Engineering Commons^™

The Design Estimate Of A Warehouse Refrigeration System, Jackson Dear

Honors Theses

The intention of this project was to provide a design and cost estimate for the refrigeration systems within an industrial cold storage distribution center for Magnolia Country Frozen Foods, Inc. in East Rutherford, NJ. The facility includes eighteen 300,000 ft3 units (200 ft x 100 ft x 15 ft). These units require 200 tons of refrigeration at a maintained temperature of 0oF. This project's scope included choosing an optimal refrigeration system, selecting a refrigerant for use within the system, and providing a cost estimate for the purchase of the refrigeration system equipment and for the yearly cost associated with running …

Optimization And Analysis Of A Styrene Production Process, Alexis Kimpel

Honors Theses

The production of styrene from ethylbenzene in Unit 500 is designed to start up in 2024 and operate for 12 years after startup. The engineering team was tasked with designing the process, creating an economic model, and optimizing the net present value (NPV). The process was simulated in AVEVA PRO/II Simulation for the design process and to estimate the size of equipment. Parametric and topological optimization was performed subsequently on the unit operations in the process. The NPV was improved by $423M from a base case of -$919M to an optimized case of -$496M. The project is recommended to continue …

Developing New Crutch Tip Design For Overall Increased Stability And Improved Movement On Different Terrains, Lauren Skinner

Honors Theses

Crutches are a mobility assistive device that are often used in various situations, such as post- surgical rehabilitation and recovery after injury. The current crutch tip design that is used on today’s crutches are often unstable and do not provide quality movement on different terrains, such as snow, ice, mud, and wet surfaces. These problems would be solved with a new tip design that could be attached to existing crutches or manufactured with the crutch itself. The team’s solution to this problem is a crutch tip with modular parts. The tip would attach to the shaft of the crutch like …

Senior Design Capstone: Using An Engineering Design Process To Create A Sawzall Wobble Fixture For Milwaukee Tools, Tyler Moore

Honors Theses

The overall objective of this design project was to successfully design a fixture to expedite the repairs of Sawzalls at the Milwaukee Tools repairs facility in Greenwood, Mississippi. This project was executed in accordance with guidelines set forth by the Senior Capstone Design class at the University of Mississippi as well as the quality engineers sponsoring the project at Milwaukee Tools. The fixture was created utilizing an engineering design process with the goal of allowing technicians to press two Sawzall wobbles onto an angled Sawzall wobble shaft using an arbor press with just one press. By beginning with a straightforward …

Parametric Design Of Flywheel For An Electric Punch Press, Prashant Dhakal

Honors Theses

Almost all designs start with a design requirement. These may be weight, volume, clearance, and even custom calculations. Finding a solution that meets these requirements often involves tedious and time-consuming iterations. Once the solution has been found, the design must be optimized to find the best possible solution. Finding the ‘best possible design’ requires substantial time and effort dedicated to iterating and analyzing the potential model solutions. This is where Parametric design comes into play. The Parametric design aids in specifying the key parameters of the design and makes changes interactively, with the model updating automatically. The purpose of this …

Design Of An Orientation Device For Valve Bodies With Blowout Compatibility For Slug Detection, Annie Richardson

Honors Theses

The Parker Hannifin plant in Batesville, MS, is a manufacturing plant that specializes in A/C and hydraulic tube and hose assemblies that support heavy machinery in the agriculture, logistics and construction industries. Customers place unique orders where the tube size, bending configurations, and adaptors vary widely. Some tubes require valve bodies where the customer can charge the A/C system once it has been assembled. A pierce and press machine is used to pierce the tube and place the valve body in the hole. Many tubes have asymmetric blocks at the end of the tube, with valve bodies placed at customer-requested …

