Engineering Commons^™

My Catalyst, Gabrielle Gambino Lyon

Celebration of Learning

Over the course of my internship and shadow program with Pepper Lawson Construction and Ziegler Cooper Architects, I was able to explore the various career paths involved in the design, construction, and civil engineering fields. My work on the construction site of a high-rise apartment building located in the heart of Houston, TX allowed me first-hand experience working and learning alongside project engineers, contractors, building developers, and the construction team.

This project was the perfect confluence of my main areas of interest: structural, mechanical, civil, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. My daily work consisted of on-site walk throughs ...

Powering A Biosensor Using Wearable Thermoelectric Technology, Anneliese Bals, Noah Barnes, Rafael Bravo, Nicolas Garcia, Joseph O'Bryan, Dylan Santana

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Wearable medical devices such as insulin pumps, glucose monitors, hearing aids, and electrocardiograms provide necessary medical aid and monitoring to millions of users worldwide. These battery powered devices require battery replacement and frequent charging that reduces the freedom and peace of mind of users. Additionally, the significant portion of the world without access to electricity is unable to use these medical devices as they have no means to power them constantly. Wearable thermoelectric power generation aims to charge these medical device batteries without a need for grid power.

Our team has developing a wristband prototype that uses body heat, ambient ...

The Vessel For Autonomous Research Underwater (The Varuna), Tyler Briles, Shae Connor, Erin Guthrie, Anthony Jackson, Madeleine Peauroi

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Humans are intimately connected to the Earth’s ocean, and yet only 5% of it has been explored. Learning more about marine life and ocean chemistry can only improve our stewardship efforts. The addition of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to the Santa Clara University Robotic Systems Laboratory’s collection of marine robots will contribute to this quest for knowledge. It will assist researchers by providing a low-cost, easy-to-use, portable, reliable, and safe alternative to operator-controlled vehicles. This report describes our motivations for this project, the decisions we made in the design and manufacturing of the VARUNA, and tradeoff analyses of ...

Nasa Microgravity: Internal Structure And Recovery Method Optimization, Brenna Doherty

Honors Theses AY 17/18

Microgravity is defined as a state of having very little gravity, such as that experienced in space. Research has been performed by NASA for over 25 years as a way to determine how space technologies are impacted by a microgravity environment. To simulate microgravity, an aerodynamic payload is dropped in a vacuum chamber or from high altitudes until a state of freefall is reached. NASA drop towers are the standard microgravity testing platforms used today. These towers can produce microgravity environments for 2.2-5.2 seconds; however, these platforms are expensive and require months of advanced planning. The University of ...

Sandia Senior Design Collaboration: Vacuum Sensor Design, James L. Valerio, Eric J. Black, Joseph P. Bednarz, David R. Warther

Honors Research Projects

Sandia National Laboratories has requested a fully mechanical device to close a circuit after launch has occurred and the device enters a vacuum. Intended for applications in rockets and missiles, the device must fit in a 36 degree wedge with a 6.8 inch radius that is 6 inches in height and be ready to bolt onto a rocket. The pressure switch must be prevented from actuating until a launch acceleration ranging from 20 to 27g is detected. The pressure switch must close the circuit after a pressure of 10^-1 Torr is reached and before a pressure of 10 ...

Anisotropic Compositional Expansion And Chemical Potential For Amorphous Lithiated Silicon Under Stress Tensor, Valery I. Levitas, Hamed Attariani

Valery I. Levitas

Si is a promising anode material for Li-ion batteries, since it absorbs large amounts of Li. However, insertion of Li leads to 334% of volumetric expansion, huge stresses, and fracture; it can be suppressed by utilizing nanoscale anode structures. Continuum approaches to stress relaxation in LixSi, based on plasticity theory, are unrealistic, because the yield strength of LixSi is much higher than the generated stresses. Here, we suggest that stress relaxation is due to anisotropic (tensorial) compositional straining that occurs during insertion-extraction at any deviatoric stresses. Developed theory describes known experimental and atomistic simulation data. A method to reduce stresses ...

