Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2006, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Modeling Of The Size Effects On The Behavior Of Metals In Microscale Deformation Processes, Gap-Yong Kim, Jun Ni, Muammer Koc

Gap-Yong Kim

For the accurate analysis and design of microforming process, proper modeling of material behavior at the micro/mesoscale is necessary by considering the size effects. Two size effects are known to exist in metallic materials. One is the “grain size” effect, and the other is the “feature/specimen size” effect. This study investigated the feature/specimen size effect and introduced a scaling model which combined both feature/specimen and grain size effects. Predicted size effects were compared with three separate experiments obtained from previous research: a simple compression with a round specimen, a simple tension with a round specimen, and a simple tension in …

Titanium Alloyed With Boron, Seshacharyulu Tamirisakandala, Daniel B. Miracle, Raghavan Srinivasan, Jay S. Gunasekera

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Small additions of boron to conventional titanium alloys have been found to produce significant changes to the microstructures and associated properties. Grain refinement and improved strength and stiffness are first-order effects, which lead to possibilities for developing novel and affordable processing methodologies and to enhance performance over conventional titanium alloys. In this article, we introduce this new class of titanium alloys and describe unique formability benefits achieved via engineering microstructures.

Magnetic Field Effects On Caco3 Precipitation Process In Hard Water, Nelson Saksono, Setijo Bismo, Elsa Krisanti, Azwar Manaf, Roekmijati Widaningrum

Makara Journal of Technology

Magnetic Field Effects on CaCO3 Precipitation Process in Hard Water. Magnetic treatment is applied as physical water treatment for scale prevention especially CaCO3, from hard water in piping equipment by reducing its hardness. Na2CO3 and CaCl2 solution sample was used in to investigate the magnetic fields influence on the formation of particle of CaCO3. By changing the strength of magnetic fields, exposure time and concentration of samples solution, this study presents quantitative results of total scale deposit, total precipitated CaCO3 and morphology of the deposit. This research was run by comparing magnetically and non-magnetically treated samples. The results showed an …

Biogasoline Production From Palm Oil Via Catalytic Hydrocracking Over Gamma-Alumina Catalyst, Anondho Wijanarko, Dadi Ahmad Mawardi, Mohammad Nasikin

Makara Journal of Technology

Biogasoline Production from Palm Oil Via Catalytic Hydrocracking over Gamma-Alumina Catalyst. Bio gasoline conversion from palm oil is an alternative energy resources method which can be substituted fossil fuel base energy utilization. Previous research resulted that palm oil can be converted into hydrocarbon by catalytic cracking reaction with γ-alumina catalyst. In this research, catalytic cracking reaction of palm oil by γ-alumina catalyst is done in a stirrer batch reactor with the oil/catalyst weight ratio variation of 100:1, 75:1, and 50:1; at suhue variation of 260 to 340oC and reaction time variation of 1 to 2 hour. Post cracking reaction, bio …

Segmental Sinusoidal Model For Speech Signal Coding, Florentinus Budi Setiawan, Soegijardjo Soegijoko, Sugihartono Sugihartono, Suhartono Tjondronegoro

Makara Journal of Technology

Segmental Sinusoidal Model for Speech Signal Coding. Periodic signal can be decomposed by sinusoidal component with Fourier series. With this characteristic, it can be modeled referring by sinusoidal form. By the sinusoidal model, signal can be quantized in order to encode the speech signal at the lower rate. The recent sinusoidal method is implemented in speech coding. By using this method, a block of the speech signal with 20 ms to 30 ms width is coded based on Fourier series coefficients. The new method proposed is quantization and reconstruction of speech signal by the segmental sinusoidal model. A segment is …

Determination Of Operation Condition And Product Dimension Accuracy Optimization Of Filament Deposition Modelling On Layer Manufacturing Application, Slamet A. Widyanto, Alva Edy Tontowi, Jamasri Jamasri, Heru Santoso Budi Rochardjo

Makara Journal of Technology

Layer manufacturing process has proven as a process that can produce a high complexity mechanical part. Now, Improvement of LM methods continuously conduct that is aimed to increase precessions and efficiency of these processes. Pressure filament deposition modelling is a form of layer manufacturing process that is designed to produce a plastic part with controlling its semisolid phase. In this research, the equipment of filament depositor is designed and tested to make the product filament deposition. With operation condition observation, the optimal temperature and pressure of deposition process was determined. These experiments used PVC as crystalline material and polypropylene as …

Stress Corrosion Cracking Behavior Of Stainless Steel 304 In The Sulfuric Acid Environment Due To Prestrain, Mohammad Badaruddin, Ahmad Suudi, Arinal Hamni

