Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

A Generative Statistical Approach For Data Classification In A Biologically Inspired Design Tool, Marvin Manuel Arroyo Rujano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the research this thesis describes is to find a way to classify text-based descriptions of biological adaption to support Biologically Inspired design. Biologically inspired design is a fairly new field with ongoing research. There are different tools to assist designers and biologists in bio-inspired design. Some of the most common are BioTRIZ and AskNature. In recent years, more tools have been proposed to aid and make research in the field easier, for example, the Biologically Inspired Adaptive System Design (BIASD) tool. This tool was designed with the goal of helping designers in early design stages generate more …

Origami-Based Design Of Fold States And Stability, Alex Avila

Theses and Dissertations

Origami is a potentially elegant and powerful source of inspiration for many engineering designs. The viable shapes (fold states) of a single device allow it to perform multiple, seemingly contradictory, functions. The fold state is a large factor in the device's performance, but there are challenges in selecting and maintaining those fold states. In this thesis we analyze existing concepts for overcoming these challenges. Those concepts are compared with those that occur in origami-based devices. From this analysis fundamental gaps were identified, specifically, shortcoming in the terminology used to refer to (1) non-flat origami states and (2) sets of facets …

Design Of Wind Turbine Tower Height And Blade Length: An Optimization Approach, Ryan Wass

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The wind industry is a fast growing market and is quickly becoming competitive with traditional non-renewable energy resources. As with any developing industry, research must continually be redefined as more complex understandings of design variables are learned. Optimization studies are common ways to quickly refine design variable selections. Historical wind turbine data shows that the tower hub height to rotor diameter ratio scales almost linearly. However there is no specific rule that dictates the optimum hub height for a given diameter. This study addresses this question by using an Excel based optimization program to determine the height to diameter ratio …

Design Survey Of Laminated Composite I-Beam, Mrinmoy Saha

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Composite I-beams are popular for high-strength low-weight applications. Learning the macro-mechanics and designing the composite I-beam properly are necessary. In this report, a design overview of the composite I-beam is discussed which is based on classical lamination theory where it includes the homogenization approach, the plane stress assumption and the Kirchhoff hypothesis. Using these assumptions, a method was developed to come up with the effective material properties of a beam. Formulas to calculate maximum deflection and maximum bending stress and shear stress and the stress concentration at the connection of web-flange are discussed which describe ways for designing and manufacturing …

Development Of Iowa Dot Combination Bridge Separation Barrier With Bicycle Railing, Chaz M. Ginger

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

The Iowa Department of Transportation typically builds separation barriers between vehicle and pedestrian/bicycle facilities when sidewalks or trails are present on vehicular bridges. Currently, Iowa DOT employs a combination bridge rail that utilizes a concrete parapet that previously had been successfully evaluated to National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 Test Level 4 (TL-4) criteria for these situations. While the parapet had been successfully evaluated, the combination bridge rail system as a whole had not been evaluated to any crash test standards. Iowa DOT desired that researchers at Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) design and test a combination bridge …

Design For Maintainability In Developing Communities—A Case Study On The Uros Islands, Thomas Barlow

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Designing products for developing communities has exposed many of the underlying assumptions that engineers from developed nations have during the design process. There has been much written about these underlying assumptions in order to create a better framework for designing for developing communities. One unexplored, yet important area is the universality of common maintainability principles used in developed countries when designing products used in developing communities. Such principles include: simplicity, diagnosability, standardization of parts, modular subassemblies, minimizing assembly and disassembly parts, labeling components, increased life of moving parts, manuals, and simplifying tools needed for repairs [1]–[3]. The purpose of this …

Facilities Redesign Of Stockroom At Elcon Precision, David M. Brawner, Tyler O. Mastromattei, Jay Y. Matsumoto

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Elcon Precision is a company based out of San Jose, California specializing in the photochemical processing of materials and brazing of metals and ceramics for a variety of different industries. Three students from the Industrial Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo were contacted by Elcon Precision to help redesign their stockroom and inventory areas in their San Jose location in order to allow for the future growth of the company. Elcon asked the Cal Poly project team to help increase efficiencies throughout the stockroom by creating an alternative layout that best suited the company's needs. This …

The Design Of A Digital Scheduling Solution For Healing Alternatives, Hailey A. Malin, Krista L. Mcallester, Anne E. Shields

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The focus of this senior project is to assist Healing Alternatives, an acupuncture clinic located in San Luis Obispo, in developing a business management software to fit their needs and boost their overall organization. The approach to finding the right fit for this business included assessing their current system while simultaneously investigating other providers. Once alternatives were found that met all of Healing Alternatives’ initial requirements, trial demos were generated in order to perform user experience testing. The presented final solution, a scheduling software called Acuity Scheduling, was implemented in a three-phase move plan that occurred over the period of …

Design Of A Robotic Cownose Ray, Mark Marzotto

Honors Theses

Nature often inspires advances in science and technology and a promising example of this is mimicking locomotion of underwater animals. The main ways in which manmade aquatic vehicles propel themselves are water jets and propellers, which are inconsistent with how underwater animals swim. The cownose ray displays very efficient thrust with low frequency strokes by using a combination of oscillations and undulations with its pectoral fins. The goal of this paper is to mechanically replicate the actual fin motion of the cownose ray in order to capture these attractive features. The design will account for both the oscillations by designing …

