Thomas Ward

Cedarville University · School of Engineering and Computer Science

The flying agility demonstrated by dragonflies is accomplished by means of complex aerodynamic forces produced by flapping their four wings arranged in a tandem configuration. The current study presents a novel tandem flapping wing mechanism for a biomimetic air vehicle that was designed and manufactured to experimentally investigate the aerodynami...

Biomimetic micro-aerial vehicle (BMAV) are micro-scaled, unmanned aircraft based on flying biological organisms, generating thrust and lift by flapping their wings. This study investigates and compares the nano mechanical mechanical properties of four sets of fabricated, dragonfly inspired BMAV wings and compares them to actual dragonfly wings used...

In the recent decades, the design and development of biomimetic micro air vehicles have gained increased interest by the global scientific and engineering communities. This has given greater motivation to study and understand the aerodynamics involved with winged insects. Dragonflies demonstrate unique and superior flight performance than most of t...

Heat dissipation is a critical issue in modern electronic components, due to the technological advances that have reduced their size and caused their heat flux to rise. Different types of heat sinks are promising for cooling of such electronics and nanofluid can enhance the cooling performances. In this present work, a titanium dioxide (TiO 2 /wate...

The biomimetic micro air vehicles (BMAV) are unmanned, micro-scaled aircraft that are bio-inspired from flying organisms to achieve the lift and thrust by flapping their wings. The main objectives of this study are to design a BMAV wing (inspired from the dragonfly) and analyse its nano-mechanical properties. In order to gain insights into the flig...

Insect-sized flapping wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) are beginning to take flight but have many technical hurdles to overcome. One of the greatest challenges of MAV design is attaining lightweight microelectronic components of optimal size and shape. In this paper an inductor for incorporation onto a carbon fiber MAV body component is modeled using...

Micro air vehicle research has exponentially expanded since the first articles began to be published in the late 1990s. This article presents a comprehensive bibliometric review of journal articles published on micro air vehicle research from 1998 until 2015. The articles are classified into three types of micro air vehicle: fixed-wing, rotary-wing...

This article studies the elastic properties of several Biomimetic Micro Air Vehicle (BMAV) wing structural designs that are based on a dragonfly wing. BMAVs are a new class of unmanned micro-sized air vehicles that mimic the flapping wing motion of flying biological organisms (e.g. insects, birds, or bats). Three structurally identical wings were f...

This paper deals with the optimization of a synthetic jet actuator parameters in the control flow around the NACA0015 airfoil at two angles of attack: 13° (i.e. the stall angle of NACA0015) and 16° (i.e. the post stall angle of NACA0015) to maximize the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil. Synthetic jet actuator is a zero mass flux-active flow c...

The biomimetic micro air vehicles (BMAV) are unmanned, micro-scaled aircraft that are bio-inspired from flying organisms to achieve the lift and thrust by flapping their wings. There are still many technological challenges involved with designing the BMAV. One of these is designing the ultra-lightweight materials and structures for the wings that h...

This article provides a comprehensive review of structural optimization employing topology methods for structures under vibration problems. Topology optimization allows creative and radical design modifications, compared to shape and size optimization techniques. Various works of structural topology optimization, which are subjected to vibration as...

This article examines the suitability of fabricating artificial, dragonfly-like, wing frames from materials that are commonly used in unmanned aircraft (balsa wood, black graphite carbon fiber and red prepreg fiberglass). Wing frames made with Type 321 stainless steel are also examined for comparison. The purpose of these wings is for future use in...

A procedure for designing a simplified, dragonfly-like wing model that is suitable for use in a Biomimetic Micro Air Vehicle (BMAV) is presented. BMAV are a relatively new class of micro-scaled unmanned air systems that mimic the flapping wing propulsion system of flying biological organisms (like insects). Many insects (e.g. dragonflies) have comp...

This article presents an analysis of the influence of heat treatment on chitosan nanocomposite film. A series of samples comprising: pure chitosan film, chitosan film embedded with nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), chitosan film crosslinked with tannic acid and chitosan film with a blend of NCC and tannic acid were heat treated using a convection ov...

