Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Discrete Event Simulation In Manufacturing Environments: The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Benjamin Thomas Burnette

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to construct a discrete event model of the waste handling activities inside of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in order to examine "what-if" scenarios designed to increase the rate at which waste is disposed.

The discrete event modeling software EXTEND was chosen by Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) because of its ease of use, flexibility, ability to customize, and low cost. Historical and observed data were used to construct, verify, and validate the resulting model. Verification ensures that the model works as programmed, and validation ensures the real world system is truly being modeled …

Scale Model Investigations Of The Effects Of Flow Conditioning Devices, Grady P. Saunders

Masters Theses

A scale model was constructed of a portion of a supersonic wind tunnel to perform experiments on various flow conditioning devices. The various devices researched were: swirl vanes, screens, honeycombs, and various combinations thereof. Each flow conditioning device was analyzed to show its effect on total pressure profiles, static pressure profiles, test section flow angularity, test section turbulence, and acoustic noise. Of most concern are the effects flow conditioning devices have on temporal fluctuation of previously mentioned parameters.

The data from these experiments were used as the basis for selecting a screen-honeycomb combination to be installed in the full-scale tunnel. …

Determination Of The Performance Of A Prototype Turbx Engine, Kurt Erickson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to develop a testing procedure to measure the performance of a prototype TurbX. engine. Dr. Michael A. Wilson invented a new concept internal combustion engine called TurbX. and it is said to have higher efficiency and fuel economy compared to other engines. Theoretically, the TurbX. engine cycle can be ideally represented by the Atkinson thermodynamic cycle with a continuous combustion process.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of Tennessee, Knoxville joined together to conduct tests to determine the performance of the TurbX. engine. A total of 26 fired test runs were conducted to …

Heat Release Analysis And Modeling For A Common-Rail Diesel Engine, M. Rajkumar

Masters Theses

The main purpose of this study was to perform a heat release analysis in order to formulate a heat-release model for a common-rail diesel engine. The fundamental idea of the model is to describe the observed physical processes with empirical formulas based on the experimental data.

A Fiat 2.4Liter common rail engine was used in the tests. A rotary incremental encoder with 0.1° resolution was coupled to the crankshaft pulley with a special adapter. The engine was operated at a number of different speeds and load conditions. Cylinder pressure data was recorded using a high-speed data acquisition system. The data …

An Experimental And Numerical Study Of Open Cavity Flows, Sekhar Radhakrishnan

Doctoral Dissertations

This work is part of an ongoing study aimed at understanding of cavity flow oscillations. An experimental setup was designed, constructed, and tested to measure the Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) on the floor of four cavities, and to quantitatively visualize the flow-field inside the cavity. Measurements were made for a fixed cavity width by depth ratio of 3.33, for four length by depth (L/D) ratios of 2.0, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5. Using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), the cavity velocity fields were obtained at subsonic speeds ranging from Mach 0.3 to Mach 0.6. Numerical simulations were performed for cavity geometry configurations …