Rickshaw For Common Ground, Marcus Dallin Cronin

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For this project my team and I were asked to design and manufacture a rickshaw, a device which will enable disabled individuals to experience outdoor hiking trails, for a non-profit organization based in Logan, Utah called Common Ground. Common Ground specializes in helping people with disabilities experience the outdoors in ways that would otherwise be impossible. The rickshaw will help Common Ground achieve its goals by providing them with a way to transport people with disabilities on moderately difficult hiking trails (i.e. Wind Caves Trail in Logan Canyon). In the past, Common Ground had use of a rickshaw that had …

Numerical Algorithm For Wing-Structure Design, Jeffrey D. Taylor, Douglas F. Hunsaker, James J. Joo

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Low-fidelity aerostructural optimization routines have often focused on determining the optimal spanloads for a given wing configuration. Several analytical approaches have been developed that can predict optimal lift distributions on rectangular wings with a specific payload distribution. However, when applied to wings of arbitrary geometry and payload distribution, these approaches fail. Increasing the utility and accuracy of these analytical methods can result in important benefits during later design phases. In this paper, an iterative algorithm is developed that uses numerical integration to predict the distribution of structural weight required to support the bending moments on a wing with arbitrary geometry …

Low-Carbon Building Skills Website, Faculty Of Applied Science And Technology Sheridan College

Books and Websites

Low-carbon building involves designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and removing buildings in ways that conserve natural resources and reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. To move towards a low-carbon economy, we need tradespeople who are educated in the design, construction maintenance and operation of buildings, who understand the industrial and constructions sectors, and are trained in low-carbon building skills.

Sheridan College’s participation in the Low Carbon Building Skills (LCBS) project involved developing and delivering low-carbon building skills curriculum across relevant disciplines and involving the full building cycle, from design to operations and optimization. The learning modules address what can be done to …

Rc Baja Car Suspension, Tyler Martin

All Undergraduate Projects

This year the Mechanical Engineering Technology Department at CWU is holding an R/C Baja car competition using the same rules as the ASME competition. The designed car must compete in three separate events: the slalom course, drag race, and obstacle course. By not only completing, but also being competitive in each of the events, the car will be deemed a success. Suspension and steering are two essential components of any R/C car, and was the main focus for this report. The suspension must be able to support the car in the event of impacts. In addition, the steering must be …

Senior Project Hauff Tree Pruner, Brian Woolery

All Undergraduate Projects

Neil Hauff, a business owner and entrepreneur from the Yakima valley challenged a team of engineering students from Central Washington University to design a motorized apple tree pruner. This report will discuss the engineering and construction that went into creating the housing of the tree pruner. The housing component needed to be able to protect the moving parts of the pruner, while withstanding the rotational torque produced by the Makita power drill used to drive the pruner. The biggest constraint in designing the housing was to keep the weight of the housing component under 1.5 lbs, while still keeping the …

Advanced Manufacturing Of Titanium Alloys For Biomedical Applications, Nicholas C. Mavros

ETD Archive

In metallurgy, Titanium has been a staple for biomedical purposes. Its low toxicity and alloying versatility make it an attractive choice for medical applications. However, studies have shown the difference in elastic modulus between Titanium alloys (116 GPa) and human bone (40-60 GPa) contribute to long term issues with loose hardware fixation. Additionally, long term studies have shown elements such as Vanadium and Aluminum, which are commonly used in Ti-6Al-4V biomedical alloys, have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Alternative metals known to be less toxic are being explored as replacements for alloying elements in Titanium alloys. …

A Monolithic Internal Strain-Gage Balance Design Based On Design For Manufacturability, Thomas Ladson Webb Iii

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This paper proposes an alternative approach to internal strain-gage balance design driven by Design for Manufacturability (DFM) principles. The objective of this research was a reduction in fabrication time and, subsequently, cost of a balance by simplifying its design while maintaining basic stiffness and sensitivity. Traditionally, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) balance designs have relied on Electro-Discharge Machining (EDM), which is a precise but slow and, therefore, expensive process. EDM is chosen due to several factors, including material hardness, surface finish, and complex geometry, including blind cuts. The new balance design objectives require no …

Design And Evaluation Of A Tactile Texture Production System, Samuel Benjamin Fertel Shuster

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Students who are blind or have low-vision (BLV) do not have the same access to graphical curricular content as their sighted peers. This significantly affects their education, particularly in STEM subjects. Introduction of interactive tactile graphics is one of the only ways for BLV students to access graphical content, and is uniquely suited to teaching drawing skills. The goal of this engineering design project was to expand the capacity of printing technology that produces interactive raised-line graphics by creating a system to print textures that meet specific criteria for usefulness. The addition of textures to tactile graphics is essential for …

Structural And Aerodynamic Design, Procedure And Analysis Of A Small V-Shaped Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, Odari J. Whyte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades there has been a renewed interest in Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. This turbine configuration though unpopular for large-scale generation has found a niche market in the way of offshore energy harvesting. However, offshore wind has its challenges. In this thesis a detailed comprehensive study of a proposed V-shaped vertical axis turbine rotor is performed in order to examine its structural and aerodynamic characteristics. The design met and exceeded the safety parameters establish for test bed operation, showing a factor of safety of 1.87 with regard to fatigue stress response. A satisfactory fatigue stress design life …