Makara Journal of Technology

Stress Corrosion Cracking Behavior of Stainless Steel 304 in the Sulfuric Acid Environment Due to Prestrain. The aim of research is to investigate the effect of prestrain on the stress corossion cracking behavior of AISI 304 stainless steel in the sulfuric acid of 10% concentration under the static cantilever loading according to ASTM E-1681 standart. The specimen of 304 Stainless steel was strain up over the yield strength until reaching the uniform strain of 5% and 10% using servopulser UTM 9506 under the displacement control of 0,3 mm/sec. The results of test show that the prestrain of 5% specimen is …

A Study On Parallel Computation Tools On Networked Pcs, Heru Suhartanto

Makara Journal of Technology

A Study on Parallel Computation Tools on Networked PCs. Many models for natural phenomena, engineering applications and industries need powerfull computing resources to solve their problems. High Performance Computing resources were introduced by many researchers. This comes in the form of Supercomputers and with operating systems and tools for development such as parallel compiler and its library. However, these resources are expensive for the investation and maintenance, hence people need some alternatives. Many people then introduced parallel distributed computing by using available computing resource such as PCs. Each of these PCs is treated as a processors, hence the cluster of …

Crude Oil Sludge Degradation In Microcosmic Scale: Simple Simulation As Preliminary Study On Land Treatment Bioremediation., Astri Nugroho

Makara Journal of Technology

Crude Oil Sludge Degradation in Microcosmic Scale: Simple Simulation as Preliminary Study on Land Treatment Bioremediation. A study in microcosmic condition has been carried out to evaluate the bacterial hydrocarbonoclastic capability in increasing the oil sludge degradation being mixed with NPK fertilizer as nitrogen resources. Aerobic test was carried out by putting erlenmeyers in a shaker incubator, 120 rpm shaking speed, at 50°C temperature. While 150 days in microcosmic one observation showed that the consortium has the potential to grow up to 50% (v/v) sludge oil load. Maximum growth and maximum growth rate of the consortium occurred in the III …

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report July 1, 2006 Through September 30, 2006, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

Hydrodynamics and thermal numerical modeling coupled with sulfur trioxide decomposition for the one channel geometry with three different channel configurations were performed. The results obtained from the numerical modeling were compared with the baseline design under the same boundary and operation conditions. The case with diamond shaped channels has the highest percentage of sulfuric acid decomposition. The baseline channel geometry has the lowest pressure drop compared with other cases.

Modeling Of The Semi-Solid Material Behavior And Analysis Of Micro-/Mesoscale Feature Forming, Gap-Yong Kim, Muammer Koc, Rhet Mayor, Jun Ni

Gap-Yong Kim

One of the major challenges in simulation of semi-solid forming is characterizing the complex behavior of a material that consists of both solid and liquid phases. In this study, a material model for an A356 alloy in a semi-solid state has been developed for high solid fractions (>0.6) and implemented into a finite element simulation tool to investigate the micro-/mesoscale feature formation during the forming process. Compared to previous stress models, which are limited to expressing the stress dependency on only the strain rate and the temperature (or the solid fraction), the proposed stress model adds the capability of …

An Experimental Investigation On Semi-Solid Forming Of Micro/Meso-Scale Features, Gap-Yong Kim, Jun Ni, Rhett Mayor, Heesool Kim

Gap-Yong Kim

The potentials of semi-solid forming technology have generated much interest regarding its application in micromanufacturing. This study investigates the feasibility of using semi-solid forming technology to produce parts with micro/meso features. An experimental setup has been developed to study the effects of die/punch temperature, initial solid fraction, punch speed, and workpiece shape on the semi-solid forming process. A part has been produced for a microreactor application and has been analyzed with an optical measurement system for feature formation. The results indicated complex interaction among the process parameters and the material flow, which affected the final pin formation. The punch temperature …

Freeform Extrusion Of High Solids Loading Ceramic Slurries, Part I: Extrusion Process Modeling, Michael S. Mason, Tieshu Huang, Robert G. Landers, Ming-Chuan Leu, Greg Hilmas

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel, solid freeform fabrication method has been developed for the manufacture of ceramic-based components in an environmentally friendly fashion. The method is based on the extrusion of ceramic slurries using water as the binding media. Aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) is currently being used as the part material and solids loading as high as 60 vol. % has been achieved. This paper describes a novel manufacturing machine that has been developed for the extrusion of high solids loading ceramic slurries. A critical component of the machine is the deposition system, which consists of a syringe, a plunger, …

Freeform Extrusion Of High Solids Loading Ceramic Slurries, Part Ii: Extrusion Process Control, Michael S. Mason, Tieshu Huang, Robert G. Landers, Ming-Chuan Leu, Greg Hilmas

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Part I of this paper provided a detailed description of a novel fabrication machine for high solids loading ceramic slurry extrusion processes and presented an empirical model of the ceramic extrusion process, viewing ram velocity as the input and extrusion force as the output. A constant extrusion force is desirable as it correlates with a constant material deposition rate and, thus, good part quality. The experimental results used to construct the model demonstrated that a constant ram velocity will not necessarily produce a constant extrusion force. In some instances the extrusion force increased until ram motor skipping occurred, and process …

