Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Door Barricade, Alex Cerino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My senior capstone project will be a door barricade. The main idea for the use of the door barricade is for schools in the case of an intruder. The barricade that I will be designing is a solution to the inefficient barricades that I saw at my high school. It could also be used at businesses and homes. My design would be easy to use and have a fail-safe option. The two areas of mechanical engineering technology that my capstone project will focus on are stress analysis and electronics. Every part for my door barricade is drawn in SolidWorks. All …

Customizable Armor Set, Olivia Reedy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is intended to help people who make costume armor by reducing the amount of time and money it takes to create a set of armor. Making armor can take a lot of resources for beginners, and this project is intended to help hobbyists with that process. This customizable armor set goes through the engineering design process, from the initial design of the parts to creating the prototype using vacuum forming. The prototype armor can be painted and adhered to using acrylic paint and contact cement, respectively, and fits three sizes of small, medium, and large.

Formula Sae Design Validation Through Lap Time Simulation, Noah Gresser, Akos Jasper, Michael Metropoulos, Paul Buczynski, James Volcansek

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Lap time simulation is capable of advancing Zips Racing into a new, modern era for future vehicle designs. Through the use of VI-grade simulation software, Zips Racing was able to validate its current combustion and electric vehicle designs in spite of the challenges brought on to the team as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this project, the design team gained an enhanced understanding of suspension designs and optimizations through the usage of computer simulations. As a result, the teams have a better understanding of the fundamental changes that need to occur to enhance the race team’s final race …

2 Degree Of Freedom Robotic Leg, Oded Tzori, Henry Terrell, Adan Martinez

Mechanical Engineering

Professor Xing, an assistant professor at Cal Poly, proposed the 2 DOF Robotic Leg project for this quarter’s senior project class. The project is to build a robotic leg attached at the hip to a stand, which will be used as a teaching tool and eventually help develop Cal Poly’s very own robotic quadruped. Since this project has multiple uses after its completion, there are multiple customers that it must perform well for: the Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department, the ME Lab instructors, and the students. The Scope of Work (Sections 2 & 3) is composed of 2 main …

Cp Check Valve Design, Alec B. Der Matoian, Jessica M. Dent, Skylar M. Tusting

Mechanical Engineering

This report is to serve as a final design review and update to the project sponsors at Zurn Wilkins for the Check Valve Design Senior Project. The senior project team was tasked with improving upon the design of Zurn Wilkins’ backflow prevention assembly for small diameter pipes by reducing the pressure loss created by the check valves within the double check backflow assembly. The information contained in this report builds off the information contained in the Critical Design Report (CDR), as well as feedback and further investigation suggested during an Intermediary Design Review. Based on conclusions from the CDR, our …

Design Of An Orientation Device For Valve Bodies With Blowout Compatibility For Slug Detection, Annie Richardson

Honors Theses

The Parker Hannifin plant in Batesville, MS, is a manufacturing plant that specializes in A/C and hydraulic tube and hose assemblies that support heavy machinery in the agriculture, logistics and construction industries. Customers place unique orders where the tube size, bending configurations, and adaptors vary widely. Some tubes require valve bodies where the customer can charge the A/C system once it has been assembled. A pierce and press machine is used to pierce the tube and place the valve body in the hole. Many tubes have asymmetric blocks at the end of the tube, with valve bodies placed at customer-requested …

Design Of A 3d Printed Bioreactor For Bone Cancer Research, Brooklyn K. Vanderwolde, Katelyn Hillson

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

Bone cancer is an aggressive disease and has peak occurrence during physiological stimulation of growth and aging. Astronauts who undergo long-term space missions also acquire an increased risk of bone tissue degeneration and cancer. Few in-vitro models currently exist capable of reproducing the complex microenvironment of bone tissue to support multicellular activity in a three-dimensional structure. This limits the ability to understand disease progression and develop suitable treatment strategies. Therefore, developing a bone tissue model and an associated bioreactor is critical to understand the risks associated with cancer progression and improve treatment and preventions related to those risks. The goal …

A Study Of The Design And Manufacturing Of An Elevated Dog Feeder, Lena Turner

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

The senior capstone which students in the Center for Manufacturing Excellence program partake in was the basis for project. The Dog Box is an elevated dog feeder with an internal food storage compartment. It was designed for medium to large dogs, and can hold over 40 lbs of dog food. The internal storage compartment has drawer access and contains a plastic tote that will hold the food. The purpose of the design was to create an aesthetically pleasing elevated dog feeder that would double as a storage device, and elevated feeding can help prevent health issues in large dog …

Nucor Steel Storage Rack Design, Mac Hanson, Hannah Cataldo, Jason Ziganto, Robert Wozek

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The goal of this design project was to build effective steel storage racks for Nucor Steel Kankakee. The important criteria that the design team needed to meet was that the rack was adjustable, could fit all of the manufactured products that Nucor makes, and could fit various lengths of product. Nucor needs a new rack system because their current process makes the shipping process very inefficient.

