Engineering Commons^™

Adaptive Eating Device, Patrick Yale, Jillian Hiu, Jeremy Black, Kevin Farmer

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Mobybike Human Powered Hydrofoil, Steven Bieri, Tim Buckmaster, Kristen Heckman

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to develop a human powered hydrofoil bicycle that uses the patented foil motion of the sponsor, Liquid Ideas, to generate lift and thrust to ride across the water. The bicycle will then be used to further develop and test the actuators that Liquid Ideas currently has. This report contains information from the concept design report on how the final design was chosen and detailed information on the final design, as well as plans for manufacturing, assembling, and testing the completed project.

Dedion Axle Senior Project, Nick Schraan, Mark Shushnar, William Swenson, Ramy Tall

Mechanical Engineering

The sponsor, EV Grid Inc. is a company looking to the future with the development of a vehicle to grid infrastructure. The vehicle in development is a Ford E-250 Van which had been converted to electric drive with a front motor, rear drive layout. The sponsor wanted to move the electric motor to the rear and develop an axle to support this change. By eliminating the driveshaft, a more efficient use of battery space could be utilized. The goal of this project is to design and fabricate a prototype deDion rear axle which incorporates a system of drive components that …

Mercedes-Benz Oil Level Monitor, Emmanuel Camacho, Jonathan Manriquez, James Young

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to develop an engine oil level monitoring system that will replace the current dipstick method during vehicle testing for Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc. (MBRDNA). Currently, MBRDNA test drivers check the engine oil level twice a day after two eight hour shifts each day. To measure the oil level, the driver parks on a level surface, waits five minutes for the oil to cool, and then manually checks the oil level with the dipstick. The goal of this project is to have a reliable, physical, working prototype that MBRDNA can use for …

Rapid Decompression Containment System, Evan Domingue, Michelle Rudney, Daniel Trees

Mechanical Engineering

Cal Poly students; Evan Domingue, Michelle Rudney and Daniel Trees; are working with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA, ASI) and engineer John Wilcox to complete a senior project. The senior project is focused on finding a solution to meet the requirement set forth in MIL-HDBK 1791 4.2.5.2 for rapid decompression which requires cargo items to be designed with pressure relief devices or to be configured for air shipment as to prevent any part from becoming a projectile in the event of catastrophic loss of aircraft cabin pressure. The goal of this project is to design a safe, cost-effective, and …

Rebounder Fatigue Test Machine, Caroline Reeves, Will Robertson, Ethan Flory

Mechanical Engineering

JumpSport, a company that designs and sells trampolines and trampoline accessories, has sponsored this senior project team to design, build, and test a trampoline fatigue test machine. The machine must simulate a person jumping on the trampoline to test the life of JumpSport’s fitness trampolines and kids’ trampolines. Partway through the design process, the objectives were altered and this senior project team was tasked with merging with another Cal Poly senior project group to create an all-inclusive test machine to accommodate both full-trampoline testing and individual bungee cord testing.

The final design is centered on a slider crank linkage driven …

Barbeque Grill Temperature Distribution Design Improvement, Peter Gobell, Connor Mcgill, Thomas Willson

Mechanical Engineering

Team License to Grill set out to asses Bull Outdoor Products, Inc.’s barbeques and quantify the apparent uneven temperature distribution or “hot spots” and “cold spots” across the grill. This testing was accomplished with the design and fabrication of a test fixture allowing for accurate and repeatable temperature collection across the barbeque. With results that matched the sponsor’s claims of hot and cold spots, an engineering model was made using heat transfer and thermodynamic equations. Once the model somewhat resembled the experimental data, it was used to suggest different modifications that would allow for better temperature distribution. It was discovered …

Cisco Rackmount Bracket Optimization, Michael Baldwin, Edwin Lee, Garrett Smith

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

On-Demand Labeling, Nathan Cheadle, Lorne Stoops, Tony Wang, Robert Zimmerman

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Autonomous Collision Avoidance, Thomas Stevens, Elliot Carlson, Ian Painter

Mechanical Engineering

A steering controlled, autonomous collision avoidance system has been developed by California Polytechnic State University. This system represents a step in the direction of fully autonomous driving, while allowing the driver to maintain control of the vehicle during normal driving conditions. In the case of an imminent collision, the system removes control of the vehicle from the user and autonomously steers around the obstacles. The final system is able to avoid two static obstacles with a 95% pass rate and one moving obstacle with a 50% pass rate. With full scale, fleet wide, implementation of this system it is expected …

