Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Historic Calculator Project, Will Harris, Dan Marioni, Kevin Webb, Chad Williams

Mechanical Engineering

The Deutsches Museum of Munich, Germany requested add-on components to their mechanical calculator exhibit. The end-goal is to produce an interactive 3D model in software to demonstrate the functions of the Braun-Vayringe Machine (BVM). There will be four students working on this project at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo: two mechanical engineers (Dan Marioni and Will Harris) and two computer engineers (Chad Williams and Kevin Webb).This project involves the coordination of three facilities; the Deutsches Museum, and the Mechanical and Computer Science Departments of Cal Poly. The name of the project is known as the Historic Calculator Project …

Lectio Praecursoria, Kari Myöhänen

Kari Myöhänen

Lectio praecursoria: Modelling of combustion and sorbent reactions in three-dimensional flow environment of a circulating fluidized bed furnace

Predicting The Acoustic Response Of The Golf Club & Ball Impact Using Finite Elements And The Boundary Element Method, Scott Henry Moreira

Master's Theses

An improved and repeatable method for meshing golf club heads using finite elements in TrueGrid® was developed. Using solid brick elements through the thickness of the club head instead of shell elements better represents the many thickness variations throughout each section of a club head. This method also results in a high quality mesh at the center of the club head sections while still maintaining high quality at the edges. A simulation procedure was also developed to predict the acoustic pressure at a designated point in an acoustic medium of a golf club and ball impact using the BEM and …

Seamless Bridge And Roadway System For The U.S. Practice, Nima Ala

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Expansion joints are one of the main causes for high maintenance costs in bridges. The search for ideal expansion joints has proven fruitless. That is why it has been said that “the best joint is no joint”. A seamless bridge system is envisioned that results in bridges with long service lives by eliminating the joints over the entire length of the bridge, approach slab and a segment of the roadway called transition. All bridge thermal movements are dissipated to zero in the transition. The system is similar to a system developed in Australia but modifications had to be made to …

Vibration-Based Health Monitoring Of Multiple-Stage Gear Train And Differential Planetary Transmission Involving Teeth Damage And Backlash Nonlinearity, Andrew Patrick Sommer

Master's Theses

The objective of this thesis is to develop vibration-based fault detection strategies for on-line condition monitoring of gear transmission systems. The study divides the thesis into three sections. First of all, the local stresses created by a root fatigue crack on a pinion spur gear are analyzed using a quasi-static finite element model and non-linear contact mechanics simulation. Backlash between gear teeth which is essential to provide better lubrication on tooth surfaces and to eliminate interference is included as a defect and a necessary part of transmission design. The second section is dedicated to fixed axis power trains. Torsional vibration …

Surface Reconstruction From Unorganized Point Cloud Data Via Progressive Local Mesh Matching, Ji Ma

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis presents an integrated triangle mesh processing framework for surface reconstruction based on Delaunay triangulation. It features an innovative multi-level inheritance priority queuing mechanism for seeking and updating the optimum local manifold mesh at each data point. The proposed algorithms aim at generating a watertight triangle mesh interpolating all the input points data when all the fully matched local manifold meshes (umbrellas) are found. Compared to existing reconstruction algorithms, the proposed algorithms can automatically reconstruct watertight interpolation triangle mesh without additional hole-filling or manifold post-processing. The resulting surface can effectively recover the sharp features in the scanned physical object …

Structural Analyses Of Wind Turbine Tower For 3 Kw Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine, Tae Gyun Gwon

Master's Theses

Structure analyses of a steel tower for Cal Poly's 3 kW small wind turbine is presented. First, some general design aspects of the wind turbine tower are discussed: types, heights, and some other factors that can be considered for the design of wind turbine tower. Then, Cal Poly's wind turbine tower design is presented, highlighting its main design features. Secondly, structure analysis for Cal Poly's wind turbine tower is discussed and presented. The loads that are specific to the wind turbine system and the tower are explained. The loads for the static analysis of the tower were calculated as well. …

Fracture Analyses Of Aging Aircraft Structures And Human Aorta, Ananth Ram Mahanth Kasavajhala

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding the behavior of fracture due to preliminary flaws in materials is essential to escalate the life and reliability of a structure. The present work is focused on investigating the influence of various structural parameters on the pre-crack growth stress state, initiation and propagation of flaws in two distinct fields of engineering that is, aging aircraft structural repair (aerospace) and the human aortic dissection (life sciences). Three dimensional finite element methodologies, coupled with linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) formulation was utilized in both the cases.

A model of pre-cracked Al 7075 T6 plate was used to analyze pre- and post- …

Automating The Fret Slotting Process Using A Plc Controlled 1.5 Axis Mill, James Stratton

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Stratton, James A. M.S., Purdue University, August 2011. Automating the Fret Slotting Process Using a PLC Controlled 1.5 Axis CNC Mill. Major Professor: Richard Mark French.

