Digital Commons Network^™

A Generative Statistical Approach For Data Classification In A Biologically Inspired Design Tool, Marvin Manuel Arroyo Rujano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the research this thesis describes is to find a way to classify text-based descriptions of biological adaption to support Biologically Inspired design. Biologically inspired design is a fairly new field with ongoing research. There are different tools to assist designers and biologists in bio-inspired design. Some of the most common are BioTRIZ and AskNature. In recent years, more tools have been proposed to aid and make research in the field easier, for example, the Biologically Inspired Adaptive System Design (BIASD) tool. This tool was designed with the goal of helping designers in early design stages generate more …

The Effect Of Incorporating End-User Customization Into Additive Manufacturing Designs, Jonathan D. Ashley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the realm of additive manufacturing there is an increasing trend among makers to create designs that allow for end-users to alter them prior to printing an artifact. Online design repositories have tools that facilitate the creation of such artifacts. There are currently no rules for how to create a good customizable design or a way to measure the degree of customization within a design. This work defines three types of customizations found in additive manufacturing and presents three metrics to measure the degree of customization within designs based on the three types of customization. The goal of this work …

Development Of A Rapid Fatigue Life Testing Method For Reliability Assessment Of Flip-Chip Solder Interconnects, Cody Jackson Marbut

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The underlying physics of failure are critical in assessing the long term reliability of power packages in their intended field applications, yet traditional reliability determination methods are largely inadequate when considering thermomechanical failures. With current reliability determination methods, long test durations, high costs, and a conglomerate of concurrent reliability degrading threat factors make effective understanding of device reliability difficult and expensive. In this work, an alternative reliability testing apparatus and associated protocol was developed to address these concerns; targeting rapid testing times with minimal cost while preserving fatigue life prediction accuracy. Two test stands were fabricated to evaluate device reliability …

Mobility Cart For Monoskiers, Bryce Petersen, Craig Miller, Aaron Kan, Tyler Meskin

Mechanical Engineering

This document represents the culmination of the senior design project of Team Monoski M.E. This project was in partnership with Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra (DSES), a volunteer-based, non-profit organization focused on providing people with disabilities opportunities to participate in outdoor activities. Our team was tasked with designing a device to help monoskiers at Mammoth Mountain load on and off the gondola with little to no assistance. Over the course of three quarters at Cal Poly, we designed, manufactured, and tested our mobility cart, consisting of a custom-made wheelchair with an integrated hydraulic lift.

End Effector For Robotic Strawberry Picker Final Design Review, Marshall Cuffe, Cory Frederickson, Jimmy Jeffery

Mechanical Engineering

In this report, we have outlined the background of the problem and need for a solution to an automated form of strawberry harvesting. The report includes our research findings, defines the scope and objectives for this project, and documents our complete design process. Also included is our final, completed prototype, and a description of the manufacturing, design verification and testing process. Also included is our conclusions and recommendations for further improvement on future iterations.

All-Terrain Storage Surfboard Carts, Ben M. Kennedy, Danny Riedeman, Roberto Gonzalez

Mechanical Engineering

All Terrain Storage consists of three mechanical engineering students: Roberto Gonzalez, Ben Kennedy, and Danny Riedeman. The goal of All Terrain Storage is to design and create two portable storage devices for the non-profit organization AmpSurf. AmpSurf helps veterans, people with disabilities, and anyone else who could be helped through adaptive surfing and other outdoor activities. Their current method of storing and transporting equipment for events is carrying it from the trailer in the parking lot through the sand onto the beach. This document will provide: a more thorough introduction to AmpSurf and the project, the objectives, background information, the …

Experimental Investigation Into The Effects Of Thermal Recuperation On The Combustion Characteristics Of A Non-Premixed Meso-Scale Vortex Combustor, Seyed Ehsan Hosseini, Evan Owens, John Krohn, James Leylek

Faculty Publications - Mechanical Engineering

In small-scale combustors, the ratio of area to the combustor volume increases and hence heat loss from the combustor’s wall is significantly enhanced and flame quenching occurs. To solve this problem, non-premixed vortex flow is employed to stabilize flames in a meso-scale combustion chamber to generate small-scale power or thrust for propulsion systems. In this experimental investigation, the effects of thermal recuperation on the characteristics of asymmetric non-premixed vortex combustion are studied. The exhaust gases temperature, emissions and the combustor wall temperature are measured to evaluate thermal and emitter efficiencies. The results illustrate that in both combustors (with/without thermal recuperator), …

Applications Of Dynamic Mode Decomposition And Sparse Reconstruction In The Data-Driven Dynamic Analysis Of Physical Systems, Mojtaba F. Fathi

