which the aerostat can be fabricated by an external agency decided by SASE. A scaled prototype of the system will be fabricated and tested through a field trial, to ensure that there are no major design flaws and problems in the operation of the full-scale aerostat. INTRODUCTION: Tethered aerostats are an outcome of Lighter-Than-Air Technology, where static lift production mechanism is based on Archimedes Principle. Thus, an aerostat does not require any additional energy to reach to a certain height; for a given volume of envelope that contains the lighter than air gas, displaced weight of air creates a vertically upward force (buoyant force) that leads to the lift. The volume is so designed that the displaced air should be able to produce sufficient lift to balance all the weight groups of the aerostat system, viz., Envelope, fin, nose battens, pivot mechanism, payload cart, tether, recovery system, gas filling ports, safety valves and many such systems. This is followed by the design aspects as suggested by other disciplines such as aerodynamics, aerostatics, materials, and manufacturing techniques that lead to a most desirable aerostat system design. Aerostats are used as a platform to house high-resolution sensors for applications such as aerial surveillance, regional atmospheric data collection and balloon-barrage system. Depending on the payload, range of surveillance, and operational time, these aerostats can be launched to a nominal altitude of 300m to 4600 m from sea level. In a meeting held at IIT Bombay, Director, SASE indicated that they would like to deploy an aerostat based system for monitoring of avalanches at the observation station at Dhundi, using gyro-stabilized sensors and cameras. The system and needs to be operated over tree top altitude, and if possible, the observed data needs to be transmitted to Manali through wireless communication in a real time basis. He also wanted the system to be fully commissioned and working on-site by February 2009. The current project deals with the design of an aerostat which will be deployed at a weather station at Dhundi, Manali, India. The team at IIT Bombay will carry out the complete design of the aerostat envelope based on the payload requirements as specified by SASE. This aerial platform will be used for transmitting real time visual data of avalanche parameters back to the base station where the necessary studies could be carried out. PROJECT COMMENCEMENT DATE: August 2008 DURATION: 5 months |