AIAA Liquid Propulsion Technical Committee (LPTC)
LPTC Steering Committee and General Membership Meeting Minutes, July 30-31, 2012
Joint Propulsion Conference, July 29-August 1, 2012 Atlanta, GA
AIAA LIQUID PROPULSION
TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
Eric Besnard
Chairman
LPTC
General membership and Steering Committee
Minutes
31 July 2012
Atlanta, GA
9
AIAA Liquid Propulsion Technical Committee (LPTC)
LPTC Steering Committee and General Membership Meeting Minutes, July 30-31, 2012
Joint Propulsion Conference, July 29-August 1, 2012 Atlanta, GA
AIAA LIQUID PROPULSION TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
Date: July 31, 2012
To: Eric Besnard, LPTC Chairman
From: Don Sargent, Secretary
Subject: Minutes - Liquid Propulsion Technical Committee,
Joint Propulsion Conference, July 29 – August 1, 2012, Atlanta, GA
Chairman Eric Besnard called the General Membership meeting to order at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at the Joint Propulsion Conference in Atlanta, GA. The agenda for the LPTC meeting is included as Attachment 1. Thirty-eight members were in attendance (Attachment 2 is the attendance roster).
The LPTC Steering Group meeting took place beginning at 5:00 PM on Monday, July 30th, prior to the full committee meeting. Thirteen attendees are indicated on the Attachment 2 attendance roster. Steering group minutes were taken and the topics covered were discussed again in the general meeting.
Key points and discussion from the general membership meeting follow:
Opening Remarks / Introduction
Eric Besnard started the meeting with welcoming remarks. The agenda for this meeting was also reviewed.
Eric then summarized the Propulsion and Energy TAC meeting and New Event Model (NEM) workshop that he had attended on Sunday, July 29th. Under the NEM, beginning in 2014, AIAA is to restructure into five large forums. The LPTC will have a major role in organizing technical sessions, similar to its current role in the JPC, for the Propulsion and Energy Forum that will be held in mid summer. ITAR sessions will be included in this forum. In addition, the LPTC is to support the Space 20XX Forum that will be held in late summer / early fall (perhaps September). One or two LPTC members will be selected to help with plenary session planning for the Space 20XX Forum, and might organize one or two technical sessions for this forum.
Eric also reviewed his presentation to the P&E meeting that highlighted the LPTC accomplishments, initiatives and plans, issues, and financial status. Much of what he presented is covered in the LPTC subcommittee reports, discussed below.
The $25,000 endowment made to the AIAA Foundation for scholarships in the 1990s was discussed at the P&E meeting. The current endowment balance is $27,668. Eric will coordinate with Tom Smith to find out the status of the scholarship, process, etc., and what the two $2,000 disbursements of 2008 and 2009 correspond to.
Eric reported a TAC suggestion to establish an independent nominations subcommittee with each Technical Committee. At the Steering Committee meeting, the LPTC unanimously voted to reject this suggestion.
Ashwani Gupta, Director of the Propulsion & Energy Group, visited the LPTC General Membership meeting, and complimented the LPTC on the large turnout for this meeting. Ashwani solicited ideas for visibility and growth. Ivett Leyva suggested that free or discounted conference registration be offered to the Liquid Propulsion technical organizer for future JPCs, as compensation for the extensive work involved. Ashwani agreed to forward this suggestion to the TAC.
Old Business
Don Sargent presented the status of action items from the LPTC General Membership meeting at the January 2012 ASM held in Nashville, TN. The action items were reviewed and updated during this July 2012 meeting. Attachment 3A lists the action items that were completed or closed, along with the rationale for each. Attachment 3B is the updated action item list, after deleting the completed or closed items.
Next, the membership accepted, by voice vote without objection, the minutes as written (no comments or corrections were received) of the LPTC meeting at the 2012 ASM, held in Nashville, TN, January 9, 2012.
JPC Conference Planning Updates
2012 JPC, Atlanta, GA, July 29st – August 1st, 2012
Ivett Leyva discussed the status and results of 2012 JPC.
• 103 papers were submitted as of July 18, 2012. 14 papers were withdrawn, leaving 89 papers to be presented.
• Ivett granted a one week extension for submitting manuscripts, when requested. However, this disrupted the session scheduling process. Ivett suggested this problem be addressed for the next JPC.
• 23 LP sessions were planned.
• A very well attended special Invited Session was organized by the History Subcommittee: “Hydrogen Propulsion: Centaur-Saturn to J-2X and Beyond”. A similar session will be planned for JPC 2013.