Beta: Bioprinting Engineering Technology For Academia, Max Abrams, Jeffrey Barone, Cynthia Le, Jacob Ososke, Franz Plum, Emily Takimoto, Josie Warren

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Higher STEM education is a field of growing potential, but too many middle school and high school students are not testing proficiently in STEM subjects. The BETA team worked to improve biology classroom engagement through the development of technologies for high school biology experiments. The BETA project team expanded functionality of an existing product line to allow for better student and teacher user experience and the execution of more interesting experiments. The BETA project’s first goal was to create a modular incubating Box for the high school classroom. This Box, called the BETA Box was designed with a variety ...

Scu Cube, Matt Condino, Andrew Drape, Evan Eberhardt, Cooper Mcdonnell, Brayton Mcknight, Isaac Mcquillen, James Olwell, Laura Tschudy

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Traditional forms of communication such as landlines and cell phones are unreliable during disaster scenarios. It is difficult to coordinate relief efforts in the aftermath of a disaster due to the unavailability of reliable communication methods. The SCUCube is a 3U CubeSat designed to aid disaster relief communications. The satellite has an amateur radio primary payload that can send and receive standardized data packets with compatible radios, and also has an experimental attitude control system secondary payload. The semi-passive attitude control system uses a gravity gradient boom and a reaction wheel to stabilize the orientation of the satellite. In addition ...

Skintronics: Wireless, Skin-Wearable Electronics For Monitoring Of Electrocardiogram, Matthew B. Piper, Woon-Hong Yeo, Yongkuk Lee

Undergraduate Research Posters

The ECGs I micro-fabricate are designed to be flexible, stretchable and wireless circuits that can be applied to the skin directly. The device is encased in a conformal, silicon-like substrate, that allows the ECG to be attached with the electrodes. Each electrode has been previously measured and verified that it will be correctly placed for an accurate reading. Prototyping this ECG/electrode device allows the user to mount the prototype directly to the patient without having to attach and wire ten other electrodes. This prototype solves the issue that comes about when a doctor, nurse or emergency medical technician must ...

Computational Wave Field Modeling Using Sequential Mapping Of Poly-Crepitus Green’S Function In Anisotropic Media, Sajan Shrestha

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a meshless semi-analytical computational method is presented to compute the ultrasonic wave field in the generalized anisotropic material while understanding the physics of wave propagation in detail. To understand the wave-damage interaction in an anisotropic material, it is neither feasible nor cost-effective to perform multiple experiments in the laboratory. Hence, recently the computational nondestructive evaluation (CNDE) received much attention to performing the NDE experiments in a virtual environment. In this thesis, a fundamental framework is constructed to perform the CNDE experiment of a thick composite specimen in a Pulse-Echo (PE) mode. To achieve the target, the following ...

Derivative-Free Kalman Filter-Based Control Of Nonlinear Systems With Application To Transfemoral Prostheses, S. Mahmoud Moosavi

ETD Archive

Derivative-free Kalman filtering (DKF) for estimation-based control of a special class of nonlinear systems is presented. The method includes a standard Kalman filter for the estimation of both states and unknown inputs, and a nonlinear system that is transformed to controllable canonical state space form through feedback linearization (FL). A direct current (DC) motor with an input torque that is a nonlinear function of the state is considered as a case study for a nonlinear single-input-single-output (SISO) system. A three degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot / prosthesis system, which includes a robot that emulates human hip and thigh motion and a powered (active ...

Swagelok's Hand Tube Bender, Chapin Hutama, Seth Bills, William Mcconnell, Tyler Brown

Honors Research Projects

In our project, we are assigned to develop a hand tube bender that is able to bend medium, high pressure, and standard 1/4” and 3/8” tubing. The bender also shall be capable of being used with two hands without the aid of a bench vise and have provisions for use in a bench vise for convenience. The bender shall not damage the tube during bending and induce a maximum of 8% ovality in the bent tubing. In addition, the cost of the bender shall be less than the existing hand tube bender and be resistant to rusting from ...

