Computer-Aided Engineering and Design Commons^™

Cubesat 5000, Renee Redman

All Undergraduate Projects

Cubesat 5000 is designed for the annual Physics weather balloon launch which is done for the senior level astrophysics students. Students use the weather balloons to get better visuals of the sun in the upper atmosphere. The purpose of the Cubesat 5000 design is to keep the instrumentation inside safe during and after the launch, maintain working temperature, and to remain below a 400-gram weight requirements in order to achieve optimum altitude.

The outer cube assembly was designed using Solidworks and printed using PETG filament. The weight of the cube has been measured and design changes were made done to …

Rc Mini Baja Car - Suspension And Chassis, Collin Mckenzie

All Undergraduate Projects

Two students have developed a unique design of the RC Baja Car to optimize functionality and performance. A Baja car is a remote controlled 1/10 scale car that is used for recreation or competition, usually meant for competing in the ASME Baja car competition versus various schools. The competition focuses on the best time achieved in different courses that utilize speed, turns, and jumps. The objective for the project was to create a unique suspension from previous individual’s projects by creating a four-link suspension in which allows more travel in the suspension of the car and maintains functionality with the …

A Preconditioned Lattice Boltzmann Flux Solver For Steady Flows On Unstructured Hexahedral Grids, Brendan Walsh, Fergal Boyle

Articles

The lattice Boltzmann flux solver (LBFS), first introduced by Shu et al. (2014) on structured meshes, allows fluid flow problems to be solved on unstructured meshes discretised by the finite volume method. The solver calculates the macroscopic fluxes at the cell interfaces from a local reconstruction of the lattice Boltzmann solution. In this paper the LBFS is extended to three-dimensional unstructured hexahedral meshes and a preconditioned lattice Boltzmann flux solver (PLBFS) is presented. The PLBFS involves applying the preconditioning technique proposed by Guo (2004) to the LBFS and is achieved by modifying the equilibrium distribution function used to calculate the …

Drone Payload Storage & Release System (Dpsrs), Joseph E. Key

All Undergraduate Projects

The retail giant Amazon has become a household name synonymous with nearly instantaneous online shopping. What previously took weeks to deliver at exorbitant shipping fees can now arrive at your doorstep within two days—and all for free. This huge buyer incentive has skyrocketed the demand for online shopping, making Amazon the most valuable brand in the world. To meet this demand, Amazon and its distributors have proposed using drones to make deliveries. However, due to issues with cost and complexity, this has not yet materialized. As such, this project’s objective was to create a cheap and lightweight package-delivery system that …

R/C Mini Baja Car: Drive Train And Steering, Carlton R. Mcdonald

All Undergraduate Projects

The purpose of the Baja R/C Car is to compete in the ASME eFX competition in a series of events to prove the functionality of the vehicle. This series of events includes the Slalom, Drag, and Baja race, The Slalom is a test in the steering capability of the vehicle, the Drag is a test in the acceleration of the vehicle in a straight line, and the Baja puts all factors together in a race to test every component of the vehicle. This project is about building an R/C car that not only functions, but also has maximum performance capabilities …

Mechanical Footstep Power Generator, Mohammed Saleh Aljohani, Faisal Alonazi

All Undergraduate Projects

Mechanical Footstep Power generator

By Author: Mohammed Aljohani

Abstract

Modern technology is focusing on newer and better sources of energy. Among the important areas are power generation methods since electricity has become part of our lives. Various researchers have conducted surveys to find out the feasibility of converting renewable kinetic energy into electricity. Some of the works done in the past emphasized the selection of suitable materials and power generation systems designs that appear complicated and expensive. To ensure there is cost efficiency and energy efficiency better power generation systems need to be embraced.

The footstep power generator is a …

Indoor Navigation For Visually Impaired Person Using Inertial And Geomagnetic Information, Jayanth Ammanabrolu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Motivated by the need for assistance of indoor guidance for visually impaired persons (VIPs), a sensing system using inertial and geo-magnetic information has been developed to navigate a VIP person indoor. Orientation estimation, which is critical for indoor localization, is conducted using the information of the angular velocity, acceleration and geomagnetic field. By analyzing the characters of human gait, a method to eliminate the accumulated drift introduced by double integrations is introduced. By attaching the inertial sensor to the foot, the periodic stationary state will facilitate the drift correction. Also, the distinctive distortion of the geomagnetic field, which contains spatial …

Generation Of Premix Laminar Flame Speed Library, Sai Prashanth Kumar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Laminar flame speed is an essential parameter in measuring turbulent premixed combustion applied in Spark ignition engines. Instead of using power-law correlations, which is valid only for particular ranges, the procedure for generating a premixed laminar flame speed library is defined using MTU – Master mechanism for a wide range of charge mixture conditions inside an engine combustion chamber: Temperature (300 – 700 K), Pressure (1 – 70 bar) and reactant mixture composition of equivalence ratio (0.4 – 2.0) Laminar flame speed library is generated for methane. The mechanism's performance was improved by adjusting the pre-exponential factor of the …

Finding A Single Equation To Represent Urea Evaporation, Sublimation, And Decomposition In Selective Catalytic Reduction Systems, Noah Hertzler