Can automation assist small job shops and hobbyists in the production of stringed instruments? This research set out to answer the question using a quantitative approach to determine if an economical CNC machine could be produced in such a fashion as to seamlessly join the workshop as an affordable, yet precise instrument to aid in the production of stringed instruments. The key was to incorporate common industrial automation equipment into the operation of the …

Virtual Prototyping Of A Mechatronics Device, Ryne P. Mchugh

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

Mechanical, electrical, and embedded software engineering are being combined in modern products. This combination has come to be known as mechatronics. The high level of multidisciplinary interaction makes it difficult for collaboration and use of computers in Mechatronics’ design.

Dassault Systems’ SolidWorks and National Instruments’ LabVIEW are industrial grade softwares that can be used in the development and deployment phase of engineering design. SolidWorks is used for physical modeling and analysis of geometric parts, while LabVIEW is used as a programming language for control logic and data acquisition. National Instruments has developed a module, known as SoftMotion, which allows communication …

Thrust-Vector Control, Dane Larkin, Harsimran Singh

Mechanical Engineering

Mission Statement

The purpose of this project is to design, build, and test a thrust-vectoring rocket nozzle which will aid in controlling the trajectory of a solid-booster rocket. The system prototype must meet the requirements set forth by the sponsoring enterprise.

The Enterprise

Stellar Exploration is a small space systems technology company located in San Luis Obispo, CA. Stellar Exploration is currently seeking a thrust-vectoring system for its Silver Sword rocket.

Project Scope

The design and analysis portion of this project accounted for a system that would be mounted on to a rocket for operational flight. Therefore, this team has …

Port Flow Test System, Daniel Chairez, Chelsea E. Crawford, Daniel S. Welch

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines Gas Compressor Engineering Division of San Diego, California called upon the Mechanical Engineering students of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo to provide recommendations for optimization of compressor end cap port design. Various sizes of compressors have end caps with numerous ports that exchange fluids between the inside and outside of the working fluid pressure vessel. Because so many ports must exist on the end caps, unusual flow paths are created to supply the appropriate location within the compressor. These flow paths commonly consist of a drilled inlet hole which intersects with a sudden expansion. The sudden expansion …

Structure Climbing Monkey Robot, Paul Bessent

Master's Theses

This report describes the design, building, and testing of the Structure Climbing Monkey Robot (SCMR). It is composed of seven successive joints and linkages with two grippers at the two ends. Each gripper can act as the base or the end of the robot. The SCMR has the ability to climb any structure. The gripper plates can be changed to grab different kinds of structures, but this one is made to grab 2x4‘s. A program was written to assist the user to grab four non-coplanar, non-orthogonal points.

The SCMR is actuated by a total of nine motors: two to open …

Optimization And Modeling Tools For Telescope Hexapod Structures, Michael Edward Feeney

Master's Theses

Hexapod trusses are an important element in many mechanical design systems. The natural frequency and stiffness behavior under geometric and mass variations of such structures is largely undocumented. Furthermore, the ability to quickly model hexapod designs and explore a large design-space in finite element software packages is, in general, time consuming and inefficient. The purpose of this project was to develop software tools that made design-space exploration (modeling and simulation processes) for hexapod structures drastically more efficient. Secondly, the project included an experimental analysis portion to demonstrate the various modal study techniques and to validate finite element analysis predictions. Lastly, …

How Much Do U.S. University Students Know, And Want To Know, About Sustainability And Green Building? The Findings Of A Survey, And Possible Implications For General Elective Curricula., Jeremy R. Farner

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Using the survey approach, this investigation examined the attitudes and interest of college students at two universities in different geographic locations within the United States. Approximately 24,000 students from all disciplines and majors at Weber State University (WSU) in Utah, and 4,000 at Purdue University in Indiana, were invited to participate in a study to determine current knowledge, familiarity, and interest in topics within the sustainability and Green Building educational arena. The goal of this study was to determine what students already know, would like to know, and how much interest there would be in developing …

Solar Decathlon Controls, James Mitchel Routh, Travis Lathrop, Colby Jarrett, Zach Cross

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Mechatronics Application To Solar Tracking, Danny L. Rodriguez Jr

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

The purpose of this was to design and implement a two-axis solar tracking system utilizing the National Instruments C-Rio real time controller. In order to accomplish this a prototype was modeled in CAD. This prototype used two 12 V DC motors to change a solar panel's rotation and tilt based on feedback data from three cadmium sulfide photoresistors. This configuration was chosen for its ability to create both a left-right rotational and an up/down tilt differential. In Addition this approach uses National Instruments Labview to control a solar tracking system. Using Labview add uniqueness to this project by adding a …

