Digital Commons Network^™

The Collapsible Trailer: Design And Manufacture, Robert Hobson

Biomedical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Pvcrov : An Experimental Platform For Multi-Robot Control Systems, Nicholas Prince, Gregory Roos, Jennifer Semones, Chase Traficanti

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

As the field of multi-robot control systems grows, the demand for flexible, robust and precise multi-robot testbeds increases. Up to this point, the testbeds that do exist for testing multi-robot controllers are often expensive, hard to deploy, and typically constrained to a single plane of motion. These constraints limit the capacity to conduct research which is why team Autonomously Controlled Electromechanical Systems (ACES) has created the PVCROV system. PVCROV is a low cost, underwater platform for testing multi-robot control systems. By utilizing an underwater environment, ACES created a testbed that is not constrained to a single plane of motion. Additionally, …

Fluids, Biology, Imaging And Outreach, Tadd Truscott

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Fluid Mechanics: Rising Spheres, Cavitation, Skipping Spheres, Water Entry, Water Surface Insects, Moss, Toilet Splash Dynamics; Use of Synthetic Aperture; Quantitative location of dense fields; and, outreach.

Nanoparticle Compositions And Methods For Making And Using The Same, Ajay P. Malshe, Arpana Verma

Patents Granted

A composition that includes solid lubricant nanoparticles and an organic medium is disclosed, as well as nanoparticles that include layered materials. Methods of producing a nanoparticle by milling layered materials and of making a lubricant are provided. The method includes milling layered materials to form nanoparticles and incorporating the nanoparticles into a base to form a lubricant.

The Arrows In Our Backs: Lessons Learned Trying To Change The Engineering Curriculum, Steven W. Villachica, Anthony Wayne Marker, Donald Plumlee, Linda Huglin, Amy Chegash

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Published research has provided a robust set of documented tools and techniques for transforming individual engineering courses in ways that use evidence-based instructional practices. Many engineering faculty are already aware of these practices and would like to use them. However, they still face significant implementation barriers. The E²R2P effort addresses the question: How can successes in engineering education research translate into widespread instructional practice?

This poster session will describe hard-won lessons the E²R2P team has learned as it begins its third year attempting such curricular change.

Lesson 1: “Wonder workshops” and visible course redesigns don’t produce …

Formula Electric : Powertrain, Mark Allison, Bryan Bidwell, Stuart Hopson, Jackson Smith, Carlos Streegan, Dominic Villa

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Santa Clara Formula Electric team designed, and manufactured a powertrain for an electric racecar according to the rules prescribed by the SAE International Formula Electric competition. The powertrain is divided into subsystems: the battery pack, battery pack cooling system, motor controller, and the motor. The battery pack was constructed, but full electrical connection of all cells were not made. The pack was not integrated with the motor and motor controller. In addition, due to time constraints, extensive testing could not be completed.

Project Omoverhi : Low-Cost, Neonatal Incubator, Richard Fong, Guillermo Gallardo, William Jeffery, Danny Maeda, Gabriel Romero

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Project Omoverhi, since its beginning in 2010-2011, has been focused on creating an incubator that has the capability of operating completely off grid. This year the project has been focused on redesigning the original system to reduce the cost to approximately $1000. In addition to this we have designed and implemented a control system that enables the user to set a desired temperature which can be maintained to within 1 degree Celsius. Before the project is able to be completed further work must be done. The thermal storage system that was initially proposed by the original team still needs to …

Generalized Diffractive Optical Elements With Asymmetric Harmonic Response And Phase Control, Charles Granger

Charles Granger

Mechanics Of Bolted Electrical Splices, Samuel Alberts

Theses and Dissertations

Localized heating of bolted electrical splices in the power distributing bus is a primary concern in the industrial automation industry. While localized heat generation problems are commonly reported in the field, it is not entirely clear what the root causes are. A methodology is presented for development of a tool to measure in-situ the influence of clamping load on the thermo-electric behavior of the splice joint. Applied research and reasoning used to identify probable root causes for failures reported in the field are also presented. Experiments were conducted to characterize the mechanical properties of the bolt and nut system used …

Anisotropic Compositional Expansion And Chemical Potential For Amorphous Lithiated Silicon Under Stress Tensor, Valery I. Levitas, Hamed Attariani

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Si is a promising anode material for Li-ion batteries, since it absorbs large amounts of Li. However, insertion of Li leads to 334% of volumetric expansion, huge stresses, and fracture; it can be suppressed by utilizing nanoscale anode structures. Continuum approaches to stress relaxation in Li_xSi, based on plasticity theory, are unrealistic, because the yield strength of Li_xSi is much higher than the generated stresses. Here, we suggest that stress relaxation is due to anisotropic (tensorial) compositional straining that occurs during insertion-extraction at any deviatoric stresses. Developed theory describes known experimental and atomistic simulation …

Nasa Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Tablesat 1c, Joshua Chabot, Joseph Kelley, Michael Johnson

Honors Theses and Capstones

The NASA Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission (to be launched in 2014) consists of four spin-stabilized spacecraft flying in precise formation. The MMS spacecraft, which have wire booms up to 60 m long, are analyzed using the UNH MMS TableSat IC, a limited 3-DOF rotation (full spin, limited nutation) table top prototype of the MMS spacecraft. A PID controller is implemented on TableSat IC to observe the effects of spin rate and nutation control on the experimental satellite bus and scaled booms. Nutation and spin are implemented independently and the behavior of the test bed with and without SDP booms is …

Mechanical Engineering: The Driveshaft Of Humanity, James Maguire

ESSAI

No abstract provided.

