Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Flinak Molten Salt Corrosion On The Hardness Of Hastelloy N, David Kok

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) has been identified as a promising candidate to replace aging nuclear reactors around the world. However, a suitable combination of molten salt and container material needs to be found in order to reduce the potential for corrosion in the MSR before it can be considered commercially viable. FLiNaK molten salt and the nickel-based alloy Hastelloy N have been identified as prime candidates for this function, but the severity of FLiNaK corrosion in Hastelloy N requires additional study before this combination can be used in the operation of a MSR. In this study, Hastelloy N samples …

Mechanical And Tribological Behaviour Of Treated And Untreated Moringa Oleifera Pods Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Polymer Composite For Packaging Applications, Prakash Sampath, Senthil Kumar V.S Dr

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Researchers now focus on the use of natural fiber polymer composites materials for packing applications. This attention is due to their low cost and renewable characteristics. Fabrication of composites with the use of renewable resources has many benefits of alternating from an appropriate management and reduction in industrial wastages, ecofriendly behaviour to cost effectiveness. The artificial fibers in packing industries can be replaced by natural fibers in the areas where stiffness and high strength are not the primary requirement. In the last decade the use of Natural fibers in the place of artificial fibers for reinforcements in epoxy resin matrix …

The Influence Of Process Variables On Physical And Mechanical Properties In Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Joshua Robert Koepke, Bradley Jared, Yu-Lin Shen

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing consists of a process that incorporates many process variables into fabricating parts. This study investigated several of these process variables and determined their influence on part properties. The process variables investigated include laser power, velocity, focus offsets, layer thickness, and powder particle size. Physical properties will be compared including surface roughness, form, and density. Tensile testing provided mechanical properties including unloading Young’s modulus, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, uniform elongation, and ductility. Process maps will be developed that will provide recommendations for these process settings. It will be shown that these laser settings can …

Development And Validation Of A Vibration-Based Sound Power Measurement Method, Cameron Bennion Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides no vibration-based sound power measurement standard that provides Precision (Grade 1) results. Current standards that provide Precision (Grade 1) results require known acoustic environments or complex setups. This thesis details the Vibration Based Radiation Mode (VBRM) method as one approach that could potentially be used to develop a Precision (Grade 1) standard. The VBRM method uses measured surface velocities of a structure and combines them with the radiation resistance matrix to calculate sound power. In this thesis the VBRM method is used to measure the sound power of a single-plate and multiple plate …

Performance Analysis Of An Exhaust Heat Recovery System Utilizing Heat Pipes, Metal Foam, And Thermoelectric Generators, Michael Resciniti

Scholar Week 2016 - present

This paper highlights a new type of modified heat pipe assisted thermoelectric generator system for automobile exhaust waste heat recovery. This system employs the use of metal foam as a heat transfer aid to increase the thermal energy transferred through the system. In this system, heat pipes are inserted into a metal foam block that is exposed to the exhaust gas stream. The metal foam increases heat transfer in a similar way that fins increase heat transfer. To confirm that this system provides a greater conversion of thermal energy, an experimental prototype was built and tested. Tests were conducted with …

Biomechanical Foot Guidance Linkage, Carl Nelson, Cale J. Stolle, Judith M. Burnfield

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A gait replication apparatus can include a scalable mechanical mechanism configured to replicate different gaits . The scalable mechanical mechanism can include , for example , a four - bar linkage , a pantograph , a cam / Scotch - yoke mechanism , and so forth . In some embodiments , the mechanical mechanism includes a beam rotating about an axis passing proximate to its center , with a foot pedal slidably coupled with the beam , and a timing chain / belt or cable pulley - pair coupled with the foot pedal and looped about the beam . A …

Mechanical Systems That Function Like Living Organisms, Dallas Rice

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between the human body and technologically advanced mechanical systems or robotics. More specifically, we looked at how robotics plays a part in prosthetics for other living organisms. During the research we looked at the anatomy of the human body, focusing on the nervous system, bone structure and movements, tissue and muscle relationships, and the neurological response of the brain. We also looked at how the human body reacts and responds to artificial limbs as a way to identify the best ways to introduce unnatural mechanical systems to the body. Different …

Layered Wicks Enable Passive Transport Of Condensation Out Of Cooling Systems, Nhicolas Aponte, Jordan Morrow, Gennifer Riley, Partha P. Chakraborty, Melanie M. Derby

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Layered wicks enable passive transport of condensation out of cooling systems

Nhicolas Aponte, Jordan Morrow, Gennifer Riley, Partha Chakraborty, Melanie M. Derby

Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Kansas State University

Cooling systems, like condensers or cooling towers of a power plant, transfer heat out of a system. The cooling process often occurs through the condensation of water, which forms a liquid film that reduces heat transfer. This problem makes cooling systems larger and more costly. One approach to this problem is drop-wise condensation in which condensed water gathers in the form of droplets which can then run off, preventing …

Education Research With The Engineering Curriculum, Elshaddai Abamegal

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Gaussian Process Regression Applied To Marine Energy Turbulent Source Tuning Via Metamodel Machine Learning Optimization, Sterling Olson

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Converting energy from the currents found within tidal channels, open ocean, rivers, and canals is a promising yet untapped source of renewable energy. In order to permit current energy converters for installation in the environment, the CECs must be shown to non-negatively impact the environment. While developing these model increased utility may be gained if researchers may optimize mechanical power while constraining environmental effects. Surrogate models have garnered interest as optimization tools because they maximize the utility of expensive information by building predictive models in place of computational or experimentally expensive model runs. Marine hydrokinetic current energy converters require large-domain …

A Discrete Curvature Estimation Based Low-Distortion Adaptive Savitzky-Golay Filter For Ecg Denoising, Hui Huang, Shiyan Hu, Ye Sun

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Publications

Electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing is an important application for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Recently, driven by the emerging technology of wearable electronics, massive wearable ECG sensors are developed, which however brings additional sources of noise contamination on ECG signals from these wearable ECG sensors. In this paper, we propose a new low-distortion adaptive Savitzky-Golay (LDASG) filtering method for ECG denoising based on discrete curvature estimation, which demonstrates better performance than the state of the art of ECG denoising. The standard Savitzky-Golay (SG) filter has a remarkable performance of data smoothing. However, it lacks adaptability to signal variations and thus often …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Molybdenum Disulfide/Conducting Polymer Nanocomposite Materials For Supercapacitor Applications, Turki S. Alamro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The needs for energy storage devices have kindled researchers desire to explore and synthesize nanocomposite materials. Storing energy efficiently, effectively and sustainably are the science and engineering communities’ highest priorities to develop electrochemical energy storage devices. Supercapacitors have become power solution not only because supercapacitors can bridge the gap between the traditional capacitors and rechargeable batteries but also because of many other advantages which include extraordinary electrochemical properties, wide working-temperature range, cost effective, safe operation and long/stable cycle life. They have higher current pules than batteries due to the mechanism of charging and discharging. Batteries charging and discharging via chemical …

Enhanced Carbon Dioxide Electrolysis At Redox Manipulated Interfaces, Wenyuan Wang, Lizhen Gan, John P. Lemmon, Fanglin Chen, John T. S. Irvine, Kui Xie

Faculty Publications

Utilization of carbon dioxide from industrial waste streams offers significant reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. Solid oxide electrolysis is a highly efficient, high temperature approach that reduces polarization losses and best utilizes process heat; however, the technology is relatively unrefined for currently carbon dioxide electrolysis. In most electrochemical systems, the interface between active components are usually of great importance in determining the performance and lifetime of any energy materials application. Here we report a generic approach of interface engineering to achieve active interfaces at nanoscale by a synergistic control of materials functions and interface architectures. We show that the …

Layered Wicks Enable Passive Transport Of Condensation Out Of Cooling Systems, Nhicolas Aponte, Jordan Morrow, Gennifer Riley, Partha P. Chakraborty, Melanie M. Derby

Nhicolas Aponte

Cfd Study Of Aerodynamic Drag Reduction Tool Of A Generic Sports Utility Vehicle (Suv), Samira Ishrat Jahan

Masters Theses

The Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) has been a popular automobile choice in North America for over 50 years due to its seating and hauling versatility and good towing capacity. This widespread popularity has resulted in manufacturers pushing for increased horsepower and cabin size. Unfortunately, the limiting factor has been fuel economy which is governed by the vehicle aerodynamics. A reduction in aerodynamic drag can result in better fuel economy. The goal of this study is to reduce the aerodynamic drag of a generic SUV and the efficient application of drag reduction devices to control flow separation. An initial study has …

Data Fusion Method Based On Adaptive Kalman Filtering, Bernadus Herdi Sirenden

Makara Journal of Technology

This paper discusses data fusion methods to combine the data from a rotary encoder and ultrasonic sensor. Both sensors are used in a micro-flow calibration system developed by the Research Center of Metrology LIPI. The methods studied are hierarchical data fusion and Kalman filtering. Three types of Kalman filters (KFs) are compared: the conventional Kalman filter and two adaptive Kalman filters. Moreover, a method to combine the uncertainty results from KF in hierarchical data fusion is proposed. The aim of this study is to find appropriate methods of data fusion that can be implemented in micro-flow calibration systems. Data from …

