Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Identification Of Markov Processes Within A Wind Turbine Array Boundary Layer, Matthew Scott Melius

Dissertations and Theses

The Markovianity within a wind turbine array boundary layer is explored for data taken in a wind tunnel containing a model wind turbine array. A stochastic analysis of the data is carried out using Markov chain theory. The data were obtained via hot-wire anemometry thus providing point velocity statistics. The theory of Markovian processes is applied to obtain a statistical description of longitudinal velocity increments inside the turbine wake using conditional probability density functions. It is found that two and three point conditional probability density functions are similar for scale differences larger than the Taylor micro-scale. This result is quantified …

Heating Effects Through Harmonic Distortion On Electric Cables In The Built Environment, Kevin O'Connell

Doctoral

Under ideal circumstances, electric power supply voltage and current waveforms should be sinusoidal. However, this is very seldom the case in the built environment, due to the proliferation of non-linear loads. Examples of non-linear loads are those containing switched mode power supplies, reactors and electronic rectifiers/inverters. Common devices such as personal computers, fluorescent lighting, electric motors, variable speed drives, transformers and reactors and virtually all other electronic equipment are examples of non-linear loads. Non-linear loads are the norm in the built environment rather than the exception. Such loads produce complex current and voltage waves and simple spectral analysis of these …

Rapid Tool Heating, Jason Chi, Bobby Dodge

Mechanical Engineering

Quatro Composites creates various molded parts for an array of industries. They are seeking to improve their thermoplastic molding process by decreasing the amount of time to heat up the steel tool that molds the thermoplastics. Currently, it takes approximately 1 hour to heat up their 120 pound steel mold from room temperature to approximately 700°F. The goal of this project is to create an optimum heating method that will minimize that heating time to about 20 minutes or less. It is critical for the stakeholders (Quatro Composites) to have a faster heating time in order to increase their production …

Design Of An Energy Efficient Virtual End Node Client Using Openadr2.0a And Smap, Kevin Navero

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Demand Response (DR) describes the set of actions taken to impose a reduction in electrical loads to stabilize the power grid and decrease costs. It is used when power grid emergencies or extremely high demand and congestion, threaten the electricity supply-demand balance. Automated Demand Response (ADR) describes a web-based control system that triggers DR events automatically by signaling other pre-programmed control systems. This project intends to use the OpenADR2.0 specifications provided by the OpenADR Alliance to construct an open source Virtual End Node (VEN) client to retrieve DR signals. The Simple Measurement and Actuation Profile (sMAP) software is also used …

Wind And Hydroelectric Power Simulation For The Dc House Project, Randy Lormand, Christopher Goloskie

Electrical Engineering

This project details the design and integration of a wind and hydroelectric power simulation system in correlation with the DC House Project. The simulator uses variable speed drives to rotate a DC motor which then drives a generator to produce output. This output is then regulated using a DC to DC converter which holds the voltage level constant making it easier to interface with other power sources for the house. The test results indicate that the simulator will be able to produce two separate power outputs that will provide at least 70 Watts of power in the acceptable speed range …

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of An Emr Based Orbital Debris Impact Testing Platform, Jeffrey J. Maniglia Jr.

Master's Theses

This paper describes the changes made from Cal Poly’s initial railgun system, the Mk. 1 railgun, to the Mk. 1.1 system, as well as the design, fabrication, and testing of a newer and larger Mk. 2 railgun system. The Mk. 1.1 system is developed as a more efficient alteration of the original Mk. 1 system, but is found to be defective due to hardware deficiencies and failure, as well as unforeseen efficiency losses. A Mk. 2 system is developed and built around donated hardware from the Naval Postgraduate School. The Mk. 2 system strove to implement an efficient, augmented, electromagnetic …

Low Speed Alternator Design, Scott Merrick

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Micro Hydropower System, Christpher Neally, Ian Verstuyft

Electrical Engineering

The micro hydropower project strives to meet the needs of a specific village in northern Thailand in partnership with Engineers Without Borders. Specifically, the electrical side of the system must be designed to convert the mechanical power of a flowing river that is turning a turbine into sustainable and dependable power. Currently available hydropower systems will be considered, analyzed, and tailored to suit the specific needs of the community in need. The system to be designed will be flexible enough to demonstrate proof-of-concept with the limited maximum generable power in lab while having the ability to be easily scaled for …

Swing Human Powered Generator: For The Dc House Project, Juan Vicente Avelar, Juan Jose Galindo, Juan Pramyr Ramos

Electrical Engineering

The Play Park Human Powered Generator project addresses various ways of generating power. More specifically, this project entails the design and construction of the Swing Power Generator to provide electrical power from mechanical energy. The swing generator will eventually be used as part of the human-powered generators utilized in the DC House project.

A swing generator prototype was built for this project, which demonstrates the feasibility of its use for electrical power source. Detailed design and construction of the swing generator is presented in this report along with results from hardware testing.

Micro Modeling Study Of Cathode/Electrolyte Interfacial Stresses For Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Xinfang Jin, Xingjian Xue

Faculty Publications

Delamination of the cathode/electrolyte interface is an important degradation phenomenon in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). While the thermal stress has been widely recognized as one of the major reasons for such delamination failures, the role of chemical stress does not receive too much attention. In this paper, a micro-model is developed to study the cathode/electrolyte interfacial stresses, coupling oxygen ion transport process with structural mechanics. Results indicate that the distributions of chemical stress are very complicated at the cathode/electrolyte interface and show different patterns from those of thermal stress. The maximum principal stresses take place at the cathode/electrolyte interface …

Measurements Of Nh3 Linestrengths And Collisional Broadening Coefficients In N2, O2, Co2, And H2o Near 1103.46 Cm−1, Kyle Owen, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Laser-based ammonia gas sensors have useful applications in many fields including combustion, atmospheric monitoring, and medical diagnostics. Calibration-free trace gas sensors require the spectroscopic parameters including linestrengths and collisional broadening coefficients to be known. Ammonia's strong ν2 vibrational band between View the MathML source has the high absorption strength needed for sensing small concentrations. Within this band, the 1103.46 cm−1 feature is one of the strongest and has minimal interference from CO2 and H2O. However, the six rotational transitions that make up this feature have not been studied previously with absorption spectroscopy due to their small line spacing ranging from …

Green Scheduling For Radiant Systems In Buildings, Truong X. Nghiem, Madhur Behl, George J. Pappas, Rahul Mangharam

Truong X Nghiem

In this report we look at the problem of peak power reduction for buildings with electric radiant floor heating systems. Uncoordinated operation of a multi-zone radiant floor heating system can result in temporally correlated electricity demand surges or peaks in the building’s electricity consumption. As peak power prices are 200-400 times that of the nominal rate, this uncoordinated activity can result in high electricity costs and expensive system operation. We have previously presented green scheduling as an approach for reducing the aggregate peak power consumption in buildings while ensuring that indoor thermal comfort is always maintained. This report extends the …

Effects Of N2o And O2 Addition To Nitrogen Townsend Dielectric Barrier Discharges At Atmospheric Pressure On The Absolute Ground-State Atomic Nitrogen Density, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Gherardi, F. Massines

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Absolute ground-state density of nitrogen atoms N (2p3 4S3/2) in non-equilibrium Townsend dielectric barrier discharges (TDBDs) at atmospheric pressure sustained in N2/N2O and N2/O2 gas mixtures has been measured using Two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) spectroscopy. The quantitative measurements have been obtained by TALIF calibration using krypton as a reference gas. We previously reported that the maximum of N (2p3 4S3/2) atom density is around 3 × 1014 cm−3 in pure nitrogen TDBD, and that this maximum depends strongly on the mean energy dissipated in the gas. In the two gas mixtures studied here, results show that the absolute N …

Umass Amherst Green Building Guidelines 2013, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Ted Mendoza, Ezra Small, Patricia O'Flaherty, Nariman Mostafavi, Mohamed Farzinmoghadam, Somayeh Tabatabaee Pozveh

Campus Planning Reports and Plans

Facilities & Campus Services, Sustainable UMass and Campus Planning support sustainability and energy conservation initiatives by providing in-house resources to campus staff as well as designers and contractors working with the University. The UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines provide a framework for approaching new construction and major renovation projects at UMass Amherst that are undergoing LEED certification by focusing the conversation on green building aspects that are most important to the campus. They are intended to be the beginning of a dynamic conversation between designers, environmental consultants and constructors, university stakeholders, and users of new high performance buildings.

