Engineering Commons^™

Mmteg Heatsink Design, Peyton Nienaber, Kadin Feldis, Alec Savoye, Jack Waeschle

Mechanical Engineering

In this document, Cal Poly Senior Design Team F16 presents a summary of its work developing a suitable heatsink for Gas Technology Institute’s Methane Mitigation Thermoelectric Generator. After several months of iterating between experimental testing and simulated heat transfer, a suitable prototype was selected for use in further refining simulation parameters. This was called the structural prototype and it allowed Team F16 to confirm several remaining unknowns relating to component thermal conductivity. All documentation of this process can be found in Preliminary, Critical, and Interim Design Review documents (PDR, CDR, IDR), included in this report. Having a realistic model …

Selecting The Most Effective Energy Modeling Tool Based On A Project Requirement, Sodiq Akande

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Building energy usage can be derived and controlled by performing building energy modeling. BEM can be performed using numerous software tools such as DesignBuilder, OpenStudio, EnergyPlus etc. These modeling tools can be sorted into three different modeling categories: Black-box, Gray-box and White-box. It is important for a modeler to be able to quickly select the proper tool from the proper category to meet the need of the project. To validate the method of categorizing tools, the three models generated using tools from each category and the modeling outputs required were compared. Each model was designed to estimate the amount of …

The Development And Numerical Modelling Of A Representative Elemental Volume For Packed Sand, Ashraf Thabet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The motivation of this thesis is the development of simple microscopic-scale model (representative elemental volume; REV) that can be used to conduct flow and heat transfer simulations from which closure coefficients can be established for the volume-averaged transport equations for porous media (packed bed). The thesis provides a brief introduction to the computational technique adopted for the geometric generation of the REV (YADE), followed by a parametric study undertaken to reveal the minimum number of particles inside the REV that are required to mimic the appropriate physics. Additional analysis was conducted with the goal of determining the influence of deviation …

Thermal Transport In Lithium Ion Batteries: An Experimental Investigation Of Interfaces And Granular Materials, Aalok Jaisheela Uday Gaitonde

Open Access Theses

Increasing usage and recent accidents due to lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries exploding or catching on fire has inspired research on the characterization and thermal management of these batteries. In cylindrical 18650 cells, heat generated during the battery's charge/discharge cycle is poorly dissipated to the surrounding through its metallic case due to the poor thermal conductivity of the jelly roll, which is spirally wound with many interfaces between electrodes and the polymeric separator. This work presents a technique to measure the thermal conduction across the metallic case-plastic separator interface, which ultimately limits heat transfer out of the jelly roll.

The polymeric separator …

Fluid Analysis In Solar Heat Pipes, Ben Krumholz, Michael Agavo, William Dundon

Mechanical Engineering

Evacuated tube solar collectors are efficient systems that use heat pipes to facilitate heat transfer. They use incoming solar radiation to heat water. Professor Mason Medizade tasked the team with choosing a component of the system to research and test its influence on system performance. The team investigated the working fluid that runs through the heat pipes. Distilled water, acetone, and ethanol at a range of fill volumes form 1 mL to 11 mL were tested. The team's goal was to find a volume for each fluid to maximize performance of the system. Performance was defined as average temperature rise …

Wind And Thermal Effects On Ground Mounted Photovoltaic (Pv) Panels, Chowdhury Mohammad Jubayer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A combination of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and wind tunnel experiments are carried out to investigate the effects of wind on the aerodynamic loading and heat transfer of a ground mounted stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) panel with tilt angle of 25^o in open country atmospheric boundary layer. Several azimuthal wind directions are considered: Southern 0^o, Southwest 45^o, Northwest 135^o and Northern 180^o. Three dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approaches with an unsteady solver using Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence closure are employed for the CFD simulations, whereas Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and …

Flow Loop Simulator, John Abruzzini, Manuel Carrasco, Neil Sutherland, Elise Woolworth

Mechanical Engineering

PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) has requested an operational flow loop simulator to aid in operator/technician training. The flow loop simulator will provide hands-on training that the current plant training process cannot model. This project is a continuation from the 2009-2010 school year. Project scope and design requirements were gathered from the previous group’s design reports as well as meetings with PG&E. The goal of this year’s project team is to verify, enhance and implement the schematic diagram proposed by last year’s team.

The main focus of the flow loop simulator is to provide operators and technicians with …