Geometric Iteration Of A Knee Prosthetic And Static Stress-Bearing Capacity, Alexander Wheeler

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to improve a prosthetic knee model in terms of size, weight, and biocompatibility. Several tests were run to determine its effectiveness in supporting static and quasistatic loads. The positions in which these tests were run include static upright standing, static one-knee 90 degree kneeling, static squatting at maximum flexion, and quasistatic midstride. These simulations were conducted to find areas of high stress and strain. These patterns were used to determine the maximum body weight a physical prosthetic could support. The material used to create the prosthetic was changed from AISI 316 stainless steel to …

Jcati Composite Delaminator, Payden Coffman

All Undergraduate Projects

Improvements need to be made to the existing delaminator system designed to crush proprietary Boeing 777 composite material. The current design incorporates a hydraulic system to achieve the high loads needed to separate material layers. The new system will need to be able to apply the same loads while at the same time allowing for a constant feed of material through the system. To achieve this, a “gear-like” crushing system will be implemented that will apply a high enough radial load into the material that will achieve delamination equal or greater than the previous design while at the same time …

Low Velocity Impact Of Hybrid Stacked Steel Plates, H. Hadidi, R. Q. Feng, M. P. Sealy

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Designing and manufacturing high-strength, low-weight parts with enhanced impact resistance is highly sought after in the transportation industry. The most common methods to improve strength-to-weight ratios of impact targets is a composite material composition or a favorable geometric design. An alternative method to improve impact performance is functionally gradient mechanical properties in a single material by hybrid additive stacking. In this study, low-velocity impact tests were conducted on hybrid stacked 1070 steel plates where individual layers were subjected to shot peening (SP) to functionally grade mechanical properties. Hybrid additive stacking refers to secondarily processing preferential layers within a stacked build …

Design And Optimization Of Dynamic System For A One-Kw Free Piston Linear Engine Alternator-Gensets Program, Nima Zamani Meymian

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In power/energy systems, free-piston linear machines are referred to as a mechanism where the constrained crank motion is eliminated and replaced with free reciprocating piston motion. Depending on the application, the piston motion can be converted into other types of energy and includes compressed air/fluid, electricity, and high temperature/pressure gas. A research group at West Virginia University developed a free-piston linear engine alternator (LEA) in 1998 and have achieved significant accomplishment in the performance enhancement of the LEAs to date. The present LEA design incorporates flexure springs as energy restoration components and as bearing supports. The advantages of using flexure …

Ideal Lacrosse Stick, Josh Beck, Tyler Skoloda, Noah Reed, Stanley Dembosky

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is focused on the design of a new and innovative lacrosse stick. Our main points of focus will be the strength and durability of the head. As well as solving some of the problems that exist in existing equipment. These problems were identified by interviewing experienced players at the college level. Benefits would include a stronger head that is easier to use for a player on the field to do things like pass, catch, shoot, and field ground balls in an optimal manner. Normally players will have to purchase new heads every season as a result of warping …

Tabletop Mechanical Tester, Jamie Dombroski, Brian English, Richard Leffler, Andrew Shirk

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The need for hands-on and face-to-face experiences in the engineering classroom is very great. The equations, principles, and concepts can all be learned, but without the visual and tactile application, these don’t always sink in or become concrete. A small-scale tensile test machine was designed, sourced, manufactured, and tested for the purpose of being applied in classroom settings to provide this experience to engineering students. Extensive research was performed concerning tensile machines on the market, the essential elements of which are the load cell, grips, crosshead, extensometer, motor, and frame. The raw materials for the frame were purchased and drawings …

Senior Design Proposal For Brakes Subsystem 2019-2020, Jasmine Zogheib, Zachary Demetriades, Devin Seay

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report concentrates on efforts to design a new braking system for the Zips Formula Electric Race Team. The improvements to the braking system will be based upon previous years’ official designs along with optimizing for predetermined criteria. The design will be influenced based on design factors of the car such as weight, center of gravity, wheelbase, and integration with other systems of the car.

