摘要: A Hot Air Balloon is a Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) system that uses hot air as a lifting gas. This paper describes an interesting indoor exercise in Aerostatics and Design, for providing hands-on experience to STEM students. The exerci... 展开 A Hot Air Balloon is a Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) system that uses hot air as a lifting gas. This paper describes an interesting indoor exercise in Aerostatics and Design, for providing hands-on experience to STEM students. The exercise involves design of an indoor Hot Air Balloon that can develop aerostatic lift in a given time, ascend and touch the ceiling of a foyer, and then return back to the floor. The aim is to design and size a balloon that can maximize the payload fraction. The students are encouraged to try out various shapes and materials for the envelope, and the sources of fuel to generate the required temperature of the hot air. We present the procedure that can be followed for sizing of the balloon for one specific shape that has found to be very promising for this purpose. This paper presents the comparative analysis of various shapes, and also list the key learnings of this exercise and share the experience of conducting it for several batches of students. 收起