The LP membership thanked Ivett for her hard work and for a successful conference.
2013 JPC, San Jose, CA, to be held July 14th – July 17th, 2013
Silvio Chianese reported the planning for 2013 JPC.
Action Item 12 ASM-2 was to define a list of technical specialties (categories) of abstracts and papers for the JPC 2013 liquid propulsion sessions. The objective is to improve the abstract review process by assigning submitted abstracts to knowledgeable LPTC members. Bad abstracts should be rejected, and more information should be requested for incomplete abstracts. The overall intent is to improve paper quality while minimizing the impact upon paper. Silvio completed this action item, and this list was distributed to the members in attendance, for each LPTC member in attendance to identify his/her technical specialties, in response to Action Item 12 ASM-3. The results are included as Attachment 4. Silvio will make the best effort to match interest area with the assigned abstracts and session chairs.
The 12-month planning meeting for the 2013 Joint Propulsion Conference was held on Tuesday, July 31st.
• The 2013 JPC will still be organized upon the current AIAA meeting model; the NEM will not take effect until 2014.
• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has been identified as a sponsor, but more sponsors are needed.
• There will be ITAR sessions, but there are many details to be determined. The abstracts will all be open.
• The Marriott and the Hilton are attached to the San Jose Conference Center.
• The Scholar One system will be used for abstract review, with a goal for a minimum of 2-3 reviewers for each abstract.
• Dr. Daniel Kirk, Associate Professor at Florida Institute of Technology and one of our own LPTC members, has been named as the Academic Chair of the 2013 JPC.
2014 JPC, Cleveland
Justin Locke will be the Liquid Propulsion Technical Organizer for 2014 JPC
2015 JPC, Location TBD
Members were encouraged to consider volunteering to be the Liquid Propulsion Technical Organizer for 2015 JPC
New Business - Subcommittee Reports
Treasurer’s Report – Mike Meyer
Activities for 2011
2011 Starting Balance $ 4831.38
Withdrawals
• Dinner Expenses for January 2011 Meeting - $311.17 1/31/2011
• LPTC Shirts - $658.50 on 7/2011
• Young Professional and Student Awards -2 x $1000.00 on 8/2011
• Dinner Expenses for August 2011 LPTC Meeting - $494.00
Deposits - $3659.40 (Proceeds for Short Course, San Diego)
December 2011 Balance – $5026.26
Projected Activities for 2012
No winter meeting expenses/no 2012 Awards
Withdrawal
• Dinner Expenses for July 2012 Meeting - ~ $450.00 8/2012
Deposits
• No LP Short Course at 2012 JPC in Atlanta- > no deposit
Dec 1, 2012 Balance – ~$4500+
Webmaster’ Report – Justin Locke
· AIAA TAC and IT rejected the LPTC request to maintain our legacy website format, so we must transition to the SharePoint format.
· Justin created a PDF document for each member’s biosketch.
· An awards page and a meeting minutes link were added to the LPTC website.
Awards Subcommittee Report– Alfredo Lopez
· In response to Action Item 11 JPC-6, the Best Paper Award criteria were modified to include innovation
o Significance (20%): Importance to liquid propulsion
o Quality (50%): Problem, approach, experiment, analysis and results presented in a clear and complete yet succinct fashion
o Innovation (30%): Approach or technology presented is innovative and contributes to enhancing the current state-of-the-art
· Best Paper ranking procedure was revised to address the problem that large variability exists in the normalized scores from reviewer to reviewer, causing controversy and uncertainty within the subcommittee for selecting the Best Paper. The revised procedure has the objective of identifying and eliminating “outlier” or “out-of-family” individual scores that tend to skew the results. New steps in the amended procedure:
o Calculate the standard deviation (S) of scores for each paper to quantify the reviewer-to-reviewer variability
o Statistically define an “acceptable range” of scores for each paper, using the standard deviation and a critical value for Student’s t
o Minimum acceptable score = average – t x S
o Maximum acceptable score = average + t x S
o Objectively delete scores outside of the “acceptable range”
o Recalculate average score for each paper
o Award Best Paper to paper with the highest recalculated score
· Applying this ranking procedure, the 2011 LPTC Best Paper award is to AIAA 2011-5682, “Heat Exchange and Pressure Drop Enhanced by Sloshing”.
· The LPTC discussed the mechanics for selecting the pool of candidates for Best Paper, i.e., the session chairs pick the best paper from each session. Eric Besnard suggested that each session chair that submitted a candidate paper be obligated to review all candidate papers. The suggestion was tabled for further study.
