Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Development Of Economic Water Usage Sensor And Cyber-Physical Systems Co-Simulation Platform For Home Energy Saving, Joe Singer

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

In this thesis, two Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) approaches were considered to reduce residential building energy consumption. First, a flow sensor was developed for residential gas and electric storage water heaters. The sensor utilizes unique temperature changes of tank inlet and outlet pipes upon water draw to provide occupant hot water usage. Post processing of measured pipe temperature data was able to detect water draw events. Conservation of energy was applied to heater pipes to determine relative internal water flow rate based on transient temperature measurements. Correlations between calculated flow and actual flow were significant at a 95% confidence level. Using …

Material Characterization Of Intermetallic Compound Formation With Respect To Thermosonic Bonding Duration, Mahin Khan

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

Intermetallic Metallic Compounds (IMCs) formation is a common cause for wire bond failures. This research studied the effect of US vibration duration on IMC formation and growth in Copper-Aluminum (Cu-Al) wire bonded samples. Wire bonded samples, using 2.5 mil (63.5 μm) thick Palladium coated Copper wire, is ultrasonically bonded on a 2 cm thick Aluminum (1”x1”) coupon. Segmented bonding technique using 200 gf force and 220 gf force are applied during segment 1 and segment 2 of the bonding respectively. Ultrasonic (US) vibration frequency of 115-117 khz and a bonding temperature of 175°C is used. A pair of 5 samples …

Evaluation Of Heat Available From Calcium Chloride Desiccant Hydration Reaction For Domestic Heating In San Francisco, Ca, Michael Giglio

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

Thermochemical energy storage has the potential to support the use of solar thermal energy collection in ways that traditional thermal energy storage, like sensible and latent heat storage, have fallen short. Thermochemical energy storage has been shown to have higher storage capacities than sensible and latent storage for dehumidifying applications and does not require insulation like sensible and latent heating do. Sensible heating is focused on maintaining an increased temperature of a storage medium while latent heat storage is focused on maintaining a phase of the storage material. Both sensible and latent heat storage have been shown to have lower …

Computerized Heat Transfer Modeling For Solar Powered Water Purification System, Houtan Neynavaee

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

Since drinkable water resources are limited, as the human population increases it is predicted that providing pure water is a future human challenge. However, a huge resource of the water exists on the earth surface in seas and oceans, which are not proper for drinking and cultivate. Exploiting of a solar powered water purification system is an economy and environment-friendly solution to this human problem.

In this thesis, we present computerized heat transfer model for solar powered water purification system. This Model can be used for calculating the heat transfer, system temperature, and other variable parameters such as boiler pressure, …

Influence Of Slippery Pacemaker Leads On Lead-Induced Venous Occlusion, Sagar Bhatia

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

The use of medical devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators have become commonplace to treat arrhythmias. Pacing leads with electrodes are used to send electrical pulses to the heart to treat either abnormally slow heart rates, or abnormal rhythms. Lead induced vessel occlusion, which is commonly seen after placement of pacemaker or implantable cardiac defibrillators leads, may result in lead malfunction and/or superior vena cava syndrome, and makes lead extraction difficult. The association between the anatomic locations at risk for thrombosis and regions of venous stasis have been reported previously. The computational studies reveal obvious flow stasis in …

Human-Powered Concrete Mixer, Connor Mcloughlin, Nathan Metzger, Nicholas Szychowski, Madelyn Bustard-Gustafson

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

There are currently many non-profit organizations and social enterprises working to alleviate the hardships of living in a developing economy, such as lack of proper homes, schooling, and bathrooms. The solutions to these problems rely on concrete, and are currently limited by the mixing time for these batches of concrete in rural and remote areas. Mixing with shovels is inefficient and imprecise, and the possible solution of a portable gas-powered concrete mixer is too expensive and too immobile for remote areas. The Human-Powered Concrete Mixer (HPCM) provides an alternative to these methods that is more efficient and more precise than …

Scu Mini Baja, Christian Ruiz, Mauricio Jimenez, Anmol Josen, Christian Hellmers, Angel Robles, Matthew Nagy, Ruben Contreras, Westley Tusa, Chad Russick

