Session: 11.1.2 - Advances in Fluids Engineering Education II

Paper Number: 158703

158703 - Virtual Laboratories Developed for the Aerospace Engineering Program 

Abstract: 

Virtual Laboratories Developed for the Aerospace Engineering Program

Lu Zhao¹ & Ray Taghavi²

ASME FEDSM 2025 – Fluids Engineering Summer Meeting

July27-30, 2025, Philadelphia, PA

The complexities for virtual teaching of laboratory testing in aerospace engineering programs will be discussed. A typical virtual propulsion laboratory set-up for aircraft reciprocating and gas turbine engines, as well as a low speed wind tunnel testing will be presented. Today’s aerospace/mechanical engineers are required to be able to work in a multi-disciplinary and multinational environment and Covid situation made this requirement even more urgent. One of the areas in which most graduates have shortcomings is laboratory experiments. Of course, many engineering programs lack propulsion laboratories leaving the students with wage imagination about full-scale engines. This is not only true for gas turbine engines but also for reciprocating engines. Our graduates at the University of Kansas have consistently commented on the importance of our laboratories and the tremendous experience they have gained by actually running real engines and conducting wind tunnel testing. The purpose of this presentation is to describe a virtual propulsion laboratory and subsonic wind tunnel set-up which have been successfully used during the pandemic at the University of Kansas. Sample engine and aircraft performance data from these laboratories will also be presented as well. 

1       PhD Candidate, Aerospace Engineering

2       Professor & Associate Chair, Aerospace Engineering, Fellow of ASME

Presenting Author: Lu Zhao University of Kansas

Presenting Author Biography: I am Lu, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The University of Kansas. My research focuses on the instability of swirling shear layers, particularly jets with embedded swirls. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant, I worked on courses including Fluid Mechanics and Fundamentals of Jet Propulsion.