Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Thermal Transport In Lithium Ion Batteries: An Experimental Investigation Of Interfaces And Granular Materials, Aalok Jaisheela Uday Gaitonde

Open Access Theses

Increasing usage and recent accidents due to lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries exploding or catching on fire has inspired research on the characterization and thermal management of these batteries. In cylindrical 18650 cells, heat generated during the battery's charge/discharge cycle is poorly dissipated to the surrounding through its metallic case due to the poor thermal conductivity of the jelly roll, which is spirally wound with many interfaces between electrodes and the polymeric separator. This work presents a technique to measure the thermal conduction across the metallic case-plastic separator interface, which ultimately limits heat transfer out of the jelly roll.

The polymeric separator …

Dynamic Modeling And Validation Of Micro-Chp Systems, Apurva Badithela, Neera Jain, Austin Nash

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Micro-Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) units locally generate electricity to simultaneously provide power and heat for residential buildings. Apart from the potential benefits of reducing carbon emissions and increasing robustness to brownouts and blackouts, micro-CHP systems can be controlled to meet energy demands. Micro-CHP systems consist of a prime mover that generates electricity, such as a fuel cell, an internal combustion engine, or a Stirling engine, and a waste heat recovery system that enables utilization of heat generated as a byproduct of electricity generation. Often, a thermal energy storage system is integrated with micro-CHP systems, thereby decoupling, in time, the …

Dynamic Modeling Of Contact-Mode Triboelectric Generators By Lagrange’S Equations, Sean M. Gauntt, James Gibert

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Electret based energy scavenging devices utilize electrostatic induction to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Uses for these devices include harvesting ambient energy in the environment and acting as sensors for a range of applications. These types of devices have been used in MEMS applications for over a decade. However, recently there is an interest in Triboelectric generators/harvesters, i.e., electret based harvesters that relies on triboelectrification as well as electrostatic induction. The literature is filled with a variety of designs for the latter devices, constructed from materials ranging from paper and thin films; rendering the generators lightweight, flexible and inexpensive. …

A Fast Model For The Simulation Of External Gear Pumps, Zechao Lu, Xinran Zhao, Andrea Vacca

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

External gear pump is an important category of positive displacement fluid machines used to perform the mechanical–hydraulic energy conversions in many fluid power applications. An efficient numerical simulation program is needed to simulate the system in order to provide a direction for design purpose. The model consists of a lumped parameter fluid dynamic model and a model that simulates the radial micro-motions of the gear’s axes of rotation. The system consists of a set of ordinary differential equations related to the conservation on mass of the internal control volumes of the pump, which are given by the tooth space volumes …

Dynamic Behavior Of A Clamped-Clamped Bi-Stable Laminate For Energy Harvesting, Ajay V. Kumar, Andres F. Arrieta Ph.D., Myungwon Hwang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Multi-stable laminates have many applications in morphing structures, energy harvesting devices, and metamaterials due to the specific characteristics attributed to the exhibited stable states. Changes between stable states allow for large deflections, on-demand variation of the stiffness of compliant structures embedded within these elements, and control of effective dynamic properties in periodic lattices. These changes in state can be accessed via a snap-through instability triggered by introducing a well-defined activation energy. The resulting oscillations could enable broadband energy harvesting via piezoelectric transduction and resistive circuits. In this paper, a clamped-clamped bi-stable laminate is studied to understand the behavior of the …

Parametric And Design Analysis On Thermoelectric Generators, Shouyuan Huang

Open Access Theses

In facing the limited energy source reserves and environmental problems, thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are one of the promising waste heat recovery systems. The modern TEGs for exhaust stream (e.g. from automobiles) can improve the fuel economy by around 5%, taking advantage of the recent developed thermoelectric (TE) materials.

In this work, we aimed at designing a TEG as an add-on module for a gas-phase heat exchanger with maximized power output, and without negative impact (e.g. maintaining a minimum heat dissipation rate from the hot side). We first developed a parametric optimization algorithm using response surface method (RSM) and genetic algorithm …

Development Of Distributed Off-Grid Renewable Energy System For Rural African Communities, Mateo Sebastian Guerrero, Menghong Feng

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

Our Hybrid Energy System team is committed to develop low-cost renewable energy solutions to rural African communities where access to electricity from government grid is not available. According to a World Bank’s report, only 24% of sub-Saharan countries have access to electricity. Our team has been working with local partners to build renewable energy systems since 2008. From 2015 the team has been working on micro hydropower turbine and vertical-axis wind turbine with solar energy system combined. Our current efforts include a prototype design of a wind-solar system, using a new concept of vertical axis wind turbine to harvest wind …