Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Jcati Carbon Fiber Recycler: Oven Enclosure, Margarita Romero

All Undergraduate Projects

Central Washington University partners with Boeing and is funded by the Joint Center of Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI) to develop a mechanism that takes carbon fiber wing trimmings from Boeing that are resin coated and recycles carbon fiber. This is done by crushing the wing trimmings and then putting it into a 500°C oven to melt off the resin. This project focuses on the enclosure for the oven and making sure precautions are met such as having the outside surface be less than 45c through heat transfer analysis, argon fills enclosure in 13 minutes through fluid dynamics analysis, and 99% …

Pulse Decay Thermal Conductivity Device, Matthew Schrenk

All Undergraduate Projects

Currently, there are several ways in which thermal conductivity can be calculated or assessed on a given material. However, with each method of testing comes potential limitations such as size, material state, complexity, and time. The goal of this study was to develop a pulse heated thermistor that would reduce all four limitations, thus provide precise and timely results regardless of the material state and size. A thermistor is resistor which changes resistance in accordance to temperature. To achieve the design, heat transfer and electrical methods were applied. As with all resistors, heat is dissipated across the element and released …

Thermal Conductivity Measuring System (Tcoms), Lucas Hill

All Undergraduate Projects

The Mechanical Engineering Technology department at Central Washington University is lacking a method to reliably measure the thermal conductivity of bulk materials, with dimensions of at least a 1 cm radius, within a teaching environment. Thermal Conductivity Measuring System (TCoMS) will be a useful tool to perform these measurements as it is able to obtain measurement readings for materials between 0 C and 50 C within 20 seconds. TCoMS will accomplish this by using the pulse decay method of measuring thermal conductivity, a form of transient heat transfer analysis. This method is performed by generating a pulse of heat at …

Jcati Pyrolysis System, Jack Dutton

All Undergraduate Projects

The Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI) project is designed to recycle carbon fiber pieces for use in manufacturing. Part of the system requires the removal of resin from the carbon fibers to facilitate the recycling of carbon fiber. To accomplish this task the pyrolysis process is implemented using a commercial grade oven with a conveyor system. Argon gas is injected into the shroud and over the oven to purge the interior of oxygen. The conveyor system enables this to be a batch process. A ramp is used to allow simple addition of material to the conveyor system and …

Forge Burner, Caleb Desjardins

All Undergraduate Projects

Can small scale blacksmithing operations achieve a level of efficiency in their forge comparable to that of a large scale industry? The causes for the lack of efficiency needed to be pinpointed, and then the geometry of the existing design for the burner could be changed to fix the underlying issues, while still maintaining functionality. The problems with the previous design is the geometry of the intake giving an unknown air/fuel ratio, and the attachment of to the forge allowing the intake air to be contaminated by exhaust gasses. A burner needed to be designed that would solve these problems …

Composite Recycler: Frame, Alfonso Olivera

All Undergraduate Projects

How can composites be recycled? The Composite Recycler is an ongoing project that started in September 2017. The purpose of this project was to create a machine that will delaminate the composites, cut them, and heat them up to separate the resin from the composites so they can be recycled. A group was put together for the 2018-2019 academic year to further the project as a whole improve the operation of the device. The existing base was used as well as the cutter and the power sources. The upgrades included; a housing to support the transport rollers and changing from …

Heat Transfer Vest, Nicholas Forsgaard

All Undergraduate Projects

The purpose of this report is to document the progression of the authors senior project. . The of that project was the research of Liquid Cooled Garment (LCG) technology, the generation of a novel LCG prototype and the testing of that prototype relative to a commercial benchmark. As such, this report is a complete narrative of the of these tasks, their execution and the underlying assumptions and commentary. The motivation for this report is to satisfy the capstone requirements of the MET program at CWU by documenting the Senior Project and its subordinate tasks. First, the student designed a LCG …

Instant Hot Water Heater, Hunter Arnold

All Undergraduate Projects

One of the first steps in the beer brewing process is to heat water to a specific temperature before it is mixed with the malt. The purpose of this project was to make a more compact and efficient heating device for the beer brewing process. The output temperature must be between 170⁰F and 180⁰F. The minimum flow rate should be half a gallon per minute with the maximum flow rate of three gallons per minute. The device will also need to mount to a collapsible beer rack being designed by Andrew Kastning. The device will be primarily compromised of two …

Beer Rack On Demand Water Heater, Jason Warenski

All Undergraduate Projects

On-Demand Water Heater (for homebrewing systems)

By Jason Warenski (Engineering Technologies)

The on-demand water heater is being built for a home brewing system. The is intended to improve brewing process efficiency while reducing the footprint of the brewing equipment. The device contains a coil made from 3/8” soft copper tubing. The coil is inserted into a housing which is constructed of two 22-gauge stainless steel cylinders and a layer of ceramic insulation. Attached to the inlet and outlet of the coil are monitoring and control devices. On the inlet is a water flow meter which allows the user to monitor …

Solar Thermal Collector, Hazel Tickner, Tyson Nakamura

All Undergraduate Projects

During the course of this project, a solar thermal collector and supporting stand were designed and manufactured to be used during Mechanical Engineering Technology labs. Students will be able to use the collector to heat water, with the sun being the only heat source. The collector was designed by calculating surface area limitations, estimated solar input, and desired efficiency, to find the required water flow rate. From there, the necessary pipe lengths and diameters were determined, and the solar thermal collector was constructed. Two pipe paths were manufactured: a curved path, and a manifold path. Students will be able to …