Dynamic Modeling And Simulation Of A Variable Cycle Turbofan Engine With Controls, Robert W. Buettner

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Next generation aircraft (especially combat aircraft) will include more technology and capability than ever before. This increase in technology comes at the price of higher electrical power requirements and increased waste heat that must be removed from components to avoid overheating induced shutdowns. To help combat the resulting power and thermal management problem, a vehicle level power and thermal management design and optimization toolset was developed in MATLAB®/Simulink®. A dynamic model of a three-stream variable cycle engine was desired to add to the capabilities of the power and thermal management toolset. As an intermediate step to this goal, the ...

Management Optimization Of Energy Consumption Reduction For Residential Hot Water, Francesco Cataldi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to create an automatic water management system capable of optimizing the usage of warm water stored in two water tanks to reduce the monthly energy consumption of the instant water heater installed in a residential house. This system is called Water Mixing System (WMS). The two heat sources considered are: PV-T system and heat rejected by the air condition system. The PV-T system is a new technology that allows transformation of the sun radiation into both electricity and warm water, increasing the efficiency of the panel compared to either a common photovoltaic panel or ...

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Monosaccharide Production Via Biomass Fast Pyrolysis, Yanan Zhang, Tristan Brown, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

The economic feasibility of a facility producing monosaccharides, hydrogen and transportation fuels via fast pyrolysis and upgrading pathway was evaluated by modeling a 2000 dry metric ton biomass/day facility using Aspen Plus®. Equipment sizing and cost were based on Aspen Economic Evaluation® software. The results indicate that monosaccharide production capacity could reach 338 metric tons/day. Co-product yields of hydrogen and gasoline were 23.4 and 141 metric tons/day, respectively. The total installed equipment and total capital costs were estimated to be $210 million and $326 million, respectively. A facility internal rate of return (IRR) of 11.4 ...

Regional Differences In The Economic Feasibility Of Advanced Biorefineries: Fast Pyrolysis And Hydroprocessing, Tristan Brown, Rajeeva Thilakaratne, Robert C. Brown, Guiping Hu

Guiping Hu

This analysis identifies the sensitivity of the fast pyrolysis and hydroprocessing pathway to facility location. The economic feasibility of a 2000 metric ton per day fast pyrolysis and hydroprocessing biorefinery is quantified based on 30 different state-specific facility locations within the United States. We calculate the 20-year internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) for each location scenario as a function of state- and region-specific factors. This analysis demonstrates that biorefinery IRR and NPV are very sensitive to bio-oil yield, feedstock cost, location capital cost factor, and transportation fuel market value. The IRRs and NPVs generated for ...

Mild Catalytic Pyrolysis Of Biomass For Production Of Transportation Fuels: A Techno-Economic Analysis, Rajeeva Thilakaratne, Tristan Brown, Yihua Li, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

A techno-economic analysis of mild catalytic pyrolysis (CP) of woody biomass followed by upgrading of the partially deoxygenated pyrolysis liquid is performed to assess this pathway’s economic feasibility for the production of hydrocarbon-based biofuels. The process achieves a fuel yield of 17.7 wt% and an energy conversion of 39%. Deoxygenation of the pyrolysis liquid requires 2.7 wt% hydrogen while saturation of aromatic rings in the pyrolysis liquid increases total hydrogen consumption to 6.4 wt%. Total project investment is $457 million with annual operating costs of $142 million for a 2000 metric ton per day facility. A ...

Life Cycle Assessment Of The Production Of Hydrogen And Transportation Fuels From Corn Stover Via Fast Pyrolysis, Yanan Zhang, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

This life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluates and quantifies the environmental impacts of the production of hydrogen and transportation fuels from the fast pyrolysis and upgrading of corn stover. Input data for this analysis come from Aspen Plus modeling, a GREET model database and a U.S Life Cycle Inventory Database. SimaPro 7.3 software is employed to estimate the environmental impacts. The results indicate that the net fossil energy input is 0.25 MJ and 0.23 MJ per km traveled for a light-duty vehicle fueled by gasoline and diesel fuel, respectively. Bio-oil production requires the largest fossil energy input ...

