Automation & IIoT

The Role of Advanced Sensors in Propellant Technology

Oct. 7, 2024

Unlocking the complex interactions within combustion systems aims to pave the way for safer, more efficient defense applications. Element U.S. Space & Defense and Texas Tech’s Mechanical Engineering Department are collaborating to achieve this goal.

Sharon Spielman

Related To: Element U.S. Space & Defense

To understand the dynamics of combustion, sophisticated sensor systems are used to provide data on thermal dynamics, energy transfers and combustion processes.

Machine Design spoke with Dr. John Granier, chief engineer of munitions and energetics at Element U.S. Space & Defense, along with Dr. Michelle Pantoya, J.W. Wright Regents Chair in mechanical engineering and professor at Texas Tech, about their collaboration on this research. In this second of a five-part series, we learn that effective development of propellants requires high accuracy in measurement techniques.

The sensor systems employed by Element and Texas Tech use advanced principles of physics to capture critical details about combustion. By applying technologies that quantify light intensity emission across multiple wavelengths, Pantoya noted, they get insights into how thermal energy moves through a system. Granier said that one of the main changes since his days as a student at Texas Tech is the high-speed camera. “This is allowing us to get almost...a thousand times more data than we could have gotten 20 years ago,” he added.

Watch additional parts of this interview series with Dr. John Granier and Dr. Michelle Pantoya:

Part 1: Forging the Future of Defense with Modern Methodologies

Part 3: Prototyping Solutions for the Defense Industry

Part 4: Assessing Effectiveness and Reliability in Prototype Development

Part 5: The Future of Defense Engineering: Trends and Insights

Editor’s Note: Machine Design’s WISE (Workers in Science and Engineering) hub compiles our coverage of workplace issues affecting the engineering field, in addition to contributions from equity seeking groups and subject matter experts within various subdisciplines.

About the Author

Sharon Spielman | Technical Editor, Machine Design

As Machine Design’s technical editor, Sharon Spielman produces content for the brand’s focus audience—design and multidisciplinary engineers. Her beat includes 3D printing/CAD; mechanical and motion systems, with an emphasis on pneumatics and linear motion; automation; robotics; and CNC machining.

Spielman has more than three decades of experience as a writer and editor for a range of B2B brands, including those that cover machine design; electrical design and manufacturing; interconnection technology; food and beverage manufacturing; process heating and cooling; finishing; and package converting.

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