A Study Of The Design And Manufacturing Of An Elevated Dog Feeder, Lena Turner

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

The senior capstone which students in the Center for Manufacturing Excellence program partake in was the basis for project. The Dog Box is an elevated dog feeder with an internal food storage compartment. It was designed for medium to large dogs, and can hold over 40 lbs of dog food. The internal storage compartment has drawer access and contains a plastic tote that will hold the food. The purpose of the design was to create an aesthetically pleasing elevated dog feeder that would double as a storage device, and elevated feeding can help prevent health issues in large dog …

The Theia Soteria: Alternative Design For Safer Initial Entry During Laparoscopic Procedures, Kayla Dubois, Patrick Ryan, Madelyn Joanis

Honors Theses

Laparoscopic procedures account for 15 million surgeries worldwide [1], with the initial entry into the peritoneal cavity accounting for 33-50% of all major laparoscopic complications [7]. This initial entry is the most dangerous as surgeons must enter the cavity using a sharp object with no visibility and space between the outer surface of the cavity and internal tissues. During the initial entry into the peritoneal cavity, the patients undergoing laparoscopic procedures are at a high risk for damage to internal organs and vasculature, necessitating the development of a device to protect these internal tissues and increase patient safety.

Design Of A Robotic Cownose Ray, Mark Marzotto

Honors Theses

Nature often inspires advances in science and technology and a promising example of this is mimicking locomotion of underwater animals. The main ways in which manmade aquatic vehicles propel themselves are water jets and propellers, which are inconsistent with how underwater animals swim. The cownose ray displays very efficient thrust with low frequency strokes by using a combination of oscillations and undulations with its pectoral fins. The goal of this paper is to mechanically replicate the actual fin motion of the cownose ray in order to capture these attractive features. The design will account for both the oscillations by designing …

Corner Sealants For Tactical Shelters, Janine Carlita Nowak

Honors Theses

The demand for a lightweight, easy-assembly tactical shelter is high for those faced with unexpected disasters and global conflicts. This project focuses on designing and prototyping the corner sealant for such a shelter. Two materials were chosen and tested: an in-house thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and Texin 950. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was performed on both of these materials. The in-house TPU showed initial degradation at 282.50 °C and sample degradation at 457.45 °C. Similarly, Texin 950 showed initial degradation at 293.68 °C and sample degradation at 453.26 °C. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was then run. The crystallization temperature (Tc) was observed …

Control System For 3d Printable Robotic Hand, Htoo Wai Htet

Honors Theses

Humanoid robotics is a growing area of research due to its potential applications in orthosis and prosthesis for human beings. With the currently available technologies, the most advanced robotic hands used in prosthetics or robotics can cost from $11,000 to $90,000, making it inaccessible to the general population of amputees and robotics hobbyists. Most of the features provided by these expensive technologies are superfluous to many users, creating a great gap in cost and services between users and technology. Using the emerging 3D printing technology, my project is to construct a 3D printed robotic hand that can reproduce as many …

The Design Of An Optimized Patient-Specific In Vivo Spinal Fusion Cage Using Additive Manufacturing, Gorman Donnelly

Honors Theses

This project involved the design of an all-in-one patient-specific lumbar spinal fusion cage using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) manufacturing. The cage is zero-profile and does not need the use of supplemental fixation. It was manufactured out of the titanium alloy Ti 6Al-4V using a DMLS rapid prototyping machine from a third party company. The endplates of the cage are patient-specific allowing for a larger surface contact area between the cage and the vertebral bodies than most cages on the market. This fosters a more successful fusion as well as decreases surgery time, effectively decreasing recovery time. Different porosity variations …

Propulsion And P.I Control Systems For Sae Aircraft, Ervin Meneses

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the integration and performance of a P.I control system within the SAE Aero Design Competition aircraft. This year the Union College Aero Design team will be competing in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design “Regular Class” Competition, which encompasses the design and production of a large‐scale remote controlled aircraft that must meet predetermined power and size constraints. The overall objective of the competition is to have the designed aircraft carry a maximum amount weight within a 200 feet runway while staying below a 1000W power limit. Each competitor must integrate a power limiter into their …

