Electro-Mechanical Systems Commons^™

Zero-Power Ac Current Sensor, Omar Aragonez

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

In this study, a magnetic piezoelectric cantilever powered AC current and frequency sensor is proposed. This paper covers the configuration of the experimental setup, finite element modeling of the magnetic coupling, and the optimal spatial location of the magnetic proof mass in relation to the wire for smart grid applications. Solid and stranded copper wires of various gauges were used and carried current up to 30A. The magnets act as a proof mass to lower the frequency while also coupling to the magnetic field generated by the current carrying wire. The frequency of the AC current produces a sinusoidal force …

Development Of Controller Area Network Bus Programming For Quarter-Scale Tractor Pulling Sled, Brittani Wacker

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Usage of Controller Area Network (CAