Engineering Commons^™

Capacity Optimization Of Battery-Generator Hybrid Power System: Toward Minimizing Maintenance Cost In Expeditionary Basecamp/Operational Energy Applications, Jude C. Onwuanumkpe

Open Access Theses

Low and transient load condition are known to have deleterious impact on the efficiency and health of diesel generators (DGs). Extensive operation under such loads reduces fuel consumption and energy conversion efficiency, and contribute to diesel engine degradation, damage, or catastrophic failure. Non-ideal loads are prevalent in expeditionary base camps that support contingency operations in austere environments or remote locations where grid electricity is either non-existent or inaccessible. The impact of such loads on DGs exacerbates already overburdened basecamp energy logistics requirements. There is a need, therefore, to eliminate or prevent the occurrence of non-ideal loads. Although advances in diesel …

Analysis Of Body Force Effects On Flow Boiling And Condensation With Finite Inlet Quality, Lucas E. O'Neill

Open Access Theses

This study explores flow boiling pressure drop of FC-72 in a rectangular channel subjected to single-side and double-sided heating for vertical upflow, vertical downflow, and horizontal flow with positive inlet quality. Analysis of temporal records of pressure transducer signals is used to assess the influences of orientation, mass velocity, inlet quality, heat flux, and single-sided versus double-sided heating on magnitude of pressure drop oscillations, while fast Fourier transforms of the same records are used to capture dominant frequencies of oscillations. Time-averaged pressure drop results are also presented, with trends focusing on the competing influences of body force and flow inertia, …

Secondary Atomization Of Inelastic Non-Newtonian Liquid Drops In The Bag And Multimode Regimes, Jonathan Rocha

Open Access Theses

Secondary atomization of inelastic shear thinning non-Newtonian liquids in the bag and multimode regimes was studied. Six mixtures were formulated from deionized (DI) water, Avantor Performance Materials' USP grade 100% vegetable based glycerin, and Ashland's Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC-7MF or CMC-7HF). The resulting solutions had power law parameters flow behavior index, n, between 0.71 and 0.93 and consistency index, K, in the range of 0.0464 to 0.37 Pa·s n. The effective viscosity for each mixture was estimated using the power-law model and experimentally measured strain rates up to the initiation time.

Secondary atomization was achieved using a continuous jet setup. Breakup events …

Characterization Of Pool Boiling Heat Transfer From Porous-Coating-Enhanced Surfaces, Suchismita Sarangi

Open Access Dissertations

Development of techniques for enhancement and optimization of thermal management technologies has been a highly active area of research in recent decades in response to the rapid emergence of compact, high-power electronic systems. Immersion cooling by boiling is one of the preferred methods for high power density applications, due to its passive nature and high heat transfer coefficients obtained. Pool boiling heat transfer has been extensively studied in recent decades to understand the inherent mechanisms yielding the high heat transfer rates, as well as to further enhance the heat transfer by simple modifications or additions to existing approaches. This thesis …

Transportation And Power Solutions For Africa: The Assessment And Optimization Of The Purdue Utility Platform, Jeremy Patrick Robison

Open Access Theses

The Purdue Utility Platform (PUP) is an off-road utility vehicle that was created to improve agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa by providing appropriate transportation and mobile power solutions. The vehicle design has matured to a level where it now requires more robust engineering tools to perform a rigorous assessment of its function. The assessment will be pursued in two areas: durability of the frame and the roll stability of the vehicle. To assess the durability of the frame, a data acquisition system was installed to collect strain gauge information during the vehicle’s operation. This data was then related to an …

Development Of Distributed Off-Grid Renewable Energy System For Rural African Communities, Mateo Sebastian Guerrero, Menghong Feng

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

Our Hybrid Energy System team is committed to develop low-cost renewable energy solutions to rural African communities where access to electricity from government grid is not available. According to a World Bank’s report, only 24% of sub-Saharan countries have access to electricity. Our team has been working with local partners to build renewable energy systems since 2008. From 2015 the team has been working on micro hydropower turbine and vertical-axis wind turbine with solar energy system combined. Our current efforts include a prototype design of a wind-solar system, using a new concept of vertical axis wind turbine to harvest wind …

Epics Torch, Madi Rogers, George Townsend, Brandon Henman, Holly Gregory, Patrick Leal, Brennan Mcpherron, Xinyue Pan

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

The Indiana Bicentennial Commission (IBC) was created by former governor Mitch Daniels to plan and execute a statewide celebration of Indiana’s 200th birthday in 2016. The commission has requested that researchers at Purdue University develop a high-tech Indiana-made flame torch a la the Olympic torch to be used in the celebration and displayed throughout all 92 counties of the state. In addition, the IBC requested that Purdue’s EPICS program develop a kid-friendly torch that can be used alongside the actual torch in relays, celebrations, and community outreach events throughout the state.