Design Of A Double-Dose Epinephrine Auto-Injector Using 3d-Printing, Timothy Calvin Sheehan

Honors Theses

This project involved the design and prototyping of an epinephrine auto-injector capable of administering two separate doses. Epinephrine auto-injectors are used in the treatment of patients undergoing anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction causing the restriction of airways and a drop in blood pressure. The timely administration of epinephrine counteracts these symptoms and can be lifesaving. Currently the only devices available to consumers administer one unit dose of epinephrine and are then no longer usable. In 30% of cases where patients undergo these symptoms a second dose of epinephrine is required. My design was based partially off the concept behind currently available …

Remote Water Metering In Venecia, Nicaragua, Jeffrey Wettstein

Honors Theses

The senior Capstone Design Project is the culmination of over three years of undergraduate work in electrical engineering, and other related fields. The project allows students to demonstrate their knowledge on a tangible design. Starting from a blank slate, the Capstone process asks students to carefully move through every stage of design in order to create the most effect output. Water shortage is a major problem for the entire world including the United States, but particularly in developing countries like Nicaragua. The community of Venecia, Nicaragua has a unique water problem. Community members leave taps running in fear that if …

2014 Sae Aero: Systems Engineering, Adam Herzog

Honors Theses

Union has participated in the annual SAE Aero Competition for the last 6 consecutive years. The aim of the competition involves the design and construction of an RC aircraft capable of carrying a maximum payload weight as consistently as possible. This report will summarize the methods used to determine shape and size of the final aircraft’s control surfaces, as well as include an analysis on the plane’s performance characteristics. The final design utilizes a 100 inch span main wing with a rear taper and an upright H-tail design. In addition, the horizontal tail has a stabilator in place of a …

Evolving Soft Robots With Vibration Based Movement, Andrew Danise

Honors Theses

Creating effective designs for soft robots is extremely difficult due to the large number of different possibilities for shape, material properties, and movement mechanisms. Due to the lack of methods to design soft robots, previous research has used evolutionary algorithms to tackle this problem of overwhelming options. A popular technique is to use generative encodings to create designs using evolutionary algorithms because of their modularity and ability to induce large scale coordinated change. The main drawback of generative encodings is that it is difficult to know where along the ontogenic trajectory resides the phenotype with the highest fitness. The two …

The Optimization Of Porosity And Pore Patterning For Patient-Specific Ti-6 Al-4v Femur Implants, Stephen Paolicelli

Honors Theses

Metastatic bone cancer often arises in the long bones of the body. Taking a patient specific approach by utilizing a customized implant is a superior method of treatment compared to today’s solutions, which often includes amputation. A titanium-alloy femur implant has been optimized by varying pore size, pore pattern, and porosity in order to maximize osseointegration. By maximizing osseointegration, the implant will remain firmly in place for a longer period of time because bone will grow throughout the implant, securing it. In addition, it is important for the bone to behave mechanically like bone. This requires the global elastic modulus …

Design Of A Gas Conditioning System For The Second Generation Union College Areogel Lab Catalytic Test Bed, Thomas Swanton

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to design and fabricate a system which could deliver artificially created test gas to the heating section at a specified composition, flow rate, and humidity, while additionally simulating the transient conditions found in automobile exhaust. It will make up one subsystem of the Union College Aerogel Lab’s second generation catalytic test bed. The test bed will be used to test the viability of catalytic aerogels as three way catalysts for automotive exhaust. To date a system for mixing test based on partial pressure has been fabricated and is operational, a system for generating transient …