The Mechanical Development For An Autonomous Forest Service Robot, James P. Walker

Honors College Theses

Georgia’s forests are under threat from numerous invasive species of plant, both herbaceous and woody. A primary factor in the invasive potential of any given non-native plant is the lack of natural predators and rapid reseed and regrowth cycles. To combat invasive plants, this thesis proposes an artificial, robotic predator to provide a means of controlling invasive species. Although autonomous robots are currently being developed for similar agricultural purposes, none have emerged for forestry related tasks, such as proposed in this work. The chassis, inspired by rocker bogie and similar suspension systems, has been redesigned to have eight wheels, to …

Development Of Mbd Model And Analysis Methodology For Vehicle Design, Alfonso Christopher Ponce

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

This thesis is to provide a new methodology that considers the effects the chassis applies during dynamic load to the suspension and the handling characteristics of a road course vehicle. A methodology in which is described in detail as well as an applied demonstration where literature before this thesis, lacks in replication and serves to establish a basis for multi-body dynamic analysis in this area. Two models to be created, rigid and flexible, and to compare each other to study the effects the chassis torsional stiffness has during load transfer. Ultimately, to assist in the design of a vehicle that …

Strong Circular Dichroism In Chiral Plasmonic Metasurfaces Optimized By Micro-Genetic Algorithm, Zhigang Li, Daniel Rosenmann, David A. Czaplewski, Xiaodong Yang, Jie Gao

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Strong circular dichroism in absorption in the near-infrared wavelength range is realized by designing binary-pattern chiral plasmonic metasurfaces via the micro-genetic algorithm optimization method. The influence of geometric parameter modifications in the binary-pattern nanostructures on the circular dichroism performance is studied. The strong circular dichroism in absorption is attributed to the simultaneous excitation and field interference of the resonant modes with relative phase delay under linearly polarized incident light. This work provides a universal design method toward the on-demand properties of chiral metasurfaces, which paves the way for future applications in chemical and biological sensing, chiral imaging and spectroscopy.

Prototyping A Conductive Polymer Steering Pad For Rail Freight Service, Anthony A. Villarreal, Constantine Tarawneh, Miguel Ontiveros, James Aranda, Robert Jones

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The AdapterPlus™ steering pad is a polymer component on a railcar that helps to reduce stresses on the axle as a railcar rounds a curve. One railway application requires a minimum of 240 mA to be passed through the steering pad to the rail, which activates air valves that control automated cargo gates. Currently, two copper studs are inserted into the pad to provide a conductive path. However, after continuous cyclic loading caused by normal service operation, the copper studs deform, wear, and eventually lose contact between the two surfaces rendering the pad nonconductive. One proposed solution to this problem …

Cisco Nexus 9200 Robustness Redesign, Colin Berge, Ethan Gold, Cole Christopherson, Rahul Makhijani

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Certain configurations of Cisco's Nexus 9200 product experienced issues with bending during shipping. Two solutions were developed to eliminate this problem: an external brace that could quickly address the problem yet was expensive and unsustainable, and a redesigned chassis, which was more economical but came with a longer time to implement. Real world packaging and shipping conditions were simulated in SolidWorks and Finite Element Analysis was used to model the stresses experienced when the product is dropped. Both designs were found to significantly reduce stress in critical areas, thus reducing the chance of failure and the cost of the problem. …

Open Source Completely 3-D Printable Centrifuge, Salil S. Sule, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Centrifuges are commonly required devices in medical diagnostics facilities as well as scientific laboratories. Although there are commercial and open source centrifuges, the costs of the former and the required electricity to operate the latter limit accessibility in resource-constrained settings. There is a need for low-cost, human-powered, verified, and reliable lab-scale centrifuges. This study provides the designs for a low-cost 100% 3-D printed centrifuge, which can be fabricated on any low-cost RepRap-class (self-replicating rapid prototyper) fused filament fabrication (FFF)- or fused particle fabrication (FPF)-based 3-D printer. In addition, validation procedures are provided using a web camera and free and open …

