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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Photochemical Etching Of Nitrided Stainless Steel Piston Rings, Steven Sonntag Dec 2018

Photochemical Etching Of Nitrided Stainless Steel Piston Rings, Steven Sonntag

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Piston rings are designed to provide a seal between the piston and the cylinder wall of internal combustion engines, keeping oil from the crankcase from getting into the combustion chamber. This means piston rings are the main point of contact between the piston and the cylinder wall, which causes the piston to experience high amounts of friction and wear. By texturing the surfaces of the cylinder wall and/or the piston ring, the amount of contact area can be reduced, allowing for less friction, slower wear, and better gas mileage. In this thesis experiments, photochemical etching processes were developed to etch …


Incorporation Of Silica Nanoparticles Into The Underlayer Of Pda/Ptfe Thin Coatings, Adedoyin Abe Aug 2018

Incorporation Of Silica Nanoparticles Into The Underlayer Of Pda/Ptfe Thin Coatings, Adedoyin Abe

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is one of the most low friction and corrosion resistant solid lubricants. Prior studies have shown that a polydopamine (PDA) underlayer enhances the durability of PTFE thin coating. In this study, 100, 200, and 300 µL of aqueous silica nanoparticle (NP) solutions were added to the PDA deposition solution. The durability and coefficient of friction of PDA/PTFE thin coatings on stainless steel substrates are investigated with and without incorporating the silica NPs. The coatings were tested in dry contact conditions using a Universal Mechanical Tester (UMT) with a ball-on-flat configuration in a reciprocating motion. It was found that …


A Nanoindentation Study Of The Fatigue Properties Of Al/A-Si Core-Shell Nanostructures, Jason Steck May 2018

A Nanoindentation Study Of The Fatigue Properties Of Al/A-Si Core-Shell Nanostructures, Jason Steck

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nanostructure-textured surfaces can reduce friction and increase the reliability of micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS). For MEMS incorporating moving parts, the fatigue properties of nanostructures pose a challenge to their reliability in long-term applications. In this study, the fatigue behavior of hemispherical Al/a-Si core-shell nanostructures (CSNs), bare hemispherical Al nanodots, and a flat Al/a-Si layered thin film have been studied using nanoindentation and nano-scale dynamic mechanical analysis (nano-DMA) techniques. Fatigue testing with nano-DMA shows that the deformation resistance of CSNs persists through 5.0 × 104 loading cycles at estimated contact pressures greater than 15 GPa. When the a-Si shell …


Polytetraflouroethylene Thin Coatings For Tribological Applications, Samuel L. Jenkins May 2016

Polytetraflouroethylene Thin Coatings For Tribological Applications, Samuel L. Jenkins

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mechanical components with lower coefficients of friction decrease the amount of energy dissipated by the system due to friction. Coating these components would decrease the coefficients of friction between surfaces without sacrificing the strength of the components. A polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) layer adhered through a polydopamine (PDA) layer on a steel substrate will reduce the coefficient of friction on the substrate surface. This paper discusses different methods for attempting to increase the uniformity of the PDA layer as well as decrease the PDA coating time. Methods for increasing uniformity include using a particle disperser instead of a magnet stir rod, changing …