Theses and Dissertations

Recent advancements in data collection methods and equipment have resulted in a huge increase in the amount of data collected by observing various types of physical phenomena. Regardless of the amount of data collected, it is well known for many physical systems, the so-called information rank of the collected data is much lower than the rank of the data itself. This usually means the data may be represented sparsely in terms of a properly-chosen basis. This realization has led to methods for storing large amounts of data through compression by sacrificing negligible data quality. More importantly, with the advent of …

Transient Analysis Of A Coolant-To-Refrigerant Heat Exchanger To Provide Temporary High Performance In An Automotive Vehicle, Abhinav Ravi

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to provide a numerical and experimental design tool to understand the heat transfer analysis of a coolant reservoir being chilled at a sub-ambient temperature with a goal of eventually providing a transient burst in performance. A high performance vehicle usually has a liquid charge air cooler that cools air before entering the engine. This liquid charge air cooler cools the air by using a specific coolant coming from the low temperature radiator. This study involves a coolant reservoir independent of the low-temperature radiator to provide coolant at a sub-ambient temperature to the liquid charge …

Accelerated Freezing Due To Droplet Pinning On A Nanopillared Surface, Rachel Bohm, Mohammad Rejaul Haque, Chuang Qu, Edward C. Kinzel, Amy Rachel Betz

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The freezing process is significantly influenced by environmental factors and surface morphologies. At atmospheric pressure, a surface below the dew and freezing point temperature for a given relative humidity nucleates water droplets heterogeneously on the surface and then freezes. This paper examines the effect of nanostructured surfaces on the nucleation, growth, and subsequent freezing processes. Microsphere Photolithography (MPL) is used to pattern arrays of silica nanopillars. This technique uses a self-assembled lattice of microspheres to focus UV radiation to an array of photonic jets in photoresist. Silica is deposited using e-beam evaporation and lift-off. The samples were placed on a …

Inter-Laminar Fracture Of 3d-Printed Plastics - Development Of Methods, Christopher Stolinski

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Due to the increased use of 3D printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic parts, a way to quantify the failure energy (energy needed to initiate cracking) is needed. Impact tests at high rates of loading are performed to determine failure energy. Throughout testing, specimens are monitored with high speed cameras to perform camera-based deformation measurements. Data acquisition and processing methods to calculate failure energy using crack opening displacement, and loading rates are developed to enable further use by Dr. Ryan Berke’s lab at Utah State University.

Local Peer-To-Peer Communication To Improve Demand Response In Residential Neighborhoods, Ryan Schwartz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Increased electricity production from intermittent renewables presents a challenge to utilities. Since the grid has little ability to store energy, fluctuations in solar and wind generation require either an increase in generation from expensive sources or a reduction of demand. Demand Response (DR) programs focus on the latter and are designed to increase grid flexibility by allowing grid operators to modify when or how customers use electricity. For residential customers, this typically means shedding load during periods of high demand through a central controller temporarily shutting off air conditioning (AC) compressors. This type of DR can cause spikes in demand …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, December 2018, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

A Novel Numerical Method To Analyze Laminar Flow In Serrated Plate-Fin Heat Exchanger Designs, Nabila Rubaiya

Theses and Dissertations

In the present research work, a simple numerical method has been explored to calculate the performance of serrated plate-fins. The numerical data of heat transfer and pressure drop performances have been compared with the available literature [6, 21], by means of calculating Chilton-Colburn j Factor and Fanning Friction Factor f, respectively. The numerical findings show good agreement with the experimental results from literature. Hence, the numerical analysis procedure proposed in this paper can be used to predict the performance of new designs of plate fins including different types of notched serrated fins. A detailed calculation and analysis of results have …

The Design, Construction, And Thermal Diffusivity Measurements Of The Fluorescent Scanning Thermal Microscope (Fstm), Samuel Hunter Hayden

Theses and Dissertations

Over the life of nuclear fuel, inhomogeneous structures develop, negatively impacting thermal properties. New fuels are under development, but require more accurate knowledge of how the properties change to model performance and determine safe operational conditions. Measurement systems capable of small–scale, pointwise thermal property measurements and low cost are necessary to measure these properties and integrate into hot cells where electronics are likely to fail during fuel investigation. This project develops a cheaper, smaller, and easily replaceable Fluorescent Scanning Thermal Microscope (FSTM) using the blue laser and focusing circuitry from an Xbox HD-DVD player. The FSTM also incorporates novel fluorescent …

Development Of An Improved Low-Order Model For Propeller-Wing Interactions, Joshua Taylor Goates

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For aircraft that have propellers mounted in front of the wings or tail, the prop wash produced by the propellers can have a strong influence on the aerodynamics of the aircraft. As the accelerated air from the propeller flows over the wings and tail, it can cause an alteration in the aerodynamic forces produced by those surfaces. Thus, an understanding of propeller-wing interactions is essential for the design and analysis of many aircraft.

