Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Simulated And Phantom Detection Of Microscopic Targets By Raman Spectroscopy, Jordyn Hales

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The goal of this study is to determine the minimum spatial sampling resolution required to accurately detect microscopic targets within a sample using Raman spectroscopy. The resolution depends on the light scattering properties of the material. We use Monte Carlo simulations to study how measurement geometry and optical properties of a sample affect the Raman signal detected from an embedded target. We confirm these results using polystyrene beads embedded in artificial tissue phantoms.

Identifying Carbon Structure Via Raman Spectroscopy, Nathaniel Bunker

Utah Space Grant Consortium

• Raman Spectroscopy: a method to determine molecular composition.
• Graphene: a conductive, strong, and lightweight material.
• Our Setup: meant for examining biological samples, not optimized for graphene analysis.

Byu 2021 High Power Rocketry Team, Ryan Thibaudeau, Ryan Merrell

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Project Objective

Design, build and test a high-power rocket that is capable of carrying a 4 kg payload to 10,000 feet AGL with a commercial motor with less than 40,960 N_-S of impulse.

Project Background

The BYU Rocketry Association competes annually in the Spaceport America Cup's International Rocket Engineering Competition. Previous rockets have flown to within 500 feet of the target with a variety of payloads.

Mapping Relative Sand Abundance, Ice-Rich Regions, And Linear Dune Properties Of Titan, Ben Lake, Delaney Rose

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The equatorial regions of Titan are dominated by linear dune fields made of complex organic particles [1, 2] and have many similarities to terrestrial dunes such as those found in the Namib Sand Sea [1, 3]. Previous studies of Titan’s sand seas included mapping sand sea margins [4, 5, 6, 7] and some dune tracing, but did not involve mapping relative sand abundances. Our work involves mapping relative sand abundances coupled with relative abundances of water ice, as well as more detailed mapping of linear dune morphology.

Lunar Mining: Designing A Versatile Robotic Mining System, James Ehlers, Alexander Charters, Joshua Miraglia, Rian Simpson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining in a simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (simulated with gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface.

A Preliminary Approach To Select An Origami Source Pattern For Deployable Space Arrays, Diana S. Bolanos

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This paper presents a systematic approach for selecting an origami pattern for deployable space array applications. A wide variety of origami patterns exist, thereby introducing a daunting task to decide on which pattern is most suitable for the application at hand. Similarly, different space missions present varying requirements. The focus of this paper is to provide aerospace engineers and designers with a framework for identifying optimal origami source models for space array applications.

Assessing Thickness Accommodation Techniques For Deployable Hexagonal Origami Space Arrays, Collin Ynchausti

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Origami-based and origami-inspired designs provide paths to achieve highly compact, stowable designs, that can be deployed to large surface areas. This potential is highly beneficial to the area of space antennas and LIDAR as these require compact stowing in a launch payload, but large apertures when deployed in space. Because the engineering materials used to build these antennas are thick, thickness accommodation techniques must be applied to realize the same folding motions as the zero-thickness models. This paper presents a hexagonal twist origami pattern in thick materials using three different thickness accommodation techniques. These techniques are compared. The metrics used …

Electromagnetic 3d Printing For Responsive Architectures With An Orthogonal Magnetic Field, Brian Elder

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The integration of nanomaterials with 3D printing can enable the creation of responsive architecture with highly tunable functional properties. Magnetic nanopatterning is attractive for its ability to produce untethered, high energy density actuation with a broad range of applications. For example, biocompatible materials (such as silicone rubber) can be programmed in an extrusion-based 3D printing process to create a responsive medical soft robot structure.

Defect Detection Limits For Additively Manufactured Parts Using Current Thermography Techniques, Nicholas J. Wallace

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Additive manufacturing (AM) will support NASA in their moon and mars missions by reducing the amount of redundant equipment carried into space and by providing crew members with the flexibility to design and create parts as needed. The ability to monitor the quality of these additively manufactured parts is critical, especially when using recycled or in-situ materials as NASA plans to do. This project assesses the possibility of detecting small, shallow AM defects with existing active thermography techniques. An axisymmetric, numerical model was created in COMSOL to simulate the heat transfer within AM structures during active thermography. The effects of …

