The goal of this work was to design a battery that serves as the structural material as well as the power source for a transportation vehicle. The combination of both mechanical and electrochemical aspects within one material defines the component as a multifunctional material, or in this case, a multifunctional battery. The design of the composite multifunctional batteries for optimal performance involves the proper selection of the materials, architecture, and electrical interconnection. The ultimate goal is to incorporate a battery with a continuous composite fibrous fabric within the structured composite skin of a vehicle (such as an automobile or aircraft). This work included a survey of the electrochemical potential of multiple composite fabrics, such as fiberglass and modified carbon fiber, as substitutions for the electrode and separator materials of the battery. Each modified material was examined by a typical cyclic voltage-capacity testing in a traditional button cell platform. The performance for the use of the modified carbon fibers as the anode was then compared to the performance of conventional lithium ion materials to see which of the pretreatments improved the carbon fiber's performance. In addition to this electrochemical testing, flexure and tensile mechanical data of various geometries of perforated pouch cell architectures were examined under varying structural loads while the battery was electrochemically tested. In-situ testing of structural cells was conducted to determine the best configuration for object specific structural batteries.
A Hybrid Projectile (HP) currently under design at West Virginia University was simulated to estimate the effects of barrel launch angle and flight position of wing deployment. The projectile is similar to a standard 60mm mortar, except that is has been equipped to achieve extended range. A Simulink model was developed based upon external ballistics. The flight performance of the WVU-HP-60 was compared to a standard M720 60mm mortar. The developed HP was considered to be a tube-launched UAV, that transforms, not directly after launch but sometime after for optimal gliding, and must be modeled with different flight profiles because after transformation the aerodynamics drastically change. Two models of the UAV were created to allow for design of controllers. They were the launch model and the projectile flight model. It was found that the projectile may exit the barrel with a two degree variation of launch angle. The simulations show that range extension is still viable, with this barrel exit variation, to within 10% of the maximum achievable range. A confidence area was also developed to determine how far the launch angle and wing deployment position could stray and still maintain a significant amount of range extension.
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