· The LPTC Student and Young Professional Awards were cancelled for 2012, because there was no short course/ no funding and there were insufficient nominations.
o Need better distribution of announcement for these awards to attract more nominees.
· The Wyld Award "For significant improvements to solid and liquid nozzle reliability and performance through introduction and demonstration of innovative design concepts incorporating new composite materials."
o Criteria: Significance of the technical contribution of the candidate to the development and/or application of rocket propulsion systems. (50%); Sustained contribution to the field (40%); and AIAA Service (10%).
o 2012 Wyld Award Recipient: Robert Jahn
· In response to Action Item 09 JPC-8, the draft criteria for the LPTC Lifetime Achievement Award and for the LPTC Service Award were created by Alfredo and were included in the LPTC minutes for the January 2012 meeting. These draft criteria were adopted by the LPTC.
· Action Item 12 JPC-1 was assigned to Alfredo Lopez: Awards subcommittee should nominate candidates and make selections for the LPTC Lifetime Achievement Award and for the LPTC Service Award.
Education Subcommittee Report – Alan Frankel
· The AIAA PD Committee did not accept the Liquid Propulsion Short Course for the 2012 JPC. No explanation has yet been received from AIAA for rejecting this course. The LP Short Course has been approved for the 2013 JPC.
· Consider dividing the short course for 2013:
o Day 1 – Fundamentals (including chemical reactions and converting chemistry into performance, Stability)
o Day 2 – Applications/survey of topical areas
· Prior subjects that were confirmed for 2012:
o Launch Vehicle Engines (Ballard)
o Russian Engine Heritage (Haidn)
o Development and Flight of ADN Monoprops (Persson, ECAPS)
o Microsat, Nanosat, Cubesat Propulsion (Ketsdever, CU)
o Dual Mode Engines and System Trades (Purohit)
· Subjects under consideration:
o Mission Assurance Methodology (Wang)
o Green Propulsion (Pourpoint)
o Practical Experience Aerothermal (Hinerman, PWR Greybeard)
· Action Item 12 JPC-2 was assigned to Alan Frankel: Structure the outline and curriculum of the liquid propulsion short course so it will be structured and regarded as training.
· The Education Subcommittee has been considering alternatives, such as conducting the LP course by Webinar. These courses are online with logistics handled by AIAA, are 90-120 minutes in length, provide $250 per hour honoraria, and can include polls and Q&A. Alan will send the Webinar information and guidelines to the LPTC members. Alan has solicited subjects and content and has identified four prospective presenters. The Education Subcommittee will keep in mind any impact a Webinar course might have upon the Short Course at the JPC.
· A Lessons Learned Course is another option. This might be a 4-6 hour course, held last evening of conference, with the TC handling logistics and keeping profits.
· The LPTC members were polled to indicate approval for suggested LPTC STEM activities:
o Junior High and High School visits: 24 members approved
o Tie in with other LPTC activities at the JPC: 0 members approved.
o Special events (i.e., design challenge): 11 members approved
o Prepare material for teachers: 0 members approved (this material should already exist).
History Subcommittee Report – Kent Pugmire
· A very well attended special Invited Session at JPC 2011 was “The Legacy of Robert Sackheim”. A similar session will be planned for JPC 2013.
· This year’s history session, “Hydrogen Propulsion: Centaur-Saturn to J2X and Beyond”, drew a standing-room-only audience. Kent recognized Bob Sackheim’s efforts to make this session a huge success.
· Adequate equipment is now available to record both video and audio of history sessions. Thanks to BJ Austin and associates for filming, editing, and DVD duplication.
· Thanks to Alfredo Lopez for preparing LPTC recognition certificates.
· Thanks to Alan Frankel for providing quality mugs, courtesy of AMPAC, to presenters.
· DVDs of recorded history sessions from the 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 Joint Propulsion Conferences are available. Volunteers are sought to prepare short synopses of these past recorded history sessions.
· A continuing challenge is to find a way to fund retiree’s JPC travel is his original company is not willing or able. Funding was generally made available for this year’s presenters.
· Action Item 12 JPC-3 was assigned to Alan Frankel and Kent Pugmire: Investigate using the already-recorded history sessions as webinar courses, to be offered by LPTC.
Publications Subcommittee Report – Geoff Reber
· Geoff was not present, but prepared charts for this LPTC meeting.
· Geoff has resigned from the LPTC (and from the Publications Subcommittee), because his job keeps him too busy. A new Publications Subcommittee Chairman is needed.