January 31, 2012
UT aerospace engineering graduate student Anand Karpatne was selected to receive the 2011 American Helicopter Society (AHS) Southwest Chapter Robert Lichten Award. The award was established to encourage members who have not yet presented the results of their work at a technical forum to begin presenting at local and regional AHS meetings.
Karpatne presented his paper, entitled, “Analytical Study of Tip Vortex Aperiodicity in Hover”, at the Bell Helicopter plant in Fort Worth.
Receiving this prestigious award for his first conference presentation was very rewarding for the second year master’s student.
“This experience has given me a lot of encouragement,” Karpatne said. “I am confident I’m going in the right direction.”
Karpatne received the award for the presentation he gave on his work with his advisor, Dr. Jayant Sirohi. The duo is conducting research to help improve the overall quality of helicopter rides.
The team is creating a model to study the unsteady wake of a rotorcraft in hover. The wake is the region of disturbed airflow that gets pushed down by the blades of the helicopter. The rotor wake is inherently turbulent and unsteady which causes the helicopter ride to be shaky.
By developing a model for the rotor wake, the researchers can learn how to alter rotor blade vibrations, performance, and rotor acoustics. Manipulating these variables could provide a smoother helicopter ride and increased performance.
Karpatne said his decision to come to The University of Texas to pursue the joint MS and PhD program in Aerospace Engineering was greatly based on Sirohi’s research style.
“I wanted a program that contained theoretical as well as experimental modeling,” Karpatne said. “I found that Dr. Sirohi’s research group had the right blend of both aspects. That caught my eye and I was very attracted to it. I’m extremely satisfied with my decision to come here. It’s been a great experience.”
Prior to coming to UT, Karpatne attended the National Institute of Technology Karnataka(NITK) and received a BS in mechanical engineering. However, Karpatne had an early interest in aerospace engineering. Because NITK did not have an aerospace engineering program, Karpatne would travel to the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IISC) to work on research in the Aerospace Engineering department during the summers.
After he finished his undergraduate study, he began working at Oracle as a computer application developer.
“While working at Oracle I realized that my true interests were in the field of aerospace engineering,” Karpatne said. “Even while I was working, I would go to IISC on evenings and weekends to work on aerospace engineering projects. It was there that my advisor encouraged me to apply to premier higher education programs. So here I am. I’m very satisfied because this is exactly where I want to be.”
Karpatne received a $250 honorarium and will be entered in the national level AHS competition.
