Engineering Commons^™

Sensitivity Analysis Of An Airfoil Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Itay Savion

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

In fixed wing aircrafts, the variation of lift coefficient with the angle of attack is a major consideration. This project explores the variation of lift force and lift coefficient of an SD2030 airfoil as a function of the angle of attack, Raynolds number, size of the computational domain, length of the wing, and the fluid mesh size. The problem is modeled using the flow simulation (CFD) module of SolidWorks. The outcome of this sensitivity analysis is compared with available experimental data.

A Laboratory Kit For Multimeter Design, Seth Percy, Joshua Perry

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The multimeter is an important electrical tool and is a combination of many individual instruments. In practice, common multimeter designs are digital and measure voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, etc., using a single set of probes. Before the digital age, the world relied on analog displays. Some argue that analog displays are outdated technology. However, this overlooks one of the most important characteristics provided by the analog display, which is its ability to provide an instantaneous visual perception. Analog displays are currently used for many applications in aviation and automobiles, demonstrating their continuing usefulness in the field. In the multimeter, the …

Testing Of Thermally Actuated Rotational Mems Mirror, Shilen Parikh

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) device contain both electrical and mechanical components that are in many common consumer products. Thermal micro actuators are standard components in micro systems and they are powered electrically. The thermal micro actuator shown below consist of material with different coefficients of thermal expansion. When the temperature of the micro actuator goes up due electrical power, the micro actuator changes shape due to difference in the expansion associated with temperature change.

Laser Microphone, Michael Mckee

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The laser microphone is a multifaceted project. The main objective of this project is the design and construction of a laser microphone. This device is able to detect sound via variations in light waves. Production of this device being one obvious outcome of the project, observation and experimentation comprise the primary focus of the venture. Experiments reveal exactly how well this device is able to function and if it is able to be used in specific engineering applications. To function appropriately, this device should handle the translation from soundwaves to light waves with little to no alteration. Full signal analysis …

Making Random - Cryptography And The Generation Of Random Sequences, Samuel Barton

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The algorithm utilizes the behavior of modern operating systems to generate random bits by putting the process to sleep for 10 microseconds, and then comparing the actual number of microseconds slept to the expected amount. The reason why this works for generating \random" bits is that modern operating systems do not wake processes exactly when they request. This is due to process scheduling. The algorithm uses the randomness in actual sleep time to generate each bit.

The bits are not truly random, as if a person were able to force the algorithm to always execute, then we would not have …

A Poet In Space: Identity Construction Through Hybridity, Jonathan Pessant

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

William Carlos Williams wrote: A poem is a small Machine made of words. Poetry and the STEM fields are no different when each discipline attempts to find meaning in the world, when each creates something beautiful through experimentation. STEM has the scientific method, with inductive and deductive reasoning, and the laws of nature while English has rhetorical style and grammatical structure. With a little imagination, hybridity between these two seemingly different discourses can produce new perspectives within each, and for each. These new perspectives could lead to new questions which would not have been imagined separately. This hybridity may be …

Excel Programming For A Visual Degree Progress Report, Brady Therrien

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The University of Southern Maine is like many colleges in the fact that its engineering program has a lot of extensive requirements that a student must achieve before receiving a degree. These include but are not limited to the core and department curriculums, GPA, and Residency Requirements. Most of these are easily accessible to the student on MaineStreet to track progress like the example degree progress report in Figure 2. This progress report shows all of the information by what requirement each class satisfies so it can be really time consuming to scroll through them all, for example, to see …

Instructional Learning Aids For Gear Train Analysis In Machine Dynamics, William M. Bartholomew

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

In this project, a few instructional aids to teach gear train analysis to students are designed and manufactured. The system will progressively be more complex in order to help students understand the concepts first, and then the applications which are based on those concepts. The project involves theoretical, simulation and manufacturing (3D printing or CNC) components.

Room Acoustics: Measurement And Correction With A Portable Digital Signal Processor, Azad Jalali

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The frequency response of a listening space is often of great interest to anyone pursuing an accurate and undistorted listening experience. Here we successfully implement sine- sweep deconvolution on a hardware platform to demonstrate an easy, digitized way to measure and guide improvements to the audio dynamics of a room.

Quality Control Of Quilted Products With A Computer Vision Approach, Richard M. Bigega

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

This ongoing research examines the consistency of fill distribution in down and synthetic quilted comforters manufactured by Cuddledown in Yarmouth. Automated visual inspection uses a digital camera that captures an image of down distribution in a production cell. The captured image is then fed into a computer for processing. The project’s primary goal is to determine the feasibility of augmenting and/or replacing the existing manual quality control process with a computer vision system.

