Date of Award

3-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Hygiene

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Jeremy M. Slagley, PhD

Abstract

In developing functional SUAS, performance characteristics that indicate system capability should be developed prior to initiating initial system design. Key performance parameters should be developed involving all system elements (including vehicle body, operator, ground station, sensor, and algorithm or processing module). A bioaerosol sampler designed specifically for the use in SUAS was characterized based on designated performance measures to determine overall effectiveness compared to traditional bioaerosol samplers. For a system with a goal of accurately identifying and quantifying areas of airborne biological contamination or surveying background levels for longitudinal studies, performance parameters such as weight of the vehicle with payload and sampler specific parameters will be quantitatively evaluated. These sampler-specific parameters include operational noise levels, power demand compared to performance, and sampling fraction. These were evaluated in a series of lab-based tests to determine if the developed model of bioaerosol sampler could be deployed for use in military environments. Overall, it was found that the developed EOS inlet oversampled for the background concentrations compared to the modeled performance for the inlet, and oversampled compared to the closed face cassette filter. This may be due to ground effects acting on the system—as the bottom placement for the sampler performed worse than expected based on previous research in comparison to the sampler closer to the rotors.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENV-MS-20-M-230

DTIC Accession Number

AD1101602

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