Stent Graft Blush, Vanessa Barrett, Thomas Matzinger, Mike Morelli

Mechanical Engineering

In order to better understand Type IV endoleaks (“blush”), the Cal Poly Senior Project team GraftTest has developed a blush evaluation system able to mimic several of the aorta’s environmental parameters. Capable of both pressure and flow rate control, this bench top system accommodates Medtronic’s wide range of abdominal and thoracic aortic stent grafts. Having researched endoleaks, stent grafts, and numerous other factors affecting stent graft blush, a system was developed with the aim of assessing and comparing the performance of Medtronic’s stent grafts with regard to blush. Furthermore, this system has been designed to provide reliable and repeatable results …

Thickness-Shear And Thickness-Twist Vibrations Of Circular At-Cut Quartz Resonators, Huijing He, Jiashi Yang, Qing Jiang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Exact solutions for free vibration frequencies and modes are obtained for thickness-shear and thickness-twist vibrations of unelectroded circular AT-cut quartz plates governed by the two-dimensional scalar differential equation derived by Tiersten and Smythe. Comparisons are made with experimental results and the widely-used perturbation solution by Tiersten and Smythe under the assumption of weak in-plane anisotropy. Our solution is found to be much closer to the experimental results than the perturbation solution . For the frequency of the fundamental thickness- shear mode, the error of the perturbation method is 0.4549%, significant in resonator applications.

Guidance System, Kayaking For The Visually Impaired, D. Ryan Kirtland, Ryan Phife, William Gardner, Amy Johnson

Biomedical Engineering

Quality Life Plus is working with Team River Runner to develop an assistive guidance system for veterans who want to remain active by kayaking, after sustaining an injury that impairs vision. This system allows these veterans to complete a slalom speed race independent of a personal guide in the water. The system incorporates 3 stations that each contain a speaker connected to a microcontroller system covered by a Pelican Case on a custom made buoy. During the slalom race, a kayaker will travel from shore towards buoy #1 as it omits sound from the speaker. As the kayaker moves around …

Cal Poly Brocade Challenge 2013, Chandler Morehardt, Alexa Coburn, Juan Silva, Kerry Sun, Greg Wang, Raul Chagoya, Jd Torres

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Zone Of Intrusion For Permanent 9.1-Degree Single Slope Concrete Barriers, Cale J. Stolle

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Three WDOT 9.1-degree single-slope concrete barriers, with top heights of 36 in. (914 mm), 42 in. (1,067 mm), and 56 in. (1,422 mm) (Standard 14B32), were analyzed for Zone of Intrusion (ZOI)’ and working width using nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA). Tire-barrier friction, vehicle-barrier friction, barrier stiffness, mesh size, tire deflation, and suspension component failures were all found to have effects on simulation results. The zone of intrusion and working width were evaluated for each barrier under varying tire deflation and suspension failure conditions and determined to have a maximum value of 12.2 in. (310 mm) for the front fender …

Floating Electrode Electrowetting On Hydrophobic Dielectric With An Sio2 Layer, Mehdi Khodayari, Benjamin Hahne, Nathan B. Crane, Alex A. Volinsky

Faculty Publications

Floating electrode electrowetting is caused by dc voltage applied to a liquid droplet on the Cytop surface, without electrical connection to the substrate. The effect is caused by the charge separation in the floating electrode. A highly-resistive thermally-grown SiO2 layer underneath the Cytop enables the droplet to hold charges without leakage, which is the key contribution. Electrowetting with an SiO2 layer shows a memory effect, where the wetting angle stays the same after the auxiliary electrode is removed from the droplet in both conventional and floating electrode electrowetting. Floating electrode electrowetting provides an alternative configuration for developing advanced electrowetting-based devices.

Neutron Imaging Of Lithium Inside A High-Temperature Heat Pipe, Eric Henry Kirchoff

Masters Theses

Neutron imaging of a high-temperature Mo-Li [molybdenum-lithium] heat pipe has been performed to assess Li flow visualization. The high neutron attenuation cross section of Li allows for imaging inside the heat pipe shell structure, which has a lower value of neutron attenuation, making neutron radiography an ideal choice for characterizing Li movement.