Development Of A Novel Methodology For Indoor Emission Source Identification, Kwanghoon Han

Kwanghoon Han

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a methodology to identify individual sources of emissions based on the measurements of mixed air samples and the emission signatures of individual materials previously determined by Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS), an on-line analytical device. The methodology based on signal processing principles was developed by employing the method of multiple regression least squares (MRLS) and a normalization technique. Samples of nine typical building materials were tested individually and in combination, including carpet, ceiling material, gypsum board, linoleum, two paints, polyolefine, PVC and wood. Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions from each …

Numerical Investigation Of Gas-Particle Supersonic Flow, Mihir A. Samel

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Parallel Mesh Adaptation And Graph Analysis Using Graphics Processing Units, Timothy P. Mcguiness

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics, several types of mesh adaptation strategies are used to enhance a mesh’s quality, thereby improving simulation speed and accuracy. Mesh smoothing (r-refinement) is a simple and effective technique, where nodes are repositioned to increase or decrease local mesh resolution. Mesh partitioning divides a mesh into sections, for use on distributed-memory parallel machines. As a more abstract form of modeling, graph theory can be used to simulate many real-world problems, and has applications in the fields of computer science, sociology, engineering and transportation, to name a few. One of the more important graph analysis …

Applications Of A 3-D Cfb Model On Oxycombustion, Gasification And Calcinator In Calcium Looping, Kari Myöhänen, Timo Hyppänen, Markku Nikku, Matti Koski, Jarno Parkkinen

Kari Myöhänen

No abstract provided.

Termodynamika Procesowa (Dla Me Aparatura Procesowa) Ćw., Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

The Analysis Of Heat Transfer In A Gas-Gas Heat Exchanger Operated Under A Heat-Recirculating Mode, Mariusz Salaniec, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The present paper presents the analysis of heat transfer in a gas-gas heat exchanger operated in a heat-recirculating mode.

An Overview Of Technologies For Upgrading Of Biogas To Biomethane, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The present contribution presents an overview of technologies available for upgrading of biogas to biomethane. Technologies under study include pressure swing adsorption (PSA), high-pressure water wash (HPWW), reactive absorption (RA), physical absorption (PA), membrane separation (MS) and cryogenic separation (CS).

Influence Of Energy Policy On The Rate Of Implementation Of Biogas Power Plants In Germany During The 2001-2010 Decade, Izabela Chasiak, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The current article describes energy policy tools, which caused intensive development of biogas-based power generation in Germany during the 2001-2010 decade. The German system of financial support to biogas power plants is presented in details. It is shown that in Germany, i.e. in a country characterised by similar climate and potentials to renewable energy to Poland, biogas power plants cover 10,7% of electricity demands in 2010, while all renewable energy sources cover only 5,4% of electricity demands. It is emphasised that under favourable Polish energy policy, the development of biogas energy can be very rapid.

Design And Optimization Of A Wave Energy Harvester Utilizing A Flywheel Energy Storage System, Steven Alexander Helkin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis details the design and optimization of a buoy used to collect renewable energy from ocean waves. The proposed buoy is a point absorber—a device that transforms the kinetic energy of the vertical motion of surface waves into electrical energy. The focus of the research is on the mechanical system used to collect the energy, and methods to improve it for eventual use in an actual wave energy harvester. A flywheel energy storage system was utilized in order to provide an improved power output from the system, even with the intermittent input of force exerted by ocean waves. A …

Development Of Energy Absorbing Laminated Fiberglass Composites Using Electrospun Glass Nanofibers, Evan Kimbro

Dissertations

The ability to predict failure of composite laminates due to delaminations is critical because of its subsurface nature. Traditional strengthening methods such as stitching and Z-pinning, while improving interlaminar properties in woven composites, lead to a reduction of the in-plane properties. Electrospun non-woven sheets of nanofibrous mat applied at interfacial regions offer an option to traditional treatments. Applications where protrusion energy must be dissipated completely would benefit the most from the use of the electrospinning treatment. Examples are bullet proof vests and vehicle armor. Penetration of a projectile through a composite material may be avoided by creating more energy absorbent …

A Shock Tube Technique For Blast Wave Simulation And Studies Of Flow Structure Interactions In Shock Tube Blast Experiments, Nicholas N. Kleinschmit

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Improvised explosive devices (IED’s) are widely used against US and allied forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Exposure to IED blast may cause blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). The injury mechanisms are however not well understood. A critical need in bTBI-related research is the ability to replicate the loading conditions of IED blast waves in a laboratory environment. In this work, experimental studies have been carried out to explore the use of the shock tube technique for generating air shock waves that mimic the temporal and spatial characteristics of free-field blast waves and to investigate the blast wave-test sample interactions …