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is an intercollegiate competition to design, fabricate, and race a small, single passenger, off-road vehicle powered by a 10 HP Briggs & Stratton 4-Stroke gasoline engine. The purpose of this project was to optimize the design of a baja vehicle appropriate enough to compete in the SAE competition held in California and perform finite element analysis (FEA) for the verification of the frame and overall design of the vehicle. The design of this vehicle was created through outside research of previous baja buggies made for the competition and the group was split into three …

Hybrid Fuzzy Logic And Extremum Seeking Attitude Control Of Solar Sail Spacecraft, Nikolai Kalnin

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

This thesis explores four controllers applied to the attitude control of a solar sail craft with control masses with the goal of showing benefits over more standard control schemes. The controllers examined in this paper are: 1) a PID controller that incorporates a discrete extremum seeking algorithm, 2) a type-1 fuzzy logic controller that incorporates a discrete extremum seeking algorithm, 3) a type-1 fuzzy logic controller, and 4) a type-2 fuzzy logic controller. The first two controllers are examined for their ability to quickly converge to a set of optimal gains over time. The latter two controllers are evaluated for …

Vtol Search And Rescue, Nicholas Keyes, Francesca Caruso, Nick Gagliardi, Joshua Ramayrat, Kia Moazzami

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This project focuses on the design of a hybrid vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that, by using separate propulsion systems, transitions from a quadcopter into horizontal flight. It was designed for use in search and rescue (SAR) missions in national parks due to their high costs, long search times, and the volume of these missions. The aircraft can be easily deployed in less than a couple minutes reducing search time, costs only $2000 saving SAR teams money, and allows for camera integration for hiker location. The aircraft used a pre-built airframe with added modifications, and a specifically designed avionic …

Benchtop Centrifuge For Materials Science, Ryan Schulz, Thomas Valentine, Abhay Gupta

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The Benchtop Centrifuge was designed to serve for research purposes within theMechanical Engineering Department at Santa Clara University. The prototype has been completely assembled and is functioning to the desired specifications of applying up to 1000 g’s of force for over 4 hours. The current uses are anticipated for separation of particles within materials for material processing and testing. The overall systemdesign has been adapted froma legacy project within the University. Various tests were conducted in order to ensure safety and usability of the system. Through Abaqus analysis and drop-test experiments, it was found enclosure itself can withstand an impact …

Poly Pelletizer: Recycled Pet Pellets From Water Bottles, Logan Costa-Smith, Ian Maltzer, James Martino

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Plastic water bottles comprise a large amount of waste worldwide. The goal of the Poly Pelletizer project is to create a system that will turn water bottles into polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pellets compatible with extruders to produce 3-D printer lament, along with other recycling applications.The system promotes a sustainable solution to plastic pollution by giving manufactures, particularly in developing nations, the means to produce their own bulk materials using waste plastic. Shrinking industrial recycling processes to a workbench scale gives individuals the ability to convert excess bottles into seemingly limitless products. The system works by using a dual heating and …

Wear-Resistant Extrusion Auger For The Production Of Charcoal Briquettes From Agricultural Waste, Maureen O’Neill, Aaron Wagner

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Ugandan social enterprise AEST makes and sells agricultural waste charcoal briquettes. The extrusion auger used wore down quickly, hampering production. The team worked to find a better material or heattreatment process to improve the auger's lifetime. The team built a custom pin-on-disk testing apparatus and used it along with optical microscopy to analyze the wear mechanism. The team then heat-treated and tested additional samples to find the best treatment. The team suggested improving AEST’s current case hardening process by increasing the case depth to 0.04 in (0.1016 cm) and using oil quenching.