The gravity assisted, cylindrical heat pipe was heated to 903^oC [degree] using a wire resistance Mo heater operating under vacuum. This Mo-Li heat pipe is 35 cm long with a square internal geometry 2.2 cm per side, utilizing small corner radii as the wicking structure for …

Water Transport In Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: An Exploration Of Net Water Drag In Real Time, Susan Katherine Reid

Masters Theses

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are a promising alternative energy source. One challenge preventing widespread use of this technology is water management. A balance must be reached between providing sufficient water for membrane ionic conductivity while maintaining low enough water content to mitigate the reduction of available reaction sites in the cathode catalyst layer due to liquid water build up. Much exploration of this area of fuel cell research has been conducted, but the details of water transport in an operating fuel cell are not yet fully understood. The motivation of this work was to elucidate mass transport phenomena occurring …

Vulnerability Of Progressive Collapse In Reinforced Concrete Flat-Plate Buildings, Jinrong Liu

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

• Progressive collapse is the spread of initial local failure, causing partial or
  even total collapse of a building.
• Flat plate structure is widely used for office and residential buildings.
• There is a large inventory of older flat plate building without continuous slab bottom reinforcement through columns.
• Limited knowledge exists regarding the risk of disproportionate collapse in
  older flat-plates under sudden column removal during abnormal events.
• Reliable mechanical model is needed for structural evaluation.

Work To-Date On Mechanical Design For An Open Hardware Spacecraft, Jacob Brewer, Brian Badders, Josh Berk, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter CubeSat seeks to demonstrate the designs created for the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) initiative. OPEN provides a set of freely available design documents that can be utilized by educational and research teams worldwide. The OPEN structure implements a different strategy than most other CubeSats, allowing it to maximize the use of the overhang space (an area of space between the supports for the frame rails and the wall in the PPOD deployer). It also provides a location for payload components or a propellant tank at the spacecraft’s center of mass. This design is enabled by a …

Experimental Investigation Of Wind Effect On Solar Panels, Ayodeji Abiola-Ogedengbe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Photovoltaic Solar Panels for electricity generation are outdoor low-rise structures that are vulnerable to damage by the wind. The existing building codes do not contain information about the impact of the wind on these structures and hence do not provide comprehensive guidelines to mitigate such impact. The present study is a contribution to the ongoing efforts to codify the wind loading on solar panels. In this study, experimental investigations were conducted on the scaled model of a ground-mounted solar panel structure whose surface is geometrically similar to an inclined flat plate and mounted on three-legged support. The panel comprises of …

Numerical Modelling Of Species Exchange In A 3d Porous Medium: Modelling Exchange Within The Human Lung, Chelsea E. Johnson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The volume-averaged oxygen transport equation is closed using a volume-averaged form of Fick’s law of diffusion between the air and tissue to simulate species exchange within the lungs’ alveoli using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) 3D conjugate domain model. Pore level simulations of a terminal alveolated duct are used to determine that the transport of inhaled oxygen from the cluster inlet to the alveolar walls is diffusion dominated. The resistance to oxygen diffusion into the tissue is found to be a function of the tidal volume and tissue transport properties, with a maximum respiration frequency at which the full amount …

High-Resolution Correlation Spectroscopy Of 13c Spins Near A Nitrogen-Vacancy Centre In Diamond, Abdelghani Laraoui, Florian Dolde, Christian Burk, Friedemann Reinhard, Jorg Wrachtrup, Carlos A. Meriles

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Spin complexes comprising the nitrogen-vacancy centre and neighbouring spins are being considered as a building block for a new generation of spintronic and quantum information processing devices. As assembling identical spin clusters is difficult, new strategies are being developed to determine individual node structures with the highest precision. Here we use a pulse protocol to monitor the time evolution of the 13C ensemble in the vicinity of a nitrogenvacancy centre. We observe long-lived time correlations in the nuclear spin dynamics, limited by nitrogen-vacancy spin–lattice relaxation. We use the host 14N spin as a quantum register and demonstrate that hyperfine-shifted resonances …

Device For On-Site Production Of Sterile Water For Injection In A Disaster Zone, Chislon M. Richardson, Jeff Hebert

Senior Theses and Projects

This project sought to design and produce a device for the on-site manufacture of sterile water to be subsequently used to produce IV fluid in disaster zone. In order to accomplish this, the water produced must be pure, sterile, non-pyrogenic, and satisfy the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) standard for water for injection (WFI). Ideally, the device should be low powered, low cost, robust yet portable and deliver at least 10 liters per hour. Our design incorporated the purification methods of carbon filtration, reverse osmosis and Ultra-violet treatment. However, due to power and cost constraints our device was neither able to …