Biomimetic air vehicles (BAV) are a class of unmanned aircraft that mimic the flapping wing kinematics of flying organisms (e.g. birds, bats, and insects). Research into BAV has rapidly expanded over the last 30 years. In this paper, we present a comprehensive bibliometric review of engineering and biology journal articles that were published on th...

This paper reports the analysis of an automatic intelligent controller for driving a prototype fuel cell electric vehicle over different obstacles while maintaining all systems at maximum efficiency during completion of a race within a specified time. The objective is to reduce driving errors, such as excessive driving, or over revving the throttle...

Chitosan film with nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) as a physical reinforcement and tannic acid as a chemical crosslinker was prepared by the casting evaporation method. The objective was to improve its mechanical properties, reduce its moisture content and solubility, and maintain its biodegradability. This was done to examine its potential suitabi...

This research assesses the feasibility of using artificial neural networks (ANN) to predict and improve the spatial distribution of solar radiation data, using Peninsular Malaysia as a case study. This peninsula has seas to the east and west that control cloud formation and rain throughout the year. A rugged mountain range bisects the length of the...

Chitosan film reinforced with nano-sized chitin whiskers and crosslinked using tannic acid was synthesized by the casting-vaporation method. The mechanical and physicochemical properties of several film samples (consisting of different ratio of chitin and tannic acid) were compared with neat chitosan. Tensile tests show that the addition of chitin...

The advent of low cost civilian small scale UAV has resulted in the extension of the limits of range and endurance. Among the many design parameters, the selection of propellers and powerplants for optimal range and endurance is dependent upon known dynamic thrust and fuel consumption data for propeller-IC engine combinations. To date, extensive wo...

This paper describes and demonstrates the construction and the validation of a customized inertia dynamometer particularly designed for the UiTM urban fuel cell electric vehicle. The inertia dynamometer is designed to simulate real values of vehicle kinetic energy, acceleration resistance, rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag. Parameters used fo...

This article examines the suitability of two different materials which are black graphite carbon fiber and red pre-impregnated fiberglass from which to fabricate artificial dragonfly wing frames. These wings could be of use in Biomimetic Micro Aerial Vehicles (BMAV). BMAV are a new class of unmanned micro-sized air vehicles that mimic flying biolog...

Conventional energy production methods rely upon combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, which exhaust gases that can elevate the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere (greenhouse effect). Alternative methods of power generation are being examined that do not have this negative environmental impact. This study investigates the potential use of a residenti...

Power dissipation, chip power consumption, and heat flux in electronic devices have been steadily increasing over the past decade, creating a need for improved methods of cooling them. Nanofluids can be used as coolant for these electronics to improve their thermal performance. This paper presents an analysis of the energy, exergy, and frictional e...

Several different stand-alone pole street lighting (SPSL) models, using a light emitting diode (LED) lamp, were tested over a 1-year period on Penang Island in northern Malaysia. The models were powered by lead–lead dioxide batteries, autonomously recharged by a renewable energy power source (RES): either a photovoltaic (PV) generator or an integra...

This paper examines the energy efficiency of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle operating at different power settings. The goal is to develop a driving strategy to maximize energy efficiency for a fixed distance and average velocity. The test vehicle is equipped with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system that provides electric power to a brus...

According to the source paper written in 2006, the Malaysian food industrial sector accounted for about 14% of the total manufacturing energy consumption. As energy costs rapidly increase, alternative energy sources and efficiency improvements become essential to energy planning, cost savings, resource optimization, and environmental protection in...

Kenyalang is a fuel cell powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). This paper discusses the aircraft performances analysis of Kenyalang. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) using Numeca software had been performed to obtain the aerodynamics characteristic of the Kenyalang UAV in the form of lift (CL) and dra...

