Applied Mechanics Commons^™

An Applied Numerical Simulation Of Entrained-Flow Coal Gasification With Improved Sub-Models, Xijia Lu

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The United States holds the world's largest estimated reserves of coal and is also a net exporter of it. Coal gasification provides a cleaner way to utilize coal than directly burning it. Gasification is an incomplete oxidation process that converts various carbon-based feedstocks into clean synthetic gas (syngas), which can be used to produce electricity and mechanical power with significantly reduced emissions. Syngas can also be used as feedstock for making chemicals and various materials.

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) scheme has been used to simulate the gasification process for many years. However, many sub-models still need to be developed …

Rebounder Fatigue Test Machine, Caroline Reeves, Will Robertson, Ethan Flory

Mechanical Engineering

JumpSport, a company that designs and sells trampolines and trampoline accessories, has sponsored this senior project team to design, build, and test a trampoline fatigue test machine. The machine must simulate a person jumping on the trampoline to test the life of JumpSport’s fitness trampolines and kids’ trampolines. Partway through the design process, the objectives were altered and this senior project team was tasked with merging with another Cal Poly senior project group to create an all-inclusive test machine to accommodate both full-trampoline testing and individual bungee cord testing.

The final design is centered on a slider crank linkage driven …

Finite Element Simulation Of Wind Turbine Aerodynamics: Validation Study Using Nrel Phase Vi Experiment, Ming-Chen Hsu, Ido Akkerman, Yuri Bazilevs

Ming-Chen Hsu

A validation study using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Phase VI wind turbine is presented. The aerodynamics simulations are performed using the finite element arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian–variational multiscale formulation augmented with weakly enforced essential boundary conditions. In all cases, the rotor is assumed to be rigid and its rotation is prescribed. The rotor-only simulations are performed for a wide range of wind conditions, and the computational results compare favorably with the experimental findings in all cases. The sliding-interface method is adopted for the simulation of the full wind turbine configuration. The full-wind-turbine simulations capture the blade–tower interaction effect, and the …