Safeguarding Aircraft Generators

Congratulations to Team 1420 for winning the Rincon Research Best Presentation Award at Engineering Design Day 2015. The team developed a new type of electromechanical shaft to disconnect an aircraft generator from the engine output in the event of electrical short or bearing failure.

“The purpose is to save the entire generator from complete failure,” said team member Jose Luttmann. Currently, aircrafts do not have such a device. “We’ve been working on this project since last semester from a concept design that we put into practical use.”

“What they have between the aircraft engine and the generator is a called a shear point,” explained team member Ivy Hasman. “The shear point breaks apart the shaft, so that the engine is still spinning with the generator disengaged, but now there is still a broken shaft.”

The new electromechanical shaft disconnect allows the engine to continue providing power to the aircraft without further damaging the generator. The team is confident that their device can be applied to larger aircraft. 

"Because we are students, we were limited to what we can do, but we're pretty confident that the device will work on a large-scale model," Hasman said. 

Honeywell, which sponsored the project, is considering the design for future use.

Project: Electromechanical Shaft Disconnect
Team 1420 Members:
Jose Luttmann, mechanical engineering
Isaiah Bruno, mechanical engineering 
Michel Mora,mechanical engineering
Ivy Hasman, materials science and engineering 

Sponsor: Honeywell