Combustion engines are increasingly being regarded as unsustainable in the long-term, because of their negative impact on the environment (e.g. pollution, green-house gas production, and global warming). This has generated worldwide interest in propulsion systems based on renewable alternative energy sources for the future. Fuel cell technology is...

‘Capstone’is a metaphor used to describe a final achievement that builds upon previousworks and encapsulates them. Capstone projects are included in engineering curricula to integrate multi-disciplinary subjects and teach professional skills that are difficult to impart in a traditional lectured course. Since these projects serve to transition stud...

The internal combustion engines that are widely used as power sources nowadays emits hazardous emissions that can cause negative consequences on the environment and society such as pollution and climate change. Transportation industries are starting to rely on the renewable energy as the alternative energy sources for the future. Fuel cells are a p...

The Kenyalang-12 is an unmanned technology demonstrator aircraft equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell to provide power for its electric propulsion system. This aircraft was designed, built, and flight-tested at the Universiti Teknologi MARA Flight Technology and Test Center located in Shah Alam, Malaysia. It is the first of its kind entirely designed...

This paper examines the energy efficiency of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle operating at different power settings. The goal is to develop a driving strategy to maximize energy efficiency for a fixed distance and average velocity. The test vehicle is equipped with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system that provides electric power to a brus...

One promising solution to reducing the environmental impact of aircraft emissions is replacing conventional combustion engines with efficient electrical power systems based on hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cells. While modern fuel cells can generally have a gravimetric power density that is similar to combustion engines, their volumetric p...

This paper describes the Kenyalang-1 (“Hornbill-1”) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) which was developed as an alternative energy technology demonstrator. The propulsion system is powered either purely by a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell or alternatively by a hybrid power system of the fuel cell augmented with a two-cell lithium polymer bat...

A fuel cell powered unmanned air vehicle (UAV) named Kenyalang-1a was designed, built, and flight-tested at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Shah Alam, Malaysia. The UAV is propeller-driven by a DC brushless motor, powered by a 500 W proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cell. The objective was to demonstrate the design and technologi...

Aerospace Propulsion Systems is a unique book focusing on each type of propulsion system commonly used in aerospace vehicles today: rockets, piston aero engines, gas turbine engines, ramjets, and scramjets. Dr. Thomas A. Ward introduces each system in detail, imparting an understanding of basic engineering principles, describing key functionality m...

It is anticipated that traditional methods of cooling that employ the sensible heat transfer provided by fuels will not be sufficient to meet the cooling requirements of future high-performance aircraft. One potential solution is the use of endothermic fuels, which absorb heat through chemical reactions. However, few studies have analyzed the effec...

Hydrocarbon fuels have been used as a cooling media in aircraft jet engines for many years. However, advanced aircraft engines are reaching a practical heat transfer limit beyond which the sensible heat transfer provided by fuels is no longer adequate. One solution is to use an endothermic fuel that absorbs heat through chemical reactions.. A two-d...

Advanced aircraft engines are reaching a practical heat transfer limit beyond which the convective heat transfer provided by hydrocarbon fuels is no longer adequate. One solution is to use an endothermic fuel that absorbs heat through chemical reactions. This paper describes the development of a two-dimensional computational model of the heat and m...

Flow experiments using heated Jet-A fuel and additives were performed to study the effects of treated surfaces on surface deposition. The experimental apparatus was designed to view deposition due to both thermal oxidative and pyrolytic degradation of the fuel. Carbon burnoff and scanning electron microscopy were used to examine the deposits. To un...

Hydrocarbon fuels have been used as cooling media for aircraft jet engines for decades. However, modern aircraft engines are reaching a practical heat transfer limit beyond which the convective heat transfer provided by fuels is no longer adequate. One solution is to use an endothermic fuel that absorbs heat through a series of pyrolytic chemical r...

Two kinds of flowing experiments were performed using jet fuel to assist the understanding of the effect of a stainless-steel surface (316) or a passivated surface on thermal-oxidative degradation. In the first kind, the entire heated surface was either stainless-steel (3160 or was treated with a relatively passive layer. Dissolved O2 consumption o...