Applications Of A Hybrid Manufacturing Process For Fabrication And Repair Of Metallic Structures, Frank W. Liou, Kevin P. Slattery, Mary Kinsella, Joseph William Newkirk, Hsin-Nan Chou, Robert G. Landers

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Since its appearance, rapid prototyping technology has been of interest to various industries that are looking for a process to produce/build a part directly from a CAD model in a short time. Among them, the direct metal deposition process is the only process which directly manufactures a fully dense metal part without intermediate steps. However, challenges of the direct metal deposition process include building overhang structures, producing precision surfaces, and making parts with complex structures. Coupled between the additive and the subtractive processes into a single workstation, the integrated process, or hybrid process, can produce a metal part with machining …

Evaluation Of Mechanical Properties And Microstructure For Laser Deposition Process And Welding Process, Yaxin Bao, Jianzhong Ruan, Todd E. Sparks, Jambunathan Anand, Joseph William Newkirk, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser Aided Manufacturing Process (LAMP) can be applied to repair steel die/molds which are currently repaired using traditional welding process in industry. In order to fully understand the advantages of laser deposition repair process over traditional welded-repair process, the mechanical properties such as tensile strength and hardness of H13 tool steel samples produced by these two processes were investigated. The microstructure and fracture surface of the samples were analyzed using optical microscope and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope). Moreover, depositions on substrates with different shapes were studied to evaluate the performance of LAMP on damaged parts with complicated geometric shape.

Comparison Of Thermal Properties Of Laser Deposition And Traditional Welding Process Via Thermal Diffusivity Measurement, Yu Yang, Omoghene Osaze Obahor, Yaxin Bao, Todd E. Sparks, Jianzhong Ruan, Jacquelyn K. Stroble, Robert G. Landers, Joseph William Newkirk, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser deposition is an effective process for mold and die repair. In order to improve the part repair quality, the process impact on thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity needs to be understood for laser deposited, welded and virgin H13. In this paper, H13 tool steel samples were made by laser deposition, welding and virgin H13 and then cut into pieces. Experiments were conducted to investigate the thermal diffusivity and conductivity. A laser flash method is used to test these samples. The future work and opportunities are also summarized.

Freeze-Spray Processing Of Layered Ceramic Composites, Qiang Fu, Oratai Jongprateep, Ashlee Abbott, Fatih Dogan

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Thermal gradients and associated stresses are critical in designing with ceramic composites having low thermal conductivity. In order to reduce the stresses from thermal gradients, compositional gradients are employed in designing of composite structures. This study addresses development of freeze-spray process to fabricate layered ceramic structures with controlled layer thickness and microstructural development. The composites were processed by spraying of ceramic slurries with low binder content and relatively high solids loadings (up to 40 vol%) on a cooled substrate. The frozen parts were freeze-dried and sintered at elevated temperatures. The relationship between microstructural development and thermal expansion behavior of Al …

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report April 1, 2006 Through June 30, 2006, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

Numerical Analyses of the Ceramatec Sulfuric Acid Decomposer. Comparisons with experiments for the Ceramatec sulfuric acid decomposer coupon with eight straight channels for four different geometries and four different flow rates were performed. All of the operation and boundary conditions for the calculations were the same as in the Ceramatec experiments. Good agreement was found. The overall pressure drop difference between calculations and experiments for most of the cases is within 10%.

X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopic Studies Of Dolomite Surfaces Exposed To Undersaturated And Supersaturated Aqueous Solutions, Xiaoming Hu, Pratik Joshi, Sharmila M. Mukhopadhyay, Steven R. Higgins

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Cleaved surfaces of dolomite were studied using ex-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) following exposure of the surfaces to various experimental conditions. Dolomite samples exposed to air, to a highly undersaturated solution (0.1 M NaCl, pH = 9), and to solution with a supersaturation (-Delta mu/kT) of 5.5 (pH = 9) were investigated with semiquantitative methods of analysis to ascertain the degree of non-stoichiometry resulting at the dolomite surface from reactive conditions. It was found that the dolomite cleavage surface in undersaturated solution was not altered significantly from the stoichiometric surface termination. The composition of the cleaved surface after exposure to …

A Development Framework For Hands-On Laboratory Modules In Microelectromechanical Systems (Mems), John Lee, Stacy H. Gleixner, Tai-Ran Hsu, David W. Parent

David W. Parent

This paper presents work-in-progress in terms of a framework that we have structured to support effective joint development among faculty from different engineering backgrounds, spanning mechanical engineering (ME), electrical engineering (EE), and materials engineering (MatE). The framework is organized in short instructional modules designed to span not only major device types and different fabrication technologies, but also different levels of resource requirements. An example of using functional prerequisites--rather than course prerequisites—is presented for one module, wherein each functional prerequisite must be satisfied by at least one member of each student team that will undertake the module. Roles of the faculty …

