Laboratory Members
* International education and research staff in faculty of engineering
Opportunities for Learning and Research
First, in the Field of Thermophysics and Fluid Mechanics, students will acquire an advanced knowledge of engineering technologies and their application to the fields of Aeronautics and Astronautics, such as external flows around aircrafts or airfoils and internal flows inside engines, energy conversion from the chemical energy of fuel into propulsion power, computational and experimental technologies dealing comprehensively with heat and flow phenomena, and cutting-edge micro-nano technologies.
Second, in the field of Aerospace Structures and Structural Dynamics, we aim to develop lightweight structures with high-reliability for aircrafts, rockets, satellites, and space-structures. Thus, the students in this field will learn structures and structural dynamics to improve the reliability of airframe structural technology and the systems design methods of space vehicle, to investigate thermally-induced vibration mechanisms of space structures due to solar radiation, and to find the damage tolerance mechanisms of advanced composite materials. Furthermore, they will participate in research that seeks to solve advanced issues in this field.
Third, the field relevant to Flight Dynamics and Controls provides education and research opportunities concerning flight dynamics and kinematic analysis of aircraft and spacecraft, automatic control, and equipment. We promote research which applies optimization theory, advanced control technology, and imaging technology in order to develop autonomous systems for unmanned aircraft and spacecraft. We are offering comprehensive and practical education through research where we actually develop compact-sized unmanned aerial vehicles and robots, and conduct verification experiments with them.
The fields relevant to Space System Engineering conduct comprehensive education through wind tunnel experiments and flight experiments, numerical analysis, and the development of a small-sized artificial satellites related to the movement and orbiting of spacecraft, which are fundamental to achieving space activities in a gravitational field constructed by the planets and the sun. Other research topics include aerodynamic heating during reentry of spacecraft and the design of spacecraft geometry that allows orbital and interplanetary round trip travel between the Earth and outer space, a new propulsion system for hypersonic flight, and space technology developed through microgravity experiments at the space station.
Special Facilities
In addition, the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics functions several special experimental facilities to support these education and research opportunities, such as a Low Noise Wind Tunnel (two measurement sections; 2m~2m and 3.5m~3.5m in size, and maximum wind velocity is 60m/s), Advanced Aerospace Engineering Facilities (a Supersonic Wind Tunnel of Mach number 2.5 or 3.5, a Transonic Flutter Wind Tunnel of Mach number 0.4~1.3, and a Microgravity Experimental Drop Tower (18m in height).