Hand Cranked Generator For Mobile Devices, Kyle Brown, Monique Butoto, Stephen Cain, Steven Corio, Brock Stevenson

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

It’s estimated that over 90% of American adults own cell phones while over 70% of the United States land area belongs to rural counties. It is a challenge to charge mobile devices in these remote and rural areas given the lack of access to power sources. This lack of power in remote destinations limits the general use of mobile devices for outdoor enthusiasts, as well as a survival means for all who need access to a portable power generation device, especially in emergency situations. There are other portable generators currently available on the market, but our project wanted to take …

Design Verification Of Mems Resonators With Fem Simulator, Joshua Wiswell

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The purpose of this project was to use COMSOL, an advanced FEM (finite element modeling) software, to analyze a Coupled Thermal Resonator. This Coupled Thermal Resonator was previously constructed in L-Edit, but when analyzed in COMSOL, it produced undesirable results. This project focused on improving the design and model of the Resonator to improve simulation results and evaluating the actual response of the MEMS device to determine if simulated results were accurate for the actual device. Many different factors may have contributed to producing the double peak seen in the simulation, including the weak coupling between the two resonators. These …

Evolution And Innerworking Of A Car Differential, Aaron Weiss, Caleb Loiselle

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Create interactive demonstration pieces that display basic concepts of a car differential using visual aids as in the educational video ‘Around the Corner (1937): How differential Steering Works’.

Fabricate a custom stand for an open ended car differential. The final design of the car differential will be run by an on/off switch and a motor.

Noise Control By Structure And Material, Brian Tarling

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

An acoustic impedance testing tube is designed and constructed to test noise absorption properties of selected materials. The structure will be made to be convenient for demonstration purposes and real testing procedures while following ASTM E1050 standards as closely as possible. An engineering drawing as well as a 3D-­‐CAD model of the structure is developed. Testing is conducted on selected materials; mainly ones that will allow obtained results to be compared to results found by other parties. Various sounds will be generated using Mathematical programming; the types of sound will include single frequency, wide band and narrow band noises. Microphones …

Organic Solar Cell At Room Temperature, Deedra Zeeh

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Organic electronics have become of great interest in the field of materials science research due to the potential for flexible electronic devices and low cost technologies. Difficulties emerge with creating a stable and efficient device, while still maintaining a simple and room-temperature production process.

With the advent of relatively stable organic semiconductors and graphene (or other nanotube or fullerene morphologies), it is possible to fabricate photovoltaic cells at near room temperature. By stacking these cells, devices of reasonable efficiencies >5% can be fabricated. Devices were created with a perylene-P3HT photoactive layer, polyaniline buffer layer, and PEDOT:PSS as the hole transport …

Analog Filter Design System Using Mathematica And System Modeler, Tatjana Samardzic

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Analog filters are an essential part of modern electronics; however, their design, realization and verification can be arduous and time consuming. This project describes a Mathematica and SystemModeler platform for automated, fast analog filter design and simulation. The platform consists of two key components: I.SystemModeler library of first and second order low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and band-stop filters based on some of the most popular filter topologies: Sallen-Key, Tow-Thomas, State Variable, Multiple Feedback, Bainter and Boctor circuits and II.Mathematica package based on Butterworth, Chebyshev and elliptic frequency response approximations and different filter topologies.

Fluids Dynamics & Heat Transfer Lab Design, Bruce Gerry

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

This project consists of the designing, building, and creation of instruction manuals for several labs in fluids and heat transfer fields. Labs for these fields tend to be large and hard to simulate as physical models. This project will solve that problem by creating simulations: in solidworks. Not only will simulations in solidworks make some concepts possible to demonstrate but, it will also expose students to useful software that will be used in the workforce.

Led Array Design To Simulate Solar Radiation For Indoor Testing Of Solar Cells, Brent Dube

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Solar Cell testing is vital to the development of new technologies. However, the sun's radiation is inconsistent over time of day and season. Therefore, a reliable source of light energy is necessary for consistent and accurate testing

Junior Design: Automatic Page Turner, Matthew Stewart, Jesse Mcintire, Seth Tilson, Hector Ortiz, Ed Meserve

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

This project details the design and build process of an automatic pageturner. The primary goal of this project is to design and manufacture a product that not only has an efficient operation, but is easy to use for people with disabilities and minimal assistance. The device will consist of a mechanical structure to support the book, an electrical system to facilitate the turning of pages in both directions, and additional features to support comfort and readability, such as LED reading lights.

Hand Prosthesis, Tru Nguyen, Aaron Delano, Kyle M. Green, Jorge Maderal, Cody Poland

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

This project deals with engineering students’ prosthetic hand design, submitted to the University of Southern Maine’s engineering department. The primary goal of the prosthetic hand design is to allow an impaired individual to grasp and hold everyday objects ranging from a toothbrush to a jug of milk. The project consists of three teams each designing their respective portion of the prosthetic device. The teams will deal with three specific design areas; computer aided design of the mechanism, electronic integration, and manufacturing implementation. The design team turns notebook doodles into virtual models in SolidWorks. The electronics team will control a battery …

Design Of A Uv Curing Cartridge For 3d Inkjet Printing, Richard Wiswell

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

In printing multi-layer electronic circuits, each layer must be formed as a continuous pattern in high resolution from ink jetted liquid droplets and be in precise alignment with the other layers, precluding substrate removal for UV curing. This research seeks to determine the optimal method for in-situ UV curing of the ink jetted material in a single pass. The inkjet replacement cartridge designed for this purpose was constructed of aluminum, fit into the printer head assembly in good alignment with the other ink cartridges, and contained a UV LED for in-situ curing and a cooling fan to maintain safe operating …