Beta: Bioprinting Engineering Technology For Academia, Max Abrams, Jeffrey Barone, Cynthia Le, Jacob Ososke, Franz Plum, Emily Takimoto, Josie Warren

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Higher STEM education is a field of growing potential, but too many middle school and high school students are not testing proficiently in STEM subjects. The BETA team worked to improve biology classroom engagement through the development of technologies for high school biology experiments. The BETA project team expanded functionality of an existing product line to allow for better student and teacher user experience and the execution of more interesting experiments. The BETA project’s first goal was to create a modular incubating Box for the high school classroom. This Box, called the BETA Box was designed with a variety of …

Variable Drive Vehicle, Christopher Clark, Michael D'Arrigo, Graham Mcclone, Joseph Sahyoun

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The versatility of current rovers and exploratory vehicles is limited by a single drive system. The Variable Drive Vehicle (VDV) employs a actuated systemcapable of switching between wheeled and tracked drive modes. This allows the vehicle to travel quickly and efficiently over smooth terrain and to traverse more arduous terrain by switching between these two systems. The small scale prototype built over the course of this project is equipped with two modular wheel driven track units to demonstrate the viability of the system. Electric linear actuators and servo motors allow for simple control and a smooth transition between each drive …

Scu Cube, Matt Condino, Andrew Drape, Evan Eberhardt, Cooper Mcdonnell, Brayton Mcknight, Isaac Mcquillen, James Olwell, Laura Tschudy

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Traditional forms of communication such as landlines and cell phones are unreliable during disaster scenarios. It is difficult to coordinate relief efforts in the aftermath of a disaster due to the unavailability of reliable communication methods. The SCUCube is a 3U CubeSat designed to aid disaster relief communications. The satellite has an amateur radio primary payload that can send and receive standardized data packets with compatible radios, and also has an experimental attitude control system secondary payload. The semi-passive attitude control system uses a gravity gradient boom and a reaction wheel to stabilize the orientation of the satellite. In addition, …

Forge 2.0 Clean Burning Cook Stove, William Gebb, Matthew Lee, Thai Ha Sloan, Emily Gray-Gribble

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Team Forge 2.0 is a team of mechanical engineers that has designed, modified, and manufactured a cook stove that creates a clean burn in order to help relieve respiratory disease and harmful environmental impacts resulting from the combustion of biomass in developing nations. The stove is developed specifically for developing communities in Nicaragua that still use traditional cooking methods which contribute to premature deaths due to respiratory illness. The designed product is a cylindrical cooking device that has a unique air flow system which optimizes the gasification process. Gasification is the process in which gas released from the primary combustion …

Object Manipulation Using A Multirobot Cluster With Force Sensing, Matthew H. Chin

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

This research explored object manipulation using multiple robots by developing a control system utilizing force sensing. Multirobot solutions provide advantages of redundancy, greater coverage, fault-tolerance, distributed sensing and actuation, and reconfigurability. In object manipulation, a variety of solutions have been explored with different robot types and numbers, control strategies, sensors, etc. This research involved the integration of force sensing with a centralized position control method of two robots (cluster control) and building it into an object level controller. This controller commands the robots to push the object based on the measured interaction forces between them while maintaining proper formation with …

A Molecular Dynamics Study Of Self-Diffusion Along A Screw Dislocaton Core In Face-Centered Cubic Crystals, Siavash Soltanibajestani

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

The topic of this research is self-diffusion along a 1⁄2 〈110〉 screw dislocation core in face-centered cubic metals. Using molecular dynamics, self-diffusion along a screw dislocation core in four FCC metals, aluminum, copper, nickel and silver is investigated. In all metals under study except in Ag, the results show high diffusivity along the core even in the absence of any preexisting point defects (intrinsic diffusion). Enhanced self-diffusion due to screw dislocations is more remarkable in Al and Ni than in Cu. This behavior has been related to the stacking fault energy and dissociation width of partial dislocations.

The simulations show …

Diffraction Model Of Thermoreflectance Data, Sahida Rahimbhai Kureshi

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

Diffraction based mathematical model is developed to address the issue of spatial resolution in thermoreflectance imaging at the scale of 1 and 10 μm. Thermoreflectance imaging provided non-contact temperature measurement at micro and nano scale but the spatial resolution is limited by diffraction. By virtue of this work mathematical model is developed for the analysis of thermoreflectance data. In the development of model both the diffraction occurring at sample and substrate is combined to calculate intensity of thermoreflectance signal. This model takes into account the effective optical distance, sample width, wavelength, signal phase shift and reflectance intensity. Model shows qualitative …