Thickness-Shear Vibration Of A Rectangular Quartz Plate With Partial Electrodes, Huijing He, Jiashi Yang, John A. Kosinski, Ji Wang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We study free vibration of a thickness-shear mode crystal resonator of AT-cut quartz. The resonator is a rectangular plate partially and symmetrically electroded at the center with rectangular electrodes. A single-mode, three-dimensional equation governing the thickness-shear displacement is used. A Fourier series solution is obtained. Numerical results calculated from the series show that there exist trapped thickness-shear modes whose vibration is mainly under the electrodes and decays rapidly outside the electrodes. The effects of the electrode size and thickness on the trapped modes are examined.

Kase, The Laptop Cooling Case, Jana Morrison, Tyler Ries

Biomedical Engineering

This report describes the final design and analysis of a laptop cooling case as a marketable product for a group of entrepreneurial marketing student based out of California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. Background market research and empirical measurements were taken in order to confirm that this would be a marketable product worth designing. Then previous solutions were researched in order to identity weaknesses and strengths. After rigorous research, it was determined that a passive cooling system, in which channels directed airflow to the computer fan would be the best system in terms of functionality, performance, and cost. A …

Stability Of Molybdenum Nanoparticles In Sn-3.8ag-0.7cu Solder During Multiple Reflow And Their Influence On Interfacial Intermetallic Compounds, Haseeb Asma

Haseeb ASMA

This work investigates the effects of molybdenum nanoparticles on the growth of interfacial intermetallic compound between Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder and copper substrate during multiple reflow. Molybdenum nanoparticles were mixed with Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder paste by manual mixing. Solder samples were reflowed on a copper substrate in a 250 degrees C reflow oven up to six times. The molybdenum content of the bulk solder was determined by inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. It is found that upon the addition of molybdenum nanoparticles to Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder, the interfacial intermetallic compound thickness and scallop diameter decreases under all reflow conditions. Molybdenum nanoparticles do not appear …

Room-Temperature Organic Ferromagnetism In The Crystalline Poly(3-Hexylthiophene): Phenyl-C61-Butyric Acid Methyl Ester Blend Film, Bin Yang, Zhengguo Xiao, Yongbo Yuan, Tanjore V. Jayaraman, Jeffrey E. Shield, Ralph Skomski, Jinsong Huang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Pronounced ferromagnetism was observed in a crystalline blend film of conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) by using magnetic force microscopy measurements. A substantial room-temperature saturation magnetization of about 0.65 emu g−1 was measured by an alternating gradient field magnetometer. Multiple experimental evidences demonstrate the charge transfer from the P3HT to the PCBM and the formation of P3HT crystal domain are expected to be two critical factors for the originals of room-temperature organic ferromagnetism.

Effect Of Intake Temperature And Boost Pressure On The Auto-Ignition Of Fuels With Different Cetane Numbers And Volatilities, Chandrasekharan Jayakumar

Wayne State University Dissertations

The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of air inlet temperature and boost pressure on the auto-ignition of fuels that have different CNs and volatilities in a single cylinder diesel engine. The inlet air temperature is varied over a range of 30°C to 110°C at a constant intake pressure of 1.1 bar. The boost pressure is varied from 1.1 bar to 1.5 bar at a constant intake temperature of 60°C. All engine tests are run at steady-state conditions. The fuels used are ultra-low-sulfur-diesel (ULSD), JP-8 (two blends with CN 50 & 31) and F-T SPK. Detailed analysis …

Umass Amherst Green Building Guidelines 2013, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Ted Mendoza, Ezra Small, Patricia O'Flaherty, Nariman Mostafavi, Mohamed Farzinmoghadam, Somayeh Tabatabaee Pozveh

Campus Planning Reports and Plans

Facilities & Campus Services, Sustainable UMass and Campus Planning support sustainability and energy conservation initiatives by providing in-house resources to campus staff as well as designers and contractors working with the University. The UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines provide a framework for approaching new construction and major renovation projects at UMass Amherst that are undergoing LEED certification by focusing the conversation on green building aspects that are most important to the campus. They are intended to be the beginning of a dynamic conversation between designers, environmental consultants and constructors, university stakeholders, and users of new high performance buildings.