Asme Student Design Competition, Marcus Todd

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For the completion of my capstone project with the Western Kentucky University Honors College, the following document details my experience with the American Society of Mechanical Engineer (ASME) Student Design Competition. This project was completed in a two semester sequence through working with a team of four. One semester focusing primarily on the design and the other on fabrication and evaluation. The 2019 ASME competition was the Pick and Place Race. In this event, 46 teams were challenged to design and construct a device having the ability to pick up balls of varying size. Both the design and assembly process …

Autojack - Hydraulic Powertrain System, Tyce Vu

All Undergraduate Projects

A primary problem for mechanics and automotive enthusiasts is the risk associated with lifting and securing a vehicle with conventional jack stands. Often times, improper jack-stand installation results in the vehicle collapsing unexpectedly, causing injury and/or death. This problem can be minimized through the application of a newly re-designed vehicle lifting system. The conventional method for lifting cars is time consuming and can be unsafe in many circumstances. A better, safer, and more efficient lift design was needed; the AutoJack. The approach of the AutoJack design was entirely focused on the safety of lifting a vehicle. Safety was improved by …

Custom Designed Wall Mounted Shop Crane, Bradley Lewis

All Undergraduate Projects

The objective of this project was to design and fabricate a custom wall mounted jib crane to specific, non-standard dimensions. The crane was designed to be industry rated for 2000 pounds, rotate at least 180 degrees, and be designed to have a maximum boom length tailored to the specific installation site. Two potential installation sites and purposes were selected for construction: inside the bay doors of a fabrication shop, intended to transfer large pieces of material to and from a plasma table, and inside a car maintenance garage, intended to lift and remove engines and transmissions from cars.

Design of …

Designing And Redesigning Products, Processes, And Systems For A Helical Economy, Ryan Bradley, Ibrahim S. Jawahir

Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing Faculty Publications

The Circular Economy (CE) concept has promised to unlock trillions of dollars in business value while driving a significant reduction in the world’s resource consumption and anthropogenic emissions. However, CE mainly lives in ambiguity in the manufacturing domain because CE does not address the changes needed across all of the fundamental elements of manufacturing: products, processes, and systems. Conceptually, CE is grounded in the concept of closed-loop material flows that fit within ecological limits. This grounding translates into a steady state economy, a result that is not an option for the significant portion of the world living in poverty. Therefore, …

A Reticulation Of Skin-Applied Strain Sensors For Motion Capture, Christopher A. Schroeck

ETD Archive

The purpose of this research is to develop a system of motion capture based on skin-applied strain sensors. These elastic sensors are of interest because they can be applied to the body without restricting motion and are well suited to operate in more practical environments, such as sports fields, gymnasiums, and outdoor areas. This combination is currently not available in the field of motion capture. The current issues with strain sensor motion capture technology is the accurate is not sufficient for motion analysis and axial rotation monitoring of joints is not available. This project will build and test a sensor …

Dynamic Discrepancy Reduced Order Modeling For Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Over Cobalt-Based Catalyst, Jose Miguel Bohorquez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Advances in carbon capture techniques and demands in alternative fuel sources have increased over the past couple of decades. The Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) provides a viable way to produce hydrocarbons from natural gas, coal, CO₂, or biomass. However, current comprehensive models for FTS encompass large number of reacting species, readsorption and conversion of primary products, surface intermediates, and coverage-dependent reaction rates. To accurately predict the products obtained through the process a reduced order model has been developed. By reducing the number of parameters of an existing comprehensive model, uncertainty is introduced. The uncertainty can be quantified by using …

Fatigue Tester, Nicholas Fazio

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to combine all my experience, knowledge and skills that I’ve acquired over the years as a Mechanical Engineering Technology student to completely design and build a fatigue tester. This will give me valuable experience in the process of designing and assembling a product and give me a great example to add to my portfolio. The tester will be completed through a process of researching design and modeling. Once everything is properly calculated and designed the parts that can be fabricated will. The rest will be ordered and then everything will be assembled. Upon completion, …

Reactive Archey Target Design Team "Mimic", Brandon Croyle, Jacob Boss, David Rodgers, Austin Wivell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This design project will aim to provide archery hunters with a platform to simulate shooting at string jumping deer. String jumping refers to a spooked deer hearing the snap of a bow string and instintivly ducking up to ten inches. This often results in wounded or missed deer. We will design and build a control system that uses the sound of a bow string as a trigger to operate a mechanical target system. A sound sensor will mimic a deer’s hearing in close range hunting and then send a signal to the mechanical system to replicate the dropping motion of …