Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
(Faculty of Engineering and Design)
Aerospace Engineering (AERO) Courses
Aerospace Engineering Graphical Design
Engineering drawing techniques; fits and tolerances; working drawings; fasteners. Elementary descriptive geometry; true length, true view, and intersection of geometric entities; developments. Aerospace-specific CAD (Computer-Aided Design) assignments including production of detail and assembly drawings from actual aerospace physical models.
Also listed as MAAE 2001.
Prerequisite(s): Second-year status in Engineering.
Lectures and tutorials two hours a week, laboratory four hours a week.
Aerospace Design and Practice
Design approach and phases. Design integration. Influence of mission and other requirements on vehicle configuration. Trade-off studies, sizing and configuration layout. Flight vehicle loads, velocity-load factor diagram. Structural design: overall philosophy, role in design process, methods. Basic orbital mechanics; launch vehicle sizing.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 2001 and third-year status in Engineering.
Lectures three hours a week, problem analysis three hours a week.
Lightweight Structures
Structural concepts; theory of elasticity; bending, torsion and shear in thin-walled beams having single or multi-cell sections; work and energy principles; deformation and force analysis of advanced structures, including stiffened thin-wall panels; finite element methods. Stability and buckling of thin-walled structures.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 3202.
Lectures three hours a week; problem analysis one hour a week.
Orbital Mechanics
Review of translational kinematics and dynamics. Keplerian two-body problem: Kepler's laws, orbital elements, orbit determination. Orbital perturbations: oblateness of the Earth, atmospheric drag. Orbital maneuvers and interplanetary flights. Advanced topics.
Aerospace Materials
Properties, behaviour and manufacturing methods for metals, polymers and ceramics used in aerospace applications. Specialty alloys for gas turbines. Properties and manufacture of aerospace composites. Behaviour of materials in space.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 2700.
Lectures three hours a week; problem analysis one hour a week.
Spacecraft Design I
Design of spacecraft and spacecraft subsystems with emphasis on mission requirements and current design methods: spacecraft configuration, payload, structural, attitude control, thermal, power, and other related subsystems. Spacecraft integration and testing.
Prerequisite(s): AERO 3240.
Lectures three hours a week, tutorials or laboratories three hours per week.
Aerospace Systems Design
Stress and deflection analysis; fatigue, safe life, damage tolerant design. Propulsion systems integration; landing gear; control and other subsystems. Mechanical component design. Airworthiness regulations and certification procedures. Weight and cost estimation and control. System reliability. Design studies of aircraft or spacecraft components.
Prerequisite(s): AERO 3002 and fourth-year status in Engineering.
Lectures three hours a week, problem analysis three hours a week.
Aviation Management and Certification
Product development, quality control. Strategic organizational analysis and design. Airworthiness, type certification and planning, delegation of authority, airplane flight manual. Aerospace system design and safety.
Lectures three hours per week.
Acoustics and Noise Control
Behaviour of compressible fluids, sound waves and properties of sound sources; measurement of sound; human perception of sound; prediction methods based on energy considerations; sound propagation in realistic environments: outdoors, rooms, ducts; absorption and transmission loss, noise control; case studies.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 3004 and (MAAE 3300 or MECH 3310) and fourth-year status in Engineering or by permission of department.
Lectures three hours a week.
Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer
Differential equations of motion. Viscous and inviscid regions. Potential flow: superposition; thin airfoils; finite wings; compressibility corrections. Viscous flow: thin shear layer approximation; laminar layers; transition; turbulence modeling. Convective heat transfer: free versus forced convection; energy and energy integral equations; turbulent diffusion.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 3300 or MECH 3310.
Also offered at the graduate level, with different requirements, as MECH 5000, for which additional credit is precluded.
Lectures three hours a week, problem analysis two hours a week.
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Governing equations of fluid motion (full & simplified). Discretization based on finite difference, finite volume, and finite element methods. Explicit and implicit integration schemes. Numerical stability. Numerical solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations: RANS, LES and DNS. Turbulence modeling. Programming-based assignments (convection/diffusion).
Lectures three hours a week.
Aerospace Vehicle Performance
Morphology of aircraft and spacecraft. Performance analysis of fixed wing aircraft: drag estimation, propulsion, take-off, climb and landing, endurance, payload/range, manoeuvres; operational economics. Performance analysis of rotor craft: rotor-blade motion, hovering and vertical ascent, forward flight, and autorotation. Rocket propulsion; escape velocity; orbital dynamics.
Lectures three hours a week.