There are multiple existing methods for analyzing the propeller-wing interactions. High order methods, such as wind tunnel testing or computational fluid dynamics, provide very accurate results but …

Study Of The 3Ω Measurement Of The In-Plane And The Cross-Plane Thermal Properties On Anisotropic Thin Film Materials, Daxi Zhang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to the size of the nano-scale and micro-scale materials, traditional method for measuring the thermal properties of the bulk materials cannot be applied. The 3 Omega Method was developed by D. G. Cahill in the early 90s. It was used extensively to measure the thermal properties of thin film dielectric materials. Compare with other simulations or experimental methods, the 3 Omega Method has many advantages. Previous research has indicate that the 3 Omega method is capable of measuring the cross-plane thermal conductivity of thin film materials. In extension, an alternative improvement for measurement of the in-plane thermal conductivity and …

Droplet Impact Onto Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces And Determining The Response To Heat And Light Of Terrestrial Cyanobacteria, Benjamin B. Lovett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines droplets striking water repelling surfaces as well as the movement of a soil based bacteria under various light and heat conditions. Droplet impact studies have shown that introducing a macroscopic feature to a water repelling surface can reduce the amount of time that droplet is in contact with the surface. By manipulating water droplets to impact different sized needles at varying speeds, we present how a needle can induce a similar reduction in the residence time of the droplet to more widely studied features. Results show the spreading and lift-off characteristics of the droplet are dependent on …

Equivalent Circuit Model Generation For Batteries Using Non-Ideal Test Data, Logan Crain

Theses and Dissertations

Modeling is a key component in the development of battery products. While there are multiple levels of complexity which may be achieved in model development, equivalent circuit modeling is able to quickly produce reliable and accurate predictions for battery behavior. While the use of equivalent circuit models has been described in great detail for lithium ion batteries, it is also desirable to use this methodology regardless of chemistry, specifically with respect to lead-acid technology. When developing battery models for predicting battery behavior in a vehicle, the testing methods meant to mimic vehicle applications often cause non-ideal data for model generation. …

In Silico Analysis Of Advanced Processing Methods For Light-Weight Alloys Powders, Marjan Nezafati

Theses and Dissertations

Light-weight Al and Mg-based metal-matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs) are lauded as one of the most promising structural materials for vehicle, military, and construction applications. These MMNCs are often synthesized using the powder metallurgy (PM) process under liquid nitrogen cryogenic environments to control the grain sizes. It is believed that proper incorporation of the nitrogen species into the bulk lattice during processing could strongly enhance the mechanical properties of MMNCs by forming N-rich dispersoids. In this work, using the density-functional theory (DFT), the adsorption, absorption and diffusion behavior of nitrogen molecule/atoms have been studied and related to t Al and Mg MMNC …

Coordination And Control For A Team Of Mobile Robots In An Unknown Dynamic Environment, Sucheta Roy

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a dual-level control structure for controlling a mobile robot or a group of robots to navigate through a dynamic environment (such as an object is moving in the workspace of a robot). The higher-level controller operates in cooperation with robot’s state estimation and mapping algorithm, Extended Kalman Filter – Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (EKFSLAM), and the lower-level controller (PID) controls the motion of the robot when it, encounters an obstacle, i.e., it reorients the robot to a predefined rebound angle and move it straight to maneuver around the obstacle until the robot is out of the obstacle …

Shape-Stabilization Of Pcm/Hdpe Composites With 3d-Printing Applications For Battery Thermal Management, Thomas Benjamin Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Phase-change materials (PCMs) are a useful alternative to more traditional methods of thermal management of Li-ion batteries in electric or hybrid-electric vehicles. PCMs are materials which absorb large amounts of latent heat and undergo solid-to-liquid phase change at near-constant temperature. The goal of this thesis is to experimentally investigate the thermal properties of a novel shape-stabilized PCM/HDPE composite extruded filament. The extruded filament can then be used in a 3D printer for custom PCM/HDPE shapes. These custom PCM/HDPE shapes can be used to help reduce weight, energy consumption, and complexity of the thermal management of the ESS. The PCM used …

Evaluation Of Deformable Posts In The Zoi And Rigid Posts In Stiff Soil, Thomas Ammon

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Debris fences are commonly used by states, in conjunction with a concrete parapet, to protect railway tracks. Their use limits the intrusion of debris that could damage tracks or clutter rail lines. Due to a lack of previously crash-tested systems, the safety performance of such designs are largely unknown. The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) desired that researchers at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) design a crashworthy debris fence mounted on top of a concrete parapet to meet the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) TL-3 crash test conditions. Part 1 of this thesis details the literature review and …

