Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Design And Analysis Of Marangoni-Driven Robotic Surfers, Mitchel L. Timm

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

We designed and experimentally studied the dynamics of two robotic systems that surf along the water-air interface. The robots were self-propelled by means of creating and maintaining a surface tension gradient resulting from an asymmetric release of isopropyl alcohol (IPA). The imbalance in the distribution of surface tension surrounding the robots generates a propulsive force commonly referred to as Marangoni propulsion. First, we considered a single surfer, which was custom-made with novel control mechanisms that allow for both forward motion and steering to be remotely adjusted solely through the manipulation of local surface stresses. We analyzed the performance of this …

Easily Verifiable Controller Design With Application To Automotive Powertrains, Mohammad Reza Amini

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Bridging the gap between designed and implemented model-based controllers is a major challenge in the design cycle of industrial controllers. This gap is mainly created due to (i) digital implementation of controller software that introduces sampling and quantization imprecisions via analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), and (ii) uncertainties in the modeled plant’s dynamics, which directly propagate through the controller structure. The failure to identify and handle these implementation and model uncertainties results in undesirable controller performance and costly iterative loops for completing the controller verification and validation (V&V) process.

This PhD dissertation develops a novel theoretical framework to design controllers that are …

Frontal Crash Analysis Of A Conformable Cng Tank Using Finite Element Analysis, Datta Sandesh Manjunath

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The purpose of this study is to computationally model and analyze a Conformable Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel tank for frontal crashes using Finite Element Analysis. Researchers have developed a CNG fuel tank, which is conformable, non-conventional and non-cylindrical. This tank increases cost efficiency, volumetric efficiency and cargo efficiency in CNG vehicle applications. A lightweight pickup truck (2015 Chevrolet Silverado) has been used to integrate the CNG tanks and field-testing has been conducted to demonstrate the application.

The report mainly focuses on the effective finite element modeling of the chassis, brackets and tanks using HYPERMESH and RADIOSS. The frontal crash …