By collaborating with Purdue researchers throughout a range of …

4-H Nfpa Fluid Power Challenge, Erika D. Bonnett

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

The 4-H NFPA Fluid Power Challenge partnered Purdue Polytechnic Institute and Indiana 4-H with the National Fluid Power Association and Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power to provide teams of Indiana youth in 6-8th grades with opportunity to learn about hydraulics, engineering design, and other STEM skills. This created an opportunity to give youth a learning experience with STEM through hands-on, experiential learning activities. Youth experienced a one day workshop in which they worked as teams to learn concepts of fluid power through hands-on learning. Teams then went back to their communities and created and designed a fluid power …

Analytical And Experimental Investigation Of Microstructural Alterations In Bearing Steel In Rolling Contact Fatigue, Sina Mobasher Moghaddam

Open Access Dissertations

Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) is one the most common failure modes in bearings. RCF is usually associated with particular microstructural alterations. Such alterations (i.e. white etching cracks, butterflies, etc.) which lead to RCF failure are known to be among the most concerning matters to bearing industry.

In the current work, an analytical as well as experimental approaches are used to investigate “butterfly wing” formation, crack initiation and propagation from inclusions. A new damage evolution equation coupled with a FE model is employed to account for the effect of mean stresses and alternating stresses simultaneously to investigate butterfly formation. The proposed …

Analytical Investigation Of Fretting Wear With Special Emphasis On Stress Based Models, Arnab Jyoti Ghosh

Open Access Dissertations

Fretting refers to the minute oscillatory motion between two surfaces in contact under an applied normal load. It can cause either surface or subsurface initiated failure resulting in either fatigue or wear or both. Two distinct regimes – partial slip and gross slip are typically observed in fretting contacts. Due to the nature of contact, various factors such as wear debris, oxidation, surface roughness, humidity etc. effect failures caused due to fretting. A number of different techniques have been developed to quantify fretting damage and several numerical models are proposed to predict damage due to fretting. Fretting wear also depends …

A Study On Flow Development In An Apu-Style Inlet And Its Effect On Centrifugal Compressor Performance, Fangyuan Lou

Open Access Dissertations

The objectives of this research were to investigate the flow development inside an APU-style inlet and its effect on centrifugal compressor performance. The motivation arises from the increased applications of gas turbine engines installed with APU-style inlets such as unmanned aerial vehicles, auxiliary power units, and helicopters. The inlet swirl distortion created from these complicated inlet systems has become a major performance and operability concern. To improve the integration between the APU-style inlet and gas turbine engines, better understanding of the flow field in the APU-style inlet and its effect on gas turbine is necessary.

A research facility for the …

Analysis And Simulation Of Small Scale Microwave Interferometer Experiments On Non-Ideal Explosives, David E. Kittell

Open Access Dissertations

Small scale experiments for non-ideal and homemade explosives (HMEs) were investigated, analyzed, and subsequently modeled in an attempt to develop more predictive capabilities for the threat assessment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), as well as to provide new analysis capabilities for other investigators in the field. Non-ideal explosives and HMEs are challenging to characterize because of the nearly limitless parameter space (e.g. sample composition, density, particle morphology, etc.) which gives rise to a broad range of explosive sensitivity and performance. Large scale tests, such as rate stick and gap tests, are not feasible for characterizing every HME of interest due …

The Relationship Between Intermittent Limit Cycles And Postural Instability Associated With Parkinson’S Disease, James R. Chagdes, Jessica E. Huber, Meredith Saletta, Meghan Darling-White, Arvind Raman, Shirley Rietdyk, Howard N. Zelaznik, Jeffrey M. Haddad

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Many disease-specifc factors such as muscular weakness, increased muscle stiffness, varying postural strategies, and changes in postural refexes have been shown to lead to postural instability and fall risk in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Recently, analytical techniques, inspired by the dynamical systems perspective on movement control and coordination, have been used to examine the mechanisms underlying the dynamics of postural declines and the emergence of postural instabilities in people with PD. Methods: A wavelet-based technique was used to identify limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) in the anterior–posterior (AP) postural sway of people with mild PD (n = 10) compared …