Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Wheelie King Trainer And Controller, Michael C. Uytingco, Paul E. Hubner, Dmitriy Petrovykh

Mechanical Engineering

The ``wheelie'' is a popular, classic bicycle trick which novice bicyclists often attempt as an introduction to advanced bike tricks. However, many are hesitant to try due to the risks and safety hazards associated with performing one. The purpose of this project is to create an on-board system which will assist a user in maintaining a wheelie after achieving the required position while incorporating safety mechanisms to prevent the user from injuring themselves or others. Additional requirements of the system are non-obstructive features and seamless transitioning between wheelie conditions.

Upon researching the state of wheelie technology, existing products, such as …

Single Arm Recumbent Bicycle, Alexander Borsotti, Ryan Westermann, Sean Liston

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this report is to outline and cover the scope of work for the Single Arm Recumbent Bicycle Senior Project. The report will give an introduction of the problem, a background of the existing research or products relating to our project, the objectives of our project, our project management plan, our final design, manufacturing, testing, our project management, and final recommendations for improving the final design. The team is being supported by the Quality of Life Program, a non-profit organization that works to improve the lives of those injured in duty while serving our nation.

Up until now, …

Hip And Knee Biomechanics For Transtibial Amputees In Gait, Cycling, And Elliptical Training, Greg Orekhov

Master's Theses

Transtibial amputees are at increased risk of contralateral hip and knee joint osteoarthritis, likely due to abnormal biomechanics. Biomechanical challenges exist for transtibial amputees in gait and cycling; particularly, asymmetry in ground/pedal reaction forces and joint kinetics is well documented and state-of-the-art passive and powered prostheses do not fully restore natural biomechanics. Elliptical training has not been studied as a potential exercise for rehabilitation, nor have any studies been published that compare joint kinematics and kinetics and ground/pedal reaction forces for the same group of transtibial amputees in gait, cycling, and elliptical training. The hypothesis was that hip and knee …

Subject-Specific Finite Element Predictions Of Knee Cartilage Pressure And Investigation Of Cartilage Material Models, Michael G. Rumery

Master's Theses

An estimated 27 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis (OA). Symptomatic OA is often treated with total knee replacement, a procedure which is expected to increase in number by 673% from 2005 to 2030, and costs to perform total knee replacement surgeries exceeded $11 billion in 2005. Subject-specific modeling and finite element (FE) predictions are state-of-the-art computational methods for anatomically accurate predictions of joint tissue loads in surgical-planning and rehabilitation. Knee joint FE models have been used to predict in-vivo joint kinematics, loads, stresses and strains, and joint contact area and pressure. Abnormal cartilage contact pressure is considered a risk factor …

Fixing Vertebral Compression Fractures With Medtronic, Kelly Fitzgerald, Trevor Bingham, Alex Denbaugh, Jordan Tang, Jon Stearns

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Low-Cycle Fatigue Behavior Of Silicone Rubber For Biomedical Balloons, Chase Cooper

Materials Engineering

The development of a medical drug delivery device that allows for the deployment drugs into the adventitial tissue of blood vessels requires the inflation of a silicone elastomer. The inflated silicone must be able to consistently endure multiple loading cycles without failing so that the device can operate reliably. There are multiple methods of processing the silicone for the device and the goal of this study is to examine the effect of the various processing methods on the characteristics of the silicone. The Dynamic Mechanical Analysis Machine (DMA) is used to model the conditions of the device’s application by performing …

Team Joseph's Bike Trailer, Keely Thompson, Curtis Wathne, Ryan Meinhardt

Mechanical Engineering

This final design report shows the results of this senior project’s design process of creating a custom bike trailer for Team Joseph. As done in the Scope of Work, Preliminary Design report, and Critical Design report, current products, relevant technologies, and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards are fully researched and benchmarked to aid in the design selection process. Customer requirements are looked at and developed into engineering specifications. A detailed design was created for CDR to show to Team Joseph, and manufacturing and testing plans were laid out. This final design report adds the final design revisions …

Curb Navigation, Cole A. Tudor, Kaitlyn R. Adams, Robbie Huerta

Mechanical Engineering

The Curb Navigation senior project, proposed by the QL+ organization, was presented to find a solution to an issue a former veteran, Velette, is having. Velette has a difficult time maneuvering curbs when out doing day-to-day errands and activities. The goal of this project is to develop a solution that will give Velette the ability to traverse curbs without the assistance of others or the need to do a wheelie that can lead to an injury. The team has found that adapting and optimizing an anti-tipper design may be the best way to solve the proposed challenge. The team decided …

Human Knee Fea Model For Transtibial Amputee Tibial Cartilage Pressure In Gait And Cycling, Gregory Lane

Master's Theses

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating disease affecting roughly 31 million Americans. The incidence of OA is significantly higher for persons who have suffered a transtibial amputation. Abnormal cartilage stress can cause higher OA risk, however it is unknown if there is a connection between exercise type and cartilage stress. To help answer this, a tibiofemoral FEA model was created. Utilizing linear elastic isotropic materials and non-linear springs, the model was validated to experimental cadaveric data. In a previous study, 6 control and 6 amputee subjects underwent gait and cycling experiments. The resultant knee loads were analyzed to find the maximum …

Knee Angles And Axes Crosstalk Correction In Gait, Cycling, And Elliptical Training Exercises, Jordan M. Skaro

Master's Theses

When conducting motion analysis using 3-dimensional motion capture technology, errors in marker placement on the knee results in a widely observed phenomenon known as “crosstalk” [1-18] in calculated knee joint angles (i.e., flexion-extension (FE), adduction-abduction (AA), internal-external rotation (IE)). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has recently been proposed as a post hoc method to reduce crosstalk errors and operates by minimizing the correlation between the knee angles [1, 2]. However, recent studies that have used PCA have neither considered exercises, such as cycling (C) and elliptical training (E), other than gait (G) nor estimated the corrected knee axes following PCA correction. …