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Prove Endurance Car Front Suspension, Lauren A. Williams, Logan Simon, Justine G. Kwan

Mechanical Engineering

This document details the collaborative Mechanical Engineering Senior Project with Cal Poly PROVE Lab on PROVE Lab’s Project 2; an electric vehicle designed to travel 1000 miles on a single charge. Logan Simon, Justine Kwan, and Lauren Williams are given the challenge of designing an innovative proof of concept front suspension suspension for this vehicle.

After detailed research of new suspension systems, it was determined that the innovative nature could be in the form of unique manufacturing methods, materials use, or mechanical design. At this point in time, this vehicle is a purely conceptual design with no concrete requirements. Therefore …

Investigation On Effective Modulus And Stress Concentration Factor Of 3d Reinforced Composite By Finite Element Analysis Method, Chandra Bhaskar Reddy Pittu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Micromechanics of Composites aims to analyze the localized stresses inside any given constituents of the composite structure. This Thesis is focused on Calculating the effective modulus and the Stress concentration factor of the 3D straight Fiber Composite using Finite Element(FE). The compressive and a Shear response of a 3D Straight fiber composite comprising three directional E Glass Fibers reinforced in an epoxy matrix is analysed. This result is the 10% of overall Composite Ductility and a 10% of overall Shear displacement load in the orthogonal directions. FE calculations are reported to analyse the response of 3d reinforcement as of with …

Fea Of Carbon Composite As A Substitute For Steel (A992) In Case Of Square Or Rectangular Hollow Cross-Sections As Beams And Columns, Pradeep Ganesh Pai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Improvement to an existing design is an ongoing and never-ending process in every field. The improvement can be in a myriad of areas like an increase in strength, reduction in weight, stiffness to a loading condition and so on. The way it is achieved can range from changing the properties of the material used by incorporating various manufacturing processes or by using an alternative material which can sustain the same loading conditions or for that matter, work better than the existing material. Composite materials like Carbon Fiber, Glass Fiber or Kevlar Fiber reinforced plastics, to name few, are being used …

Comparison Of Cross-Sectional Profiles For Side Impact Crash Structure In Passenger Vehicle, Nitish Sharma

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Car’s safety is most important structural criteria while designing an automotive chassis. To protect the occupants from a direct impact, the passenger cabin and the structure of the vehicle should have an appropriate stiffness so that the it absorbs any kind of impact and keeps the passenger safe. Design standards are set by various vehicle safety association around the world based on different crash situations i.e. front crash, side impact, roll over etc. Among these standards, side impact crash account for over all 40% crashes all around the world and is one of the most fatal crash scenarios. This research …

Finite Element Analysis Of Composite Reactor Pressure Vessel, Tejas Vasant Mhetre

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Reactor Pressure Vessel is the container designed to hold gases or liquids above atmospheric pressure. The focus of this study is to develop Finite Element Model to predict the performance of composite reactor pressure vessel subjected to extreme pressure and temperature and compare with pressure vessel manufactured using conventional materials. In the first part of the study, a pressure vessel system with Carbon steel material under design pressure and temperature have been analyzed for stresses, deformation and Safety Factor. Various loading cases have been discussed during the analysis of pressure vessel. Composite materials have been a suitable replacement to the …

Finite Element Analysis And Design Improvement Of Aerospace Composite Hinges, Gaurang Girish Sonpal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Hinges are the most commonly used mechanical bearings to connect 2 objects for relative rotational motion. Modern day aerospace hinges are generally made using either Aluminum, Steel or bronze. The study analyzes the use of composite material as an alternative to traditional materials for manufacturing these hinges. The research is focused on the Finite element Analysis of a composite hinge as well as an aluminum hinge. The load capacity of both the types of hinges are compared. To improve the design of the composite hinge, a combination of composite material and aluminum is used to model a hybrid hinge design. …

Numerical Evaluation Of Energy Release Rate At Material Interfaces For Fatigue Life Predictions, Robert L. Hendrickson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Composite materials are becoming popular in almost all industries. Carbon-fiber and glass-fiber composites are used in aircraft, sports equipment, boats, prosthetics, and wind turbine blades. In all these applications, the composites are subjected to different loads. Loads can take the form of impact or cyclic/fatigue loading, both of which decrease the strength of composites as micro-cracks grow through the composite. Composite laminates are made up of fiber plies (thin layers of fiber) and the fibers are surrounded by a resin like epoxy. It is common for laminates to fail because of delamination growth (plies peeling apart). Small delaminations do not …

Development Of Waste-Based-Thermoplastic Composite Heat Insulators, Waseem Yousef Hittini

Mechanical Engineering Theses

The main scope of this research is to develop polymer-filler thermal insulators utilizing natural and industrial local waste such as date pit powder (DPP), devulcanized tire rubber (DVR), and buffing dust (BD). Recycling and reuse of these local wastes as fillers in insulation materials has significant benefits for the UAE environment. An objective of this work was to study the effect of the combination of these local wastes with polystyrene (PS) on the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the developed thermal insulators. PS was used as a matrix, mixed in different proportions with the waste fillers. Each mixture was …

High Temperature Polymer Composites Using Out-Of-Autoclave Processing, Sudharshan Anandan

Doctoral Dissertations

"High performance polymer composites possess high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and have design flexibility. Carbon/epoxy composites are commonly used aerospace materials. Bismaleimide based composites are used as a replacement for epoxy systems at higher service temperatures. Aerospace composites are usually manufactured, under high pressure, in an autoclave which requires high capital investments and operating costs. In contrast, out-of-autoclave manufacturing, specifically vacuum-bag-only prepreg process, is capable of producing low cost and high performance composites. In the current study, out-of-autoclave processing of high temperature carbon/bismaleimide composites was evaluated. The cure and process parameters were optimized. The properties of out-of-autoclave cured laminates compared …

Human-Robot Collaborative Force-Controlled Micro-Drilling For Advanced Manufacturing And Medical Applications, Parimal Mahesh Prajapati

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Robotic drilling finds applications in diverse fields ranging from advanced manufacturing to the medical industry. Recent advances in low-cost, and human-safe, collaborative robots (e.g., Sawyer) are enabling us to rethink the possibilities in which robots can be deployed for such tedious and time-consuming tasks. This thesis presents a robotic drilling methodology with features of force-control enabled micro-drilling and human-robot collaboration to reduce programming efforts and enhance drilling performance. A Sawyer robot from Rethink Robotics, which offers safe physical interactions with a human co-worker, kinesthetic teaching, and force control, is used as the test bed. The robot’s end-effector was equipped with …