Electrical Properties Of A Novel Solid Biopolymer Electrolyte Based On Algi-Nate Incorporated With Citric Acid, Ahmad Faizrin Ahmad Fuzlin, Noor Syahida Ismail, Yuki Nagao, Ahmad Salihin Samsudin

Makara Journal of Technology

In the present study, a novel solid biopolymer electrolyte (SBE) system is introduced by doping citric acid into alginate polymer. A sample of the alginate-citric acid SBE system was prepared via a solution casting technique. Using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the electrolytes of alginate-citric acid analyzed from 5 Hz to 1 MHz achieved the highest conductivity at 20 wt.% of 5.49 × 10-7 S cm-1. The temperature dependence of various citric acid amounts obeyed the Arrhenius rule with R2~1, where all SBE systems were thermally activated with increasing temperature. The dielectric studies of the alginate-citric acid SBE system showed non-Debye …

Hybrid Laser/Arc Welding Of Difficult-To-Weld Thick Steel Plates In Different Joint Configurations: Issues And Resolutions, Nima Yazdian

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Difficult-to-weld steels are ferrous alloys that are characterized by a low thermal conductivity, and large thermal expansion coefficient. These intrinsic features contribute to a high level of distortion and cracking susceptibility during joining of these types of steels. In an effort to address the issues associated with difficult-to-weld steels, highly concentrated beam spots like electron and laser beam welding were developed. Usage of tightly focused heat sources have been accompanied by several challenges. An extremely precise fit-up requirement was considered as the most significant issue corresponding to application of either laser or electron beam. Recently, it was found that the …

Optimal Energy Management For Forward-Looking Serial-Parallel Hybrid Electric Vehicle Using Rule-Based Control Strategy, Abhijit Bhaskar Jadhav

Masters Theses

In today’s sophisticated era of technology, resolving environmental problems is a matter of grave concern. Developing hybrid electric vehicles is a good step towards environmental preservation, since they use less fuel compared to conventional vehicles because of the combination of electric and mechanical energy. A hybrid electric vehicle reduces dependence on fossil fuels and hence lowers emissions. Specifically, a hybrid powertrain that includes a conventional gasoline engine and a brushless DC motor offers great potential to meet stringent CO₂ regulations and fuel economy requirements. This thesis focuses on the effects of initial state of charge (SOC) stored in Hybrid …

Shock Compaction Of Graphene Doped Yttria Stabilized Zirconia: An Experimental And Computational Study, Christopher Rueben Johnson

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is a broadly used ceramic due to its impeccable hardness and thermal stability. Limitations of the material, however, subsist within its fracture toughness. Literature indicates that shock consolidation may enable production of composite YSZ and graphene mixtures with improved fracture toughness and other material properties while maintaining the material’s nanostructure dimensionality. Therefore, investigation of the compaction phenomena at non-equilibrium states will provide informative results to be used in the fabrication of bulk graphene-YSZ composites. Computational molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and impact experiments are conducted to explore and characterize the dynamic response of the YSZ variants. Molecular …

Asme Student Design Competition, Marcus Todd

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For the completion of my capstone project with the Western Kentucky University Honors College, the following document details my experience with the American Society of Mechanical Engineer (ASME) Student Design Competition. This project was completed in a two semester sequence through working with a team of four. One semester focusing primarily on the design and the other on fabrication and evaluation. The 2019 ASME competition was the Pick and Place Race. In this event, 46 teams were challenged to design and construct a device having the ability to pick up balls of varying size. Both the design and assembly process …

2019 Ieee Southeastcon Hardware Competition: A Systems Engineering Approach, Emily Sage

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Huntsville section invites college students to participate in their annual SoutheastCon Conference. Western Kentucky University sends a team of engineering students to the hardware competition, an opportunity for students to design and build autonomous robots. The 2019 hardware competition called for students to develop a robot that could collect and sort debris by color. This thesis outlines the project lifecycle of the WKU 2019 SoutheastCon robot with an emphasis on implemented systems engineering tools and techniques. Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach to project management that focuses on treating the overall project …