Cal Poly Nano Hydro, Brandon N. Fujio, Alex J. Sobel, Andrew F. Del Prete

Mechanical Engineering

This projects goal was to design, construct, and test a machine capable of generating a usable amount of energy from naturally flowing water. The device conceived for this purpose is a portable raft with a turbine mounted to the underside. The turbine is mated directly to a low angular velocity generator which outputs to a power electronics system on shore. Using a Gorlov Helical turbine, this proof-of-concept is designed to output ~50 Watts of electricity to charge a battery for later use. Possible applications for this device include camping in remote locations, supplemental power generation for a home, or for …

High Voltage Electrophoretic Deposition For Electrochemical Energy Storage And Other Applications, Sunand Santhanagopalan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

High voltage electrophoretic deposition (HVEPD) has been developed as a novel technique to obtain vertically aligned forests of one-dimensional nanomaterials for efficient energy storage. The ability to control and manipulate nanomaterials is critical for their effective usage in a variety of applications. Oriented structures of one-dimensional nanomaterials provide a unique opportunity to take full advantage of their excellent mechanical and electrochemical properties. However, it is still a significant challenge to obtain such oriented structures with great process flexibility, ease of processing under mild conditions and the capability to scale up, especially in context of efficient device fabrication and system packaging. …

Experimental Investigation Into Particulate Matter Distribution In Catalyzed Particulate Filters Using A 3d Terahertz Wave Scanner, Ryan Kristopher Foley

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The particulate matter distribution (PM) trends that exist in catalyzed particulate filters (CPFs) after loading, passive oxidation, active regeneration, and post loading conditions are not clearly understood. These data are required to optimize the operation of CPFs, prevent damage to the CPFs caused by non-uniform distributions, and develop accurate CPF models. To develop an understanding of PM distribution trends, multiple tests were conducted and the PM distribution was measured in three dimensions using a terahertz wave scanner. The results of this work indicate that loading, passive oxidation, active regeneration, and post loading can all cause non-uniform PM distributions. The density …

Net Energy Metering For Residences: Impacts Of Tariff Design, John Gardner

John Gardner

No abstract provided.

Development And Implementation Of A Simplified Residential Energy Asset Rating Model, Daire Reilly, Aidan Duffy, David Willis, Michael Conlon

Other resources

In accordance with national and European policies, the provision of financial assistance to residential energy consumers has led to a greater awareness of and interest in energy retrofit technologies. However, at present Irish energy consumers have no appropriate advice on the future performance of retrofit options available to them. This is a significant limitation to decision making and technology uptake, since this group need to know whether their investment is likely to be worthwhile.

The asset rating methodology developed for the certification of energy performance of buildings is the current industry standard of prediction of energy demand and post retrofit …

Temperature-Dependent Absorption Cross-Section Measurements Of 1-Butene (1-C4h8) In Vuv And Ir, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Yves Benilan, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and infrared (IR) absorption cross-section measurements of 1-butene (1-C4H8; CH2=CHCH2CH3; Butylene) are reported over the temperature range of 296–529 K. The VUV measurements are performed between 115 and 205 nm using synchrotron radiation as a tunable VUV light source. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is employed to measure absorption cross-section and band strengths in the IR region between 1.54 and 25 μm (∼6500–400 cm−1). The measured room-temperature VUV and IR absorption cross-sections are compared with available literature data and are found to be in good agreement. The oscillator strength for the electronic transition (A1A′→X1A′) around 150–205 nm …