Aircraft Stability and Control
Static stability and control: equilibrium requirements; longitudinal stability requirements; neutral points; manoeuvring flight; control forces and control requirements; lateral static stability certification requirements. Dynamic stability: axis systems; governing equations; phugoid and short period modes; lateral dynamic modes. Closed-loop control.
Also offered at the graduate level, with different requirements, as MECH 5101, for which additional credit is precluded.
Lectures three hours a week.
Aerospace Propulsion
Propulsion requirements, effects of Mach Number, altitude, and application; basic propeller theory; propeller, turboshaft, turbojet, turbofan and rocket; cycle analysis and optimization for gas turbine power plant; inter-relations between thermodynamic, aerodynamic and mechanical designs; rocket propulsion; selection of aeroengines.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 2400, (MAAE 3300 or MECH 3310), and fourth-year status in Engineering or by permission of the department.
Lectures three hours a week.
Transatmospheric and Spacecraft Propulsion
Planetary/interplanetary environments and effects. Launch and spacecraft propulsion: liquid/solid/hybrid rockets, ram/scramjets, combined cycle engines, electrothermal, electromagnetic, electrostatic, nuclear, and propellantless propulsion. Trajectory analysis, multi-staging, separation dynamics. Advanced engine concepts.
Lectures three hours a week.
Heat Transfer for Aerospace Applications
Fundamentals of heat transfer with emphasis on aerospace systems design. Conduction, convection and radiation modes of heat transfer. Radiation exchange between surfaces and view factors. Radiation in spacecraft thermal control. High speed flight and reentry heating.
Prerequisite(s): MAAE 2400 and (MAAE 3300 or MECH 3310) and fourth-year status in Engineering.
Lectures three hours a week.
Avionics Systems
RF engineering concepts. Aviation communication systems. Relative and absolute navigation; landing systems. Radar systems; weather radar. Aircraft systems integration; databus standards; electrical systems; power generation and distribution. Safety critical software. Electromagnetic compatibility and interference. Regulations and certification of avionic systems.
Precludes additional credit for ELEC 4504.
Prerequisite(s): 4th year status in Engineering. Not open to students in Electrical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Engineering Physics or Communications Engineering.
Lectures three hours a week.
Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics and Control
Rigid body dynamics. The dynamic behavior of spacecraft. Environmental torques. The design of attitude control systems. Gravity gradient, spin, and dual spin stabilization. Attitude manoeuvres. The design of automatic control systems. Impacts of attitude stabilization techniques on mission performance.
Lectures three hours a week.
Introductory Aeroelasticity
Review of structural behaviour of lifting surface elements; structural dynamics, Laplace Transforms, dynamic stability; modal analysis; flutter, Theodorsen's theory; flutter of a typical section; wing flutter, T-tail flutter, propeller whirl flutter; gust response; buffeting, limit cycle flutter.
Lectures three hours a week.
Rotorcraft Aerodynamics and Performance
Rotorcraft history and fundamentals. Momentum theory: hover, axial climb and descent, autorotation, forward flight, momentum theory for coaxial and tandem rotors. Blade element analysis. Rotor airfoil aerodynamics. Rotor blade dynamics and trim. Helicopter performance, height-velocity curves, conceptual design. High-speed rotorcraft.
Lectures three hours per week.
Composite Materials
Reinforcing mechanisms in composite materials; material properties. Strength and elastic constants of unidirectional composites; failure criteria. Analysis of laminated plates; bending and eigenvalue problems. Environmental effects and durability. Damage tolerance. Design of composite structures.
Joining of Materials
Design for joining: base material and component geometry. Selection of joining method and filler material; Adhesive bonding; Soldering; Brazing; Diffusion bonding; Resistance welding; Fusion welding (GTAW, EB, laser and plasma arc); Friction welding; NDE. Emphasis on Aerospace materials and applications.
Lectures three hours per week.
Spacecraft Design II
System view of spacecraft. Requirements definition. Spacecraft payloads (remote sensing, imaging systems, astronomy instrumentation etc.). Exploration missions. Implications for systems and missions. Space system design case studies.
Precludes additional credit for AERO 4802 (no longer offered).
Prerequisite(s): AERO 3841 and fourth-year status in Engineering.
Lectures three hours a week, tutorials or laboratories one hour per week.
Note: Not all courses listed are offered in a given year. For an up-to-date statement of course offerings for the current session and to determine the term of offering, consult the class schedule at central.carleton.ca.
Summer session: some of the courses listed in this Calendar are offered during the summer. Hours and scheduling for summer session courses will differ significantly from those reported in the fall/winter Calendar. To determine the scheduling and hours for summer session classes, consult the class schedule at central.carleton.ca