Aerodynamic Interactions Of Synchronized Propellers, Nathan Welker

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Emerging advances in electric-propulsion technology are enabling aircraft to use distributed electric propulsion (DEP) to increase efficiency and maneuverability. Distributed electric propulsion can also provide unique take-off and landing abilities which are not commonly found on traditional aircraft. The implementation of DEP effectively decreases the spacing between propellers, introducing complex aerodynamic interactions that are not well understood. This study aims to obtain experimental measurements of the flow fields of synchronized propellers at close-proximity in a side-by-side configuration using both 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) and 3D stereoscopic PIV (SPIV) in a wind tunnel. The results of this work will be …

Development Of A Variable Extensometer Method For Measuring Ductility Scaling Parameters, Adam J. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ductility is the measure of how much a material can stretch before separation. It is usually measured in percent elongation, which is the amount a material stretches divided by its original length before stretching. This is an important property to understand for both the design for performance and safety. A material’s ductility can be influenced by several factors including heat treatment, machining, temperature, and radiation dose. Materials used in nuclear energy facilities are often exposed to all these factors, and it is important to be able to understand ductility at each possible combination.

Ductility is usually characterized through tension tests …

Modeling, Simulation And Optimization Of Nuclear Hybrid Energy Systems Using Openmodelica And Raven, Stephen Michael Hills

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nuclear hybrid energy systems (NHES) are a viable option to combine renewable energy sources, such as wind, with a less fluctuating energy source. Given recent development and their inherent safer and modular design, small modular reactors (SMRs), which are smaller versions of a nuclear reactor, can play an instrumental role in complementing renewables and supporting carbon-free power sectors in the coming decades. With increasing population and demand for clean water, Freeze desalination (FD), which uses freezing to separate water from salt, is a possible way to produce clean water while converting excess power from a SMR into stored thermal energy …

Sonic Boom Loudness Reduction Through Localized Supersonic Aircraft Equivalent-Area Changes, Troy A. Abraham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) titled “Adaptive Aerostructures for Revolutionary Civil Supersonic Transportation” looks to study the feasibility of distributed structural adaptivity on a supersonic aircraft for maintaining acceptable en-route sonic boom loudness during overland flight. The ULI includes a team of industry and university partners that are working together to develop and implement the systems necessary to accomplish this goal.

The Utah State University Aerolab is a member of this ULI team and has been tasked with developing and using low-fidelity supersonic aerodynamic and sonic boom predictions tools to rapidly study the effects of localized geometry changes on …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Benchmark Validation Experiment Of Plenum-To-Plenum Flow Through Vertical Heated Parallel Channels, Austin W. Parker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The next generation of nuclear power plants will have higher efficiency and improved safety, among other benefits; one attractive option is the high temperature gas reactor. An ability to predict the physics that occur within the reactor under normal conditions and accident scenarios is necessary before it receives regulatory licensing for use. The flow through a high temperature gas reactor involves complex interactions of heat transfer, fluids, and solids.

One method for simulating complex fluid dynamics is called Computational Fluid Dynamics. These simulations have already been used to predict the complex fluid flows found in high temperature gas reactors. Predicting …

Low-Fidelity Method For Rapid Aerostructural Optimisation And Design-Space Exploration Of Planar Wings, Jeffrey D. Taylor, Doug F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

During early phases of wing design, analytic and low-fidelity methods are often used to identify promising design concepts. In many cases, solutions obtained using these methods provide intuition about the design space that is not easily obtained using higher-fidelity methods. This is especially true for aerostructural design. However, many analytic and low-fidelity aerostructural solutions are limited in application to wings with specific planforms and weight distributions. Here, a numerical method for minimising induced drag with structural constraints is presented that uses approximations that apply to unswept planar wings with arbitrary planforms and weight distributions. The method is applied to the …

3d-Printed Wings With Morphing Trailing-Edge Technology, Benjamin C. Moulton, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

In recent years, various groups have attempted to improve aircraft efficiency using wings with morphing trailing-edge technology. Most of these solutions are difficult to manufacture or have limited morphing capability. The present paper outlines a research effort to develop an easy to manufacture, fully 3D-printed morphing wing. This approach is advantageous due to the low cost, minimal man-hours required for manufacturing, and speed at which design iterations can be explored. Several prototypes were designed and tested and lessons learned from these iterations have been documented. Additionally, printer settings have been tested and catalogued to assist others attempting to reproduce these …

Sensitivity And Estimation Of Flying-Wing Aerodynamic, Propulsion, And Inertial Parameters Using Simulation, Jaden Thurgood, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