Senior Honors Theses

Aqueous Urea used in Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) Systems undergoes three sequential processes that result in ammonia being produced to reduce harmful NOx emissions: Water evaporation, Urea sublimation, and Urea decomposition into ammonia and isocyanic acid. While these phases can be simplified by modeling the Urea as pure water, accuracy is sacrificed to do so. In order to make SCR modelling both accurate and simple, this project set out to find an equation that could represent all three processes. Simulations were run in ANSYS and Particle to generate a set of data, then an empirical equation was created to model …

Plasma Jet Flow Characterization Via Computational Modeling, Declan Brick

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Design, Build, And Analysis Of A Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Compression Ignition Single Cylinder Research Engine, Tyler Miller

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Both experimental and simulation efforts have been employed to further advance the design and build of a single cylinder research engine. The engine will aid in advancing technology and understanding the operation of compression-ignition (CI) engines using natural gas within the heavy-duty engine industry. The basis for the engine is a Cummins 15L ISX engine that has been modified, retrofitted, and instrumented to allow for late-cycle direct-injection of high-pressure compressed natural gas. Along with the engine build, a one-dimensional GT-Power simulation model has been created and used to analyze the engine operation and specify components including the engine compression ratio …

Measured And Modeled Performance Of A Spring Dominant Free Piston Engine Generator, Ramanjaneya Mehar Baba Bade

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Free Piston Engine Generators (FPEG) directly convert the reciprocating piston motion into electricity by using a linear alternator. Unlike conventional engines with piston motion restricted by a crankshaft mechanism, the FPEG piston motion is constrained by the energy available in the system. When stiff springs are considered in the design, the FPEG system attains high frequency with high power and efficiency. The main objective of this research was to model stiff spring-assisted FPEG system dynamics and performance accurately, and to apply the modeling results to the development of a 1kW, spark ignited, natural gas fueled, FPEG experimental prototype. The experimental …

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.

Rocket Motor Nozzle, Corey Hillegass

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this honors research and senior design project, the authors will research, analyze, and manufacture a rocket motor nozzle for the Akronauts rocket design team. This research and design project will improve how the rocket design team will decide and manufacture nozzles going forward. The impact of this improvement allows the rocket design team to take steps toward being self-sustaining by manufacturing student designed parts as opposed to commercially bought parts. This will not only be successful in increasing student impact on future designs, but also provides a technical challenge for the authors and will present as an impressive feat …

Shock Wave And Boundary Layer Interaction, Blake Keuchel, Lauren Andrews, Corryn Rahe

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Air entering the engine of a supersonic aircraft must be slowed to subsonic speeds for the engine to perform properly and not become significantly damaged over time. Diffusers are designed to create a shockwave to slow down air to subsonic speeds before the air enters the engine. This project will focus on the numerical analysis and design of diffuser geometries for supersonic aircraft engines. The main objective is to evaluate supersonic flow over different geometries, specifically the interaction between shock waves and boundary layer, and to minimize the amount of drag created by different diffuser geometries to optimize the efficiency …

Formula Electric Sae Frame, David Streen, David Kinion, Dylan Ramey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The project is for the FSAE Zips Racing Electric Team. The last race car made by the Zips Racing Electric Team has a large potential for optimization. We plan to redesign the frame from the ground up in an effort to reduce weight and increase the performance potential while meeting all FSAE rules and packaging constraints.

Formula Electric is an event in which teams from colleges around the world compete in various events including autocross, endurance and many others with an electrically driven car.

This project will involve the design, analysis, and fabrication of a steel tube space frame for …

Zips Electric Racing Suspension Design, Madison Hughes, Christopher Thompson, Erikah Jackson, Anna Signorino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

I am working with three others on the suspension and steering sybsystems for the Zips Electric Racing design team at The University of Akron. We are improving upon last year's design to help create an optimized vehicle. As part of this project, we take part in weekly design reviews and team meetings, model parts in Solidworks, and perform simulations and FEA using MATLAB/SIMULINK, Solidworks, and Optimum Kinematics.

A Foundational Approach To Extrusion And Compounding, David Frankart

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With a history of nearly 200 years, polymer processing and compounding is constantly changing to fit the material science needs of the era. Exposure of undergraduate students to the technology and practices used in industry today in a lab setting would create new opportunities for experiential learning and growth. The objective was to set up a 0.75”, 25 L/D Thermo Haake single screw extruder for lab use and run trials of material in a single screw extruder to set up a basis for experiments. Trials were run of co-polyester resin through a single screw extruder with carbon fiber additives varying …

Automatic Seeder, Zachary Bunting, Nicholas Muscarella, Trevor Tout, Dalton Denny

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our Senior Design Project is the construction and implementation of an automatic seeder that is to be used in the agricultural industry. The automatic seeder is being designed to eliminate prevalent issues within the process of planting seeds by hand, such as labor requirements and inconsistent operations. The seeder is meant to reduce time spent on planting seeds and place them in an efficient manner for optimal growth conditions.

This project will require several specific research questions to be addressed in the form of application and good usability. We will investigate the method of planting the seed, the conveyor track …

Zips Electric Racing Suspension Design, Christopher Thompson, Madison Hughes, Erikah Jackson, Anna Signorino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a member of the 2020 Zips Electric Racing Design Team, I will design the suspension subsystem with three other members. Specifically concentrating on the steering and suspension mounting points, we will optimize and improve some components from the previous year's design. Modeling of components will be done in Solidworks and suspension vehicle behavior will be modeled in MATLAB and Optimum Kinematics.