Multiscale Numerical Modeling And Characterization Of Carbon/Carbon Composites, Borys Drach

Doctoral Dissertations

Carbon/carbon composite is a high-performance material with a unique set of physical and thermo-mechanical properties making it irreplaceable for severe environment aerospace applications. Its complex hierarchical microstructure presents materials scientists and engineers with substantial modeling challenges when it comes to predicting material's behavior under various loading conditions. My research has been focused on characterization, mutliscale modeling and mechanical testing of this composite. A set of new elasticity solutions for the carbon fiber surrounded by multiple layers of pyrolytic carbon represented as a multicoated cylinder is presented on the microscale. On the mesoscale, deterministic and statistical approaches to evaluation of contributions …

A Robotic Neuro-Musculoskeletal Simulator For Spine Research, Robb W. Colbrunn

ETD Archive

An influential conceptual framework advanced by Panjabi represents the living spine as a complex neuromusculoskeletal system whose biomechanical functioning is rather finely dependent upon the interactions among and between three principal subsystems: the passive musculoskeletal subsystem (osteoligamentous spine plus passive mechanical contributions of the muscles), the active musculoskeletal subsystem (muscles and tendons), and the neural and feedback subsystem (neural control centers and feedback elements such as mechanoreceptors located in the soft tissues) [1]. The interplay between subsystems readily encourages "thought experiments" of how pathologic changes in one subsystem might influence another--for example, prompting one to speculate how painful arthritic changes …

Effect Of Process Variables On Sub-Melt Thermal Behavior And Solid-State Phase Transformations In Beam-Based Additive Manufacturing Of Ti-6al-4v, Heather N. Doak

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The success of laser and electron beam-based fabrication processes for additive manufacture and repair applications requires the ability to control melt pool geometry while maintaining a consistent and desirable microstructure. Previous work has employed a process map approach to link melt pool geometry to solidification microstructure (grain-size and morphology) in beam-based fabrication of Ti-6Al-4V. The current work extends the approach to investigate the effects of process variables on solid-state phase transformations below the solidification temperature through Finite Element Modeling, the 3-D Rosenthal Solution, and experimentation. Process maps for solid-state microstructure could be used to help maintain consistent and reliable mechanical …

Experimental Evaluation Of A Mixer-Ejector Hydrokinetic Turbine At Two Open-Water Test Sites And In A Tow Tank, Matthew Rowell

Master's Theses and Capstones

For marine hydrokinetic energy to become viable it is essential to develop energy conversion devices that extract energy with high efficiency, and to field-test them in an environment similar to the one in which they are designed to eventually operate. FloDesign Inc., with FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp., developed a Mixer-Ejector Hydrokinetic Turbine (MEHT) that encloses the turbine in a specially designed shroud to increase mass flow through the turbine rotor.

A scaled version of this turbine was evaluated experimentally at two open-water tidal energy test sites, and in a tow tank. State-of-the-art instrumentation was used to measure free stream and …

Experimental Investigation Of The Turbulent Axisymmetric Wake With Rotation Generated By A Wind Turbine, Nathaniel P. Dufresne

Master's Theses and Capstones

An experimental investigation of the axial and azimuthal (swirl) velocity field in the wake of a single 3-bladed wind turbine with rotor diameter of 0.91m was conducted, up to 20 diameters downstream. The turbine was positioned in the free stream, near the entrance of the 6m x 2.7m cross section of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Flow Physics Facility. Velocity measurements were conducted at different rotor loading conditions with blade tip-speed ratios from 2.0 to 2.8. A Pitot-static tube and constant temperature hot-wire anemometer with a multi-wire sensor were used to measure velocity fields. An equilibrium similarity theory for …

Theory And Evaluation Of A Wireless Capacitive Strain Sensor At Ultra High Frequencies (Uhf) For Cnc Applications, Kyle Francis Shaughnessy

Master's Theses and Capstones

A low cost, non-intrusive interdigitated comb capacitive strain sensor for wireless monitoring of CNC tool cutting forces was designed. Wireless resonant strain sensors were fabricated using the capacitive strain sensor and an inductive trace printed on a flexible film. A parallel-plate capacitance model matched experimental results of capacitive sensors tested in bending and torsion. An optimal sensor design of 12 fingers and a 2.54 mm grid length resulted in an average sensor gauge factor of 0.6910 +/- 0.0646 in bending and 0.9091 +/- 0.1406 in torsion. The wirelessly measured resonant strain sensor was measured to have an average gauge factor …