Dmx Controlled Scenic Automation, Hannah Sisney, Tiernan O’Rourke, J. V. Ating

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

SwiftScene DMX Control is a safe, simple, and low-cost solution to automated scenery marketed to educational level and low-income theaters. The module is an 18” x 18” electrical enclosure that attaches to the underside of a stage platform and is fully controlled wirelessly via a light board. This is a scaled down prototype meant as a proof of concept and product viability. It is capable of rotational motion and limited linear motion. This prototype meets expectations of traveling at 1 ft/s with acceleration and deceleration at 0.5 ft/s², but speed and acceleration can be varied based on desired …

Bicitaxi, Alesis Gonsalves, Sean Flanagan, Tianhao Jiang, Brenden Stone

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the progress made concerning the development of a solution aimed at the transportation issues faced by residents of Puebla, Mexico, and specifically the community of Colonia Puebla. Colonia Puebla is a low-income community on the outskirts of Puebla. The overall goal is to develop and prototype a product that will alleviate some of the pressure due to the lack of accessibility of transportation and then field test said product in the target community. Ideally, the product would be able to stimulate a micro-economy to provide a source of income …

Heater Control For Thermionic Power Generation, Charlie Markusen, Patrick Kearney, Jaydon Zimmerman

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The purpose of this report is to detail the conceptualization, analysis, budget, manufacturing, and assembly the heater for a thermionic energy converter for portable energy generation. This proof of concept will be created to provide a full thermionic energy converter with a reliable and satisfactory heater than can be used in future systems. The report highlights the feasibility and realities in the design and fabrication of the system.

Multistage Sonication Effect On The Composition And Properties Of Degraded Chitosan Product, Nurul Laili Arifin, Emma Savitri, Anjar Indah, Fesa Putra, Sumarno Sumarno

Makara Journal of Technology

The sonication method randomly breaks polymer chains to produce a varied distribution of products. A scheme with multi-stage sonication steps is proposed to identify oligomers and low molecular weight chitosan based on changes to the degrad-ed product. For each sonication level, 1% (w/v) chitosan in 1% (v/v) aqueous acetic acid was sonicated for 120 min at 60 °C. The products of the sonication treatment were deprotonized by adding an alkali solution, freeze dried and insoluble product re-sonicated until a low molecular weight was produced. Low molecular weight chitosan/insoluble products were character-ized with Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) …

Human-Centered Electric Prosthetic (Help) Hand, Jamie Ferris, Shiyin Lim, Michael Mehta, Evan Misuraca

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Through a partnership with Indian non-profit Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti, we designed a functional, robust, and and low cost electrically powered prosthetic hand that communicates with unilateral, transradial, urban Indian amputees through a biointerface. The device uses compliant tendon actuation, a small linear servo, and a wearable garment outfitted with flex sensors to produce a device that, once placed inside a prosthetic glove, is anthropomorphic in both look and feel. The prosthesis was developed such that future groups can design for manufacturing and distribution in India.

Weighsted, Vince Heyman, Tatianna Schluep, Timothy Jaworski

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The purpose of this design thesis is to outline and describe the design project; WeighstEd. WeighstEd, is a data collection, storage, and analysis system for food waste to help Santa Clara University’s Sustainability Center reach a quantifiable food waste reduction goal of 10% by 2020 by using data to make informed cafeteria changes. The report will outline the entire engineering design process from ideation to manufacture including analysis techniques and benchmark testing. This report will serve as a written documentation of three mechanical engineers Senior Design Project completed at Santa Clara University. WeighstEd will be implemented at on campus events …

Analytical And Experimental Study Of Laser Cladding Of Ni/Wc Metal Matrix Powders Reinforced With Rare Earth Elements Using A High Power Direct Diode Laser, Mohammed Sayeed

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

The corrosion and wear are major limiting factors for steel in the harsh environments and can be controlled by depositing protective passive coatings. Nickel based alloy cladding of steel offers a solution by enabling better corrosion and wear resistance, and high bonding strength. The laser surface cladding of steel was conducted using a high power direct diode laser. Layers of tungsten carbide in Ni (40%Ni-60%WC) combined with 1% and 2% Lanthanum Oxide (La₂O₃) and Cerium Oxide (CeO₂) were deposited on ASTM A36 steel substrate. The X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were employed to …

A Shoulder Mechanisms For Assisting Upper Arm Function With Distally Located Actuators, Michael Jones

Honors College

This thesis presents a new design for a shoulder assistive device based on a modified double parallelogram linkage (DPL). The DPL allows for active support of the arm motion in the sagittal plane, while enabling the use of a distally located motor that can be mounted around the user’s waist to improve the weight distribution. The development of the DPL provides an unobtrusive mechanism for assisting the movement of the shoulder joint through a wide range of motion. This design contains three degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) and a rigid structure for supporting the arm. The modified DPL uses a cable-driven system to …