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Mechanical Engineering

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Series

1996

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

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Preparing The Leaders For Mechatronics Education, Sema E. Alptekin Nov 1996

Preparing The Leaders For Mechatronics Education, Sema E. Alptekin

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Mechatronics is the synergetic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control and systems thinking in the design of products and processes. There is a need to develop interdisciplinary programs in Mechatronics that better prepare our graduates to design, build, and operate the products and systems of today and tomorrow. To address this need, National Science Foundation funded a project entitled "Preparing the Leaders for Mechatronics Education" undertaken by Cal Poly in 1995 - 1996. In this paper, the activities that took place during this two-year program is outlined. Several courses and course modules have already been developed and implemented by …


Development Of Outcome Assessments At Wpi, William W. Durgin, Lance Schachterle Nov 1996

Development Of Outcome Assessments At Wpi, William W. Durgin, Lance Schachterle

Office of the Provost Scholarship

The WPl PLAN, adopted by the WPl faculty in 1970, strongly anticipates current thinking about student outcomes assessments by structuring degree requirements that mandate that students demonstrate their ability to perform professional functions embodied in ABET Criteria 2000, especially Criteria 3 and 4. The WPI faculty has also practiced both student and self evaluations of these outcomes through respectively grades and peer review (both departmental and campus-wide) of student performance.


Distributed Activation Energy Model Of Heterogeneous Coal Ignition, John C. Chen Nov 1996

Distributed Activation Energy Model Of Heterogeneous Coal Ignition, John C. Chen

Mechanical Engineering

We present a model that simulates the conventional tube-furnace experiment used for ignition studies. The Distributed Activation Energy Model of Ignition accounts for particle-to-particle variations in reactivity by having a single preexponential factor and a Gaussian distribution of activation energies among the particles. The results show that the model captures the key experimental observations, namely, the linear increase in ignition frequency with increasing gas temperature and the variation of the slope of the ignition frequency with oxygen concentration. The article also shows that adjustments to the model parameters permit a good fit with experimental data.


Solute Nucleation And Growth In Supercritical Fluid Mixtures, Gregory T. Smedley, Gerald Wilemski, W. Terry Rawlins, David B. Oakes, Prakash Joshi, William W. Durgin Jul 1996

Solute Nucleation And Growth In Supercritical Fluid Mixtures, Gregory T. Smedley, Gerald Wilemski, W. Terry Rawlins, David B. Oakes, Prakash Joshi, William W. Durgin

Office of the Provost Scholarship

This research effort is directed toward two primary scientific objectives: (1) to determine the gravitational effect on the measurement of nucleation and growth rates near a critical point and (2) to investigate the nucleation process in supercritical fluids to aid in the evaluation and development of existing theoretical models and practical applications. A nucleation pulse method will be employed for this investigation using a rapid expansion to a supersaturated state that is maintained for ≈ 1 ms followed by a rapid recompression to a less supersaturated state that effectively terminates nucleation while permitting growth to continue. Nucleation, which occurs during …


Modeling Of Macroscopic/Microscopic Transport Phenomena In Zeolite Crystal Solutions Under Microgravity Conditions, Andreas Alexandrou, Nikos A. Gatsonis, William W. Durgin, Albert Sacco, Jr. Jun 1996

Modeling Of Macroscopic/Microscopic Transport Phenomena In Zeolite Crystal Solutions Under Microgravity Conditions, Andreas Alexandrou, Nikos A. Gatsonis, William W. Durgin, Albert Sacco, Jr.

Office of the Provost Scholarship

Crystals grown from special liquid solutions find important industrial applications. Most often the physics and chemistry of the growth processes are not well understood due to complex microscopic chemical and thermo-fluid phenomena. Microgravity could help elucidate these phenomena and allow the control of defect concentration and crystal size. We are proposing to study zeolites grown in silica solutions as a typical crystal growth system. By using macroscopic fluid dynamics, coupled with first-principle microscopic fluid physics and advanced particle simulations, we will study: (a) the effect of transport phenomena and nutrient flow under microgravity conditions along with (b) the nucleation process …