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Co-Located Corn Grain And Corn Stover Ethanol Plants, Longwen Ou, Tristan Brown, Rajeeva Thilakaratne, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the economic performance of co-located corn grain ethanol (Gen 1) and cellulosic ethanol (Gen 2) facilities. We present six scenarios to evaluate the impact of stover-to-grain mass (SGM) ratios on overall minimum ethanol selling price (MESP). For the Gen 1 plant, MESP is $3.18/ gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) while for the Gen 2 plant it is $5.64/GGE. Co-located Gen 1 and Gen 2 plants operating at the lowest SGM ratio of 0.4 generates the lowest overall MESP of $3.73/GGE as well as the highest MESP for ...

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Fast Pyrolysis And Upgrading Facilities Employing Two Depolymerization Pathways, Yanan Zhang, Tristan Brown, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

We evaluate the economic feasibility of fast pyrolysis and upgrading facilities 11 employing either of two depolymerization pathways: two-stage hydrotreating 12 followed by a FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) stage or single-stage hydrotreating 13 followed by a hydrocracking stage. In the hydrotreating/FCC pathway, two options 14 are available as the hydrogen source for hydrotreating: merchant hydrogen or 15 hydrogen from natural gas reforming. The primary products of the hydrotreating/FCC 16 pathway are commodity chemicals whereas the primary products for the 17 hydrotreating/hydrocracking pathway are transportation fuels and hydrogen. The two 18 pathways are modeled using Aspen Plus® for ...

Comparative Techno-Economic Analysis Of Biohydrogen Production Via Bio-Oil Gasification And Bio-Oil Reforming, Yanan Zhang, Tristan Brown, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

This paper evaluates the economic feasibility of biohydrogen production via two bio-oil processing pathways: bio-oil gasification and bio-oil reforming. Both pathways employ fast pyrolysis to produce bio-oil from biomass stock. The two pathways are modeled using Aspen Plus® for a 2000 t d-1 facility. Equipment sizing and cost calculations are based on Aspen Economic Evaluation® software. Biohydrogen production capacity at the facility is 147 t d-1 for the bio-oil gasification pathway and 160 t d-1 for the bio-oil reforming pathway. The biomass-to-fuel energy efficiencies are 47% and 84% for the bio-oil gasification and bio-oil reforming pathways, respectively. Total capital investment ...

Integrated Supply Chain Design For Commodity Chemicals Production Via Woody Biomass Fast Pyrolysis And Upgrading, Yanan Zhang, Guiping Hu, Robert C. Brown

Guiping Hu

This study investigates the optimal supply chain design for commodity chemicals (BTX, etc.) production via woody biomass fast pyrolysis and hydroprocessing pathway. The locations and capacities of distributed preprocessing hubs and integrated biorefinery facilities are optimized with a mixed integer linear programming model. In this integrated supply chain system, decisions on the biomass chipping methods (roadside chipping vs. facility chipping) are also explored. The economic objective of the supply chain model is to maximize the profit for a 20-year chemicals production system. In addition to the economic objective, the model also incorporates an environmental objective of minimizing life cycle greenhouse ...

Sound Data Collection And Transmission Noise Reduction, Bradley Cockrel

Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The WKU Engineering Department Senior Student Team, The Synchronizers, has been contracted to modify a MTD transmission’s sound characteristics. This project entails developing a sound data acquisition apparatus and method, developing a sound test stand which will fully load the transmission and load characteristics, and suggesting modes of sound modification. The Sound Data Acquisition method entails using a specialized microphone calibrated to operate on IOS devices to measure Sound Intensity. The sound intensity will be found over a collective area, in order to evaluate to the sound power generated. The sound test stand will consist of a system designed ...

Rsl Rover, Patrick Barone, Giovanni Briggs, Aaron Burns, Hesham Naja, Zoe Demertzis

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The goal of this project was to design and implement an unmanned vehicle that can assess the air quality and general state of a post-fire environment. To do this, we equipped Santa Clara University's Polaris 6x6 Ranger with appropriate sensors and cameras to determine how safe the environment is for humans to enter. We also used GPS and laser scans to generate a 3D map that operators can use to define certain zones as particularly dangerous. Finally, we incorporated partially-autonomous sensing capabilities that will allow the operator to easily drive the vehicle. The result was a rugged, advanced, and ...