Spin-Controlled Wavefront Shaping With Plasmonic Chiral Geometric Metasurfaces, Yang Chen, Xiaodong Yang, Jie Gao

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Metasurfaces, as a two-dimensional (2D) version of metamaterials, have drawn considerable attention for their revolutionary capability in manipulating the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light. As one of the most important types of metasurfaces, geometric metasurfaces provide a versatile platform for controlling optical phase distributions due to the geometric nature of the generated phase profile. However, it remains a great challenge to design geometric metasurfaces for realizing spin-switchable functionalities because the generated phase profile with the converted spin is reversed once the handedness of the incident beam is switched. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate chiral geometric metasurfaces based on …

Development, Testing, Analysis, And Efficiency Of A Variable Area Dredge In Combination With A Mobile Ferrate-Based Treatment Facility, Leigh Ann Provost

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposal outlines the development and testing of a mobile slurry treatment trailer coupled with a variable area suction head and further expands on results and procedures shown in Feasibility of Muck Removal in the IRL Watershed and Subsequent Ferrate Treatment to Remove Excess Nutrients. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the suction head based on the percent solids maintained during dredging. This thesis also evaluates a scaled design and associated costs for a fully scaled dredging project utilizing the suction head. Additional statistics involving further fitting sediment data to a Weibull …

The Corrosion And Biofouling Characteristics Of Sealed Vs. Perforated Offshore Monopile Interiors: Experiment Design Comparing Corrosion And Environment Inside Steel Pipe, Monica M. Maher

Theses and Dissertations

This research addresses the need to improve on the existing methods for the corrosion control of the monopile interiors used to support wind powered turbines by incorporating a design that also enhances marine habitats and fisheries. Retrofitting monopile interiors with cathodic protection has been attempted on existing windfarms to mitigate corrosion, however, this can cause new problems including water acidification and hydrogen sulfide formation. Such chemistry changes can lead to unique localized corrosion concerns. This study investigated internal corrosion, chemistry and biofouling inside partially submerged hollow steel pipes. Watertight pipes with stagnant water inside were compared to pipes with holes …

Three Dimensional Nonlinear Simulation Of Quench Phenomenon In Superconducting Tapes Using Mesh-Free Monte-Carlo Method, Reza Bahadori

Theses and Dissertations

Performing quench propagation simulations of full size superconducting coils is a challenging problem due to complex coil structures and internal arrangements of superconducting wires. In addition, superconducting wires and cables themselves constitute complex 3D arrangements comprised of superconductor, matrix, stabilizer, insulation and other materials. Modelling quenches in complete coils is therefore a complex multi-scale and multi-physics problem that is difficult to solve with conventional techniques like finite element or finite difference methods. Monte-Carlo methods have been successfully used to simulate various multi-scale and multi-physics problems, but to our knowledge have not been applied to quench propagation simulations. In the first …

Computational Support For Predicting Requirement Change Volatility In Complex System Design, Phyo Htet Hein

Theses and Dissertations

Requirements play critical role in the design process as objective statements of stakeholders’ expectations. Design process is iterative, and requirements are also constantly changed and updated to reflect stakeholders’ expectations, design changes, regulations, resource limitations, etc. Managing requirement change is one of the most important requirement management tasks. Since requirements are driving factors in product development from initial concept development stage to final production, mismanaged requirement changes can adversely affect project health leading to monetary and time losses. The ability to assess a requirement change and predict its propagation early in the design process will enable engineers to make informed …

Applications Of Passive Solar Energy And Reclaimed Heat From Livestock Manure Decomposition, Naomi Elizabeth Schalle

Honors Theses

One energy intensive part of raising livestock in colder climates is keeping water warm and easily accessible to the animals in the winter. The objective of this project is to increase the sustainability of livestock farms by developing and implementing an energy conservation measure to decrease electric energy usage on the heating of water for livestock in the winter. One thing farmers have in excess is manure, an abundant and renewable resource for the farmers. This project will capitalize on that excess to encourage a creative use of resources often seen as waste, through implementing aspects of sustainability and conservation …

Photochemical Etching Of Nitrided Stainless Steel Piston Rings, Steven Sonntag

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Piston rings are designed to provide a seal between the piston and the cylinder wall of internal combustion engines, keeping oil from the crankcase from getting into the combustion chamber. This means piston rings are the main point of contact between the piston and the cylinder wall, which causes the piston to experience high amounts of friction and wear. By texturing the surfaces of the cylinder wall and/or the piston ring, the amount of contact area can be reduced, allowing for less friction, slower wear, and better gas mileage. In this thesis experiments, photochemical etching processes were developed to etch …