The Design Of A Maneuverable Rolling Robot, David Carabis

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project was to design, fabricate, and test a maneuverable rolling robot. Although some other rolling robots were researched for this project, a novel approach was taken to design a unique, cheap robot that could turn and was fully enclosed by a rotating outer shell. The design and research phase of this project included the evaluation of several designs, the development of a mathematical model detailing forward motion of the robot, and the derivation of several design equations. Of the possible designs, an interior counterweight was chosen to provide a torque to the outside shell and move …

Designing A Self-Powered Device To Aid In Fencing Training And Scoring, Zak Smolen

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to redesign a currently available electric training tool for the sport of fencing in order to fix several existing faults such as cost and power use. The second stage of this project uses this new low-power design to explore small-scale energy harvesting by integrating a charging mechanism into the device to generate power from the movements of the fencer. This goal of this project is to research and explore modern low-power device design, at both the hardware and software levels, and then to apply those techniques to improve a real-world product. The final result …

Popularity Of Virtual Reality Immersion In Theme Park Attractions Of North America, Jessica A. Jelinski

Honors Theses

Theme parks continually change to incorporate new technology. Since the development of virtual reality, designers of theme park attractions have utilized several different immersion technology systems. Most of the current attractions are based on the Head-Mounted Display system and the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment system. To date, few studies or papers have been published concerning the effect virtual reality and the accompanying immersion technology may have on theme park attractions. One hundred and seventy-eight attractions from eight theme parks were categorized based on level of immersion and then analyzed for this study. Wait times for these attractions were used to …

Design And Testing Of An Automated Semiâ]Trailer Control System, Conor H. Dodd

Honors Theses

Growing up in Maine, the trucking industry is an ever-present part of life. With a very sparse, lightly used rail system, almost all of the raw materials and goods that enter and leave the state do so by truck. Truckers in Maine are constantly challenged by Maine’s roads, which can often be difficult or even treacherous to navigate. The rough logging roads near Jackman or Millinocket, or the sharp ninety degree turns near the Portland oil docks, can ruin a trucker’s day, or even worse, cause an accident. For example, there is a tiny four-way intersection on Broadway in South …

Design And Fabrication Of An Autonomous Solar Powered Airship, Mitchell Van Lee

Honors Theses

The purpose of the project was to design and build a prototype small scale photovoltaic (PV) powered autonomous airship. The principle reason for the construction of the unmanned airship was to investigate the possibility of using self-guided, lighter-than-air aircraft as an alternative to earth observational satellites for the purposes of terrain mapping and imaging. The necessary electrical energy was produced by single crystal photovoltaic solar cells. The airship was designed to carry an onboard battery in order to provide power generation in the case of intermittent cloud coverage. It was also designed to interface with an Arduino prototyping board which …

Design Of A Liquid Fuel Injector For Alternative Fuel Studies In An Atmospheric Model Gas Turbine Combustor, John Stevenson

Honors Theses

A new liquid-fuel injector was designed for use in the atmospheric-pressure, model gas turbine combustor in Bucknell University’s Combustion Research Laboratory during alternative fuel testing. The current liquid-fuel injector requires a higher-than-desired pressure drop and volumetric flow rate to provide proper atomization of liquid fuels. An air-blast atomizer type of fuel injector was chosen and an experiment utilizing water as the working fluid was performed on a variable-geometry prototype. Visualization of the spray pattern was achieved through photography and the pressure drop was measured as a function of the required operating parameters. Experimental correlations were used to estimate droplet sizes …

Investigation Of The Design Of A Bistable Micro-Chemical-Mechanical Device Utilizing Lateral Buckling, Susan Lyn Barnes

Honors Theses

The Gracias Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University has developed microgrippers which utilize chemically-actuated joints to be used in micro-surgery. These grippers, however, take up to thirty minutes to close fully when activated biochemicals in the human body. This is very problematic and could limit the use of the devices in surgery. It is the goal of this research to develop a gripper that uses theGracias Laboratory's existing joints in conjunction with mechanical components to decrease the closing time. The purpose of including the mechanical components is to induce a state of instability at which time a small perturbation would cause …