Pcb Prototyping, Kasey Chun, Dylan Hack, Ilja Medan, Michael Rudolf, Ryan Sidley

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

In today’s world, Printed Circuit Boards, also known as PCBs, are part of our daily lives. However, it is currently difficult for students in university classes or hobbyists to quickly produce custom made PCBs since no system exists where every step in the production process is on one platform. There are four main steps that go into manufacturing a PCB once it is fully designed which are: milling, solder dispensing, component placement, and a reflow process. The goal will be to create various toolheads and place them onto a single platform allowing the user to perform the aforementioned production ...

Marv: Marine Autonomous Research Vessel, Drew Azevedo, Sam Beltram, Gregorio Delvecchio, Ben Hopner

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Conducting hydrologic research in remote areas is currently performed manually, making it a labor intensive and inaccurate solution. Due to the size, weight, and cost of automated solutions on the market today, a need has arisen for a low cost, highly portable, autonomous solution. Working closely with Santa Clara University’s Robotics Systems Lab (RSL), our team has developed a low cost, highly portable autonomous marine research vessel named MARV (Marine Autonomous Research Vessel). It is an autonomous surface platform where scientists outfit the vessel with their own data acquisition equipment. The mechanical chassis is collapsible for modes of remote ...

Project Space: Solar Panel Automated Cleaning Environment, Matt Burke, Ryan Greenough, Daniel Jensen, Elliot Voss

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of Project SPACE is to create an automated solar panel cleaner that will address the adverse impact of soiling on commercial photovoltaic cells. Specifically, we hoped to create a device that increases the maximum power output of a soiled panel by 10% (recovering the amount of power lost) while still costing under $500 and operating for up to 7.0 years. A successful design should operate without the use of water. This will help solar panel arrays achieve a production output closer to their maximum potential and save companies on costs associated energy generation.

The current apparatus utilizes ...

Safer: Search And Find Emergency Rover, Zachary Agustin, Charles Lewis, Elizabeth Mcmahon, Cameron Pierce, Pranav Pradhan, Michael Tamshen

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

When disaster strikes and causes a structure to collapse, it poses a unique challenge to search and rescue teams as they assess the situation and search for survivors. Currently there are very few tools that can be used by these teams to aid them in gathering important information about the situation that allow members to stay at a safe distance. SAFER, Search and Find Emergency Rover, is an unmanned, remotely operated vehicle that can provide early reconnaissance to search and rescue teams so they may have more information to prepare themselves for the dangers that lay inside the wreckage. Over ...

Gravity Charger, Luke Lindsay, Will Gonder, George Montgomery

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

According to a 2014 World Health Organization research initiative based on data collected from 14 global developing countries, “Only 28% of health facilities and 34% of hospitals had what could be called “reliable” access to electricity (without prolonged interruptions in one week)” [1]. Healthcare quality suffers because of this lack of reliable electricity. We propose that a gravity powered generator would stand as a reliable power source for small medical devices under any conditions at any location at any time of day. Our research examines how a gravity powered electric generator could best empower medical facilities in developing countries to ...

Glows Co Automated Chemical Etching Machine For Fiber Optic Cable, Mishan Golshan, Peter Laird, Thomas Ostrander, Marty Winkler, Peter Savoy

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This report summarizes the conceptualization and development of an automated machine designed for a fiber optic cable stripping process used by Lumentum LLC. This process is currently manually operated by Lumentum’s technicians and involves unavoidable handling of corrosive chemicals. To increase technician safety, the process will be automated to reduce chemical - operator interactions. Improving safety conditions for technicians is the primary motivation for automating this process. Automation will also decrease process variation and increase product quality. GLOWS CO was tasked with creating this automated solution, leading to the design of the Automatic Chemical Etching Machine (or A-CHEM) for the ...