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report January 1, 2006 Through March 31, 2006, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

Quarterly Collaboration Meeting. The UNLVRF HTHX Project quarterly meeting was held in Albuquerque, NM, March 16 and 17, 2006. The purpose of the meeting was to promote collaboration and communication among the UNLV Research Foundation partners. A tour of Sandia National Laboratory was also provided that included a visit to their sulfuric acid decomposition test apparatus. There were 24 attendees from universities, national laboratories, and private industry. Collaborators discussed their research progress. The next meeting will be in July in Salt Lake City, UT.

Unlv Research Foundation High Temperature Heat Exchanger Development, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

Barriers addressed:

Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative R&D Plan – Material performance and component design and testing for: intermediate heat exchanger and high-temperature thermochemical water splitting (H2SO4 decomposition and HI decomposition). Improved materials for High Temperature Electrolysis.

2nd Annual Undergraduate Research Conference Abstract Book, University Of Missouri--Rolla

Undergraduate Research Conference at Missouri S&T

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Firing Temperature And Holding Time On Characterization Of Al/Sic Metal Matrix Composites Produced By Pressureless Infiltration., Anne Zulfia, Myrna Ariati

Makara Journal of Technology

Effect of Firing Temperature and Holding Time on Characterization of Al/SiC Metal Matrix Composites Produced by Pressureless Infiltration. The production of Al-SiC metal matrix composite can be carried out by pressureless metal infiltration processs (PRIMEX). The experiment was conducted using aluminium AC2B ingot as a matrix and 50%Vf SiC powder as a reinforcement which is mixed with 10% Mg powder for wetting agent. The variables of this experiment are holding time and firing temperature to investigate the effect of these conditions on mechanical properties of Al-SiC metal matrix composites. Holding time was conducted for 2,5,8,10,12 hours and firing temperatures was …

Design Of Induction Motor Drive Without Velocity Sensor Using Current Vector Controller With Full And Reduced Observer Moving To Dq Axis, Ridwan Gunawan, Feri Yusivar, Wahidin Wahab, Zuhal A. Kadir

Makara Journal of Technology

Design of Induction Motor Drive Without Velocity Sensor Using Current Vector Controller with Full and Reduced Observer Moving to DQ Axis. The observer is used in estimation velocity sensor usually in α-β axis, therefore this situation will need an extra transformation when we want to add compensator because the flux model is in direct and quadrature-axis dq. Every used the transformation to make possible emerge an error. So in this simulation is used a method to estimate the velocity of induction motor drive with observer that is moved to dq-axis. The model of actual motor used is in alfa-beta axis, …

On The Performance Of Imt-2000 Communication Link Based On Stratospheric Platforms, Iskandar Iskandar, Shigeru Shimamoto

Makara Journal of Technology

A new means for providing wireless communication has been currently proposed. It is based on aerial vehicle known as High Altitude Platform or Stratospheric Platforms (SPF). The SPF will be operated at an altitude of 17-22 km above the ground. Therefore, the channel condition may be different compared with those of the conventional terrestrial or satellite wireless channel. In this paper, the channel propagation characteristic of such a system is firstly investigated by means of ray tracing algorithm. We emphasize our investigation in a typical urban environment, in which the mobile users mostly exist. We developed building block model for …

Analysis Of Technical Energy Losses By Using Simulation, Betrianis Betrianis, Randite Herawan

Makara Journal of Technology

Model is a representation of a system. Through model, it can be easier to forecast and control the changing of each element system. Electricity distribution is also a system. Losses are general problem that exist in a distribution network system. But with the right methods, specifically technical energy losses can be reduced in order to increase the efficiency. By making model of the distribution network, the value of technical energy losses in the whole network as well as in every line can be observed. Simulation can also be used to see all losses reduction alternatives. By comparing results from each …

Modeling Of Coupled-Tank System Using Fuzzy Takagi-Sugeno Model, Aries Subiantoro

Makara Journal of Technology

Modeling of Coupled-Tank System Using Fuzzy Takagi-Sugeno Model. This paper describes modeling of coupledtank system based on data measurement using fuzzy Takagi-Sugeno model. The fuzzy clustering method of Gustafson- Kessel algorithm is used to classify input-output data into several clusters based on distance similarity of a member of input-output data from center of cluster. The formed clusters are projected orthonormally into each linguistic variables of premise part to determine membership function of fuzzy Takagi-Sugeno model. By estimating data in each cluster, the consequent parameters of fuzzy Takagi-Sugeno model are calculated using weighted least-squares method. The resulted fuzzy Takagi-Sugeno model is …