This paper explores the difficulties of aircraft system identification, specifically parameter estimation, for a rudderless aircraft. A white box method is used in conjunction with a nonlinear six degree-of-freedom aerodynamic model for the equations of motion in order to estimate 33 parameters that govern the aerodynamic, inertial, and propulsion forces within the mathematical model. The analysis is conducted in the time-domain of system identification. Additionally, all the parameters are estimated using a single flight rather than a series of shorter flights dedicated to estimating specific sets of parameters as is typically done. A final flight plan is developed with a …

Practical Implementation Of A General Numerical Lifting-Line Method, Cory D. Goates, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

A general numerical lifting-line method provides corrections to overcome the singularities inherent in the lifting-line downwash integrals in certain cases. These singularities have previously limited the scope of lifting-line theory to straight wings not in sideslip; in all other cases, more traditional numerical approaches to solving Prandtl's hypothesis fail to grid converge. However, this general numerical lifting-line method grid converges even for swept wings and wings in sideslip. In the current work, we apply the general numerical lifting-line method to any number of wings with arbitrary geometry. We also provide a dimensional derivation of the basic general numerical lifting-line equations …

Characterization Of The Common Research Model Wing For Low-Fidelity Aerostructural Analysis, Jeffrey D. Taylor, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

A characterization of the Common Research Model (CRM) wing for low-fidelity aerostructural optimization is presented. The geometric and structural properties are based on the CAD geometries and finite-element models for the CRM wing and the undeflected Common Research Model Wing (uCRM). Three approximations are presented for the elastic axis from previously-published studies on wing boxes similar to the uCRM, and approximations of the flexural and torsional rigidity are presented from a previously-published study using the uCRM wing. The characterization presented in this paper is intended to be used within low-fidelity aerostructural analysis tools to facilitate rapid design optimization and exploratory …

Comparison Of Theoretical And High-Fidelity Aerostructural Solutions, Jeffrey D. Taylor, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

As contemporary aerostructural research in aircraft design trends toward high-fidelity computational methods, aerostructural solutions based on theory are often neglected or forgotten. In fact, in many modern aerostructural wing optimization studies, the elliptic lift distribution is used as a benchmark in place of theoretical aerostructural solutions with more appropriate constraints. In this paper, we review several theoretical aerostructural solutions that could be used as benchmark cases for wing design studies, and we compare them to high-fidelity solutions with similar constraints. Solutions are presented for studies with 1) constraints related to the wing integrated bending moment, 2) constraints related to the …

Open Source Software Problems In Heat Transfer To Explore Assumptions And Models, Benjamin Pepper, Amir Behbahanian, Nick Roberts

Course Materials

Energy2D software can be downloaded here: http://energy.concord.org/energy2d/

After opening the application, choose File -> Open and select one of the .e2d files available for download here under additional files. Click the Run button to get started.

The main download has a document that provides a detailed description of the adaptation of a freely available software program, Energy2D, for problems focused on the exploration and limitations of assumptions made in models commonly used in an undergraduate heat transfer course. The motivation for creating homework problems that use Energy2D is to explore the accuracy and limitations of the models used in heat …

The Earliest Drawings Of Dogs, Myles Bradley

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The oldest depictions of dogs ever found are over 8,000 years old, found carved into a cliff in the desert of Saudi Arabia. Studies show, however, that dogs are found coexisting with humans as far back as 30,000 years ago. If this is the case, "Why does it take so long for dogs to appear in human artwork?" Dogs have certainly been an integral part of human society for almost as long as they've been around, so what do these early images reveal about the ancient relationship between dogs and man? This paper explores possible answers to both of these …

Static Heat Exchanger For The Wireless Charging Of Electric Vehicles, James Mullen

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The USU College of Engineering partnered with the Aspire NSF Engineering Research Center to develop wireless charging pads for electric vehicles. These concrete pads, when placed in roadways, charge the batteries of electric vehicles that pass over them. As the pads charge vehicles, they produce excessive thermal energy (heat), which dissipates slowly through the surrounding concrete. This excess heat reduces the efficiency of the charging apparatus and can damage the imbedded electrical components. To manage the pad temperatures, the USU Nanoscale Thermal Energy Lab proposed to submerge the heat-generating elements in a Phase Change Material (PCM). As a solid, a …

