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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Refurbished And 3d Modeled Thermal Vacuum Chamber, Lauren M. Glenn May 2017

Refurbished And 3d Modeled Thermal Vacuum Chamber, Lauren M. Glenn

Master's Theses

Spacecraft testing includes acoustics, vibrations, and thermal vacuum. Cal Poly’s Space Environments Lab is equipped with multiple vacuum chambers, but no thermal vacuum chamber. The purpose of this thesis is to incorporate an ATS Chiller system with the HVEC vacuum chamber so students are able to experiment with a thermal vacuum chamber. The ATS Chiller had leaky pipes that needed to be refurbished and a shroud was implemented to improve thermal capabilities of the system. The full system was able to reach temperatures as low as -38ºC and as high as 58ºC at a pressure of 10-6 Torr. The ATS …


Corgi: Compute Oriented Recumbent Generation Infrastructure, Christopher Allen Hunt Mar 2017

Corgi: Compute Oriented Recumbent Generation Infrastructure, Christopher Allen Hunt

Master's Theses

Creating a bicycle with a rideable geometry is more complicated than it may appear, with today’s mainstay designs having evolved through years of iteration. This slow evolution coupled with the bicycle’s intricate mechanical system has lead most builders to base their new geometries off of previous work rather than expand into new design spaces. This crutch can lead to slow bicycle iteration rates, often causing bicycles to all look about the same. To combat this, several bicycle design models have been created over the years, with each attempting to define a bicycle’s handling characteristics given its physical geometry. However, these …


The Effect Of Biocomposite Material In A Composite Structure Under Compression Loading, Benjamin Andrew Sweeney Feb 2017

The Effect Of Biocomposite Material In A Composite Structure Under Compression Loading, Benjamin Andrew Sweeney

Master's Theses

While composite structures exhibit exceptional strength and weight saving possibilities for engineering applications, sometimes their overall cost and/or material performance can limit their usage when compared to conventional structural materials. Meanwhile ‘biocomposites’, composite structures consisting of natural fibers (i.e. bamboo fibers), display higher cost efficiency and unique structural benefits such as ‘sustainability’. This analysis will determine if the integration of these two different types of composites are beneficial to the overall structure. Specifically, the structure will consist of a one internal bamboo veneer biocomposite ply; and two external carbon fiber weave composite plies surrounding the bamboo biocomposite. To acquire results …