The Dog As A Trend In Art, Whitney Stewart

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

I have always believed that art is one of the biggest forms of communication and signs of cultural assimilation and it has been throughout history. I choose to explore the role that dogs play in this theme. From changes in the symbolism of the dog and the ethics of breeding, art reveals a lot about our furry friends. While I learn much about dogs by themselves, the way we represent them also says a lot about our society. Do we see animals as more than us in some way and less in others? Is a dog painting really about the …

Data From: Computational Fluid Dynamics Benchmark Validation Experiment Of Plenum-To-Plenum Flow Through Vertical Heated Parallel Channels, Austin W. Parker, Barton L. Smith

Browse all Datasets

This research is focused on the thermal mixing region of parallel jets entering an upper plenum. The highly-coupled thermal-fluid physics are relevant to plenum-to-plenum flow in High Temperature Gas Reactors such as thermal striping phenomena. Experimentally measured boundary conditions and system response quantities for use in Computational Fluid Dynamics were tabulated and published for public use.

Molecular Mechanisms And Design Of Hydrogen-Bonded Materials For Thermal Applications, Jinlong He

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Heat transfer at the nanoscale plays an important role in determining the reliability and performance of many innovative advanced materials technologies such as nanoelectronics, semiconductor, biomedical devices, polymers, and composites. Extensive efforts have been made to design materials with extraordinary thermal properties. However, fundamental understanding of heat transfer in many of these materials is still not lacking, because the thermal transport processes are governed by several factors including molecular morphology and chemical bonding. Among these factors, the atomic bonding between two dissimilar materials or within single materials is of particular interest due to its ubiquity and importance in physical processes. …

Coin Recovery Ii, Carly Lofthouse

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Western Metals Recycling (WMR), a subsidiary of NUCOR Steel, is a metals recycling company with a location in Plymouth, Utah. At Plymouth, a 50 NT/hr. non-ferrous recovery plant uses eddy current technology to generate a non-ferrous product called zorba. Zorba is a mix of aluminum, copper, brass, zinc, printed circuit boards, coins, lead, and the like. (Figure 1) The market value of zorba varies but generally ranges from $0.30 to $0.50 per pound. The value of the coins (not including pennies) is much higher than zorba price. The team's objective is to upgrade and optimize the existing trommel equipment to …

Modeling And Simulation Of A Supercritical Co2-Liquid Sodium Compact Heat Exchanger For Sodium Fast Reactors, Hailei Wang, Sean M. Kissick

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The study focuses on modeling and simulations of sodium-sCO2 intermediary compact heat exchangers for sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFR). A simplified 1-D analytical model was developed in companion with a 3-D CFD model. Using classic heat transfer correlations for Nusselt number, some simulation results using the 1-D model have achieved reasonable match with the CFD simulation results for longer channels (i.e., 40 cm and 80 cm). However, for short channel (10 cm) when axial conduction within the sodium fluid is significant, the 1-D model significantly over-predicted the heat transfer effectiveness. By incorporating the temperature-jump model, the 1-D model can extend its …

Minimum Induced Drag For Tapered Wings Including Structural Constraints, Jeffrey D. Taylor, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

LIFTING-LINE theory [1,2] is the foundation for much of our understanding of finite-wing aerodynamics. Solutions based on lifting-line theory are widely accepted and have been shown to be in good agreement with CFD [3-10]. From Prandtl’s analytic solution to the classical lifting-line equation [1,2], the wing section-lift distribution can be expressed as a Fourier series of the form [11]

bL^~ (θ)/L = (4/π)[sin(θ) + Σ^∞_n-2 B_nsin(nθ)]; θ = cos^-1(-2z/b) (1)

where b is the wingspan, L^~ is the local wing section lift, L is the total wing lift, z is the spanwise …

Minimising Induced Drag With Weight Distribution, Lift Distribution, Wingspan, And Wing-Structure Weight, Warren F. Phillips, Douglas F. Hunsaker, Jeffrey D. Taylor

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Because the wing-structure weight required to support the critical wing section bending moments is a function of wingspan, net weight, weight distribution, and lift distribution, there exists an optimum wingspan and wing-structure weight for any fixed net weight, weight distribution, and lift distribution, which minimises the induced drag in steady level flight. Analytic solutions for the optimum wingspan and wing-structure weight are presented for rectangular wings with four different sets of design constraints. These design constraints are fixed lift distribution and net weight combined with 1) fixed maximum stress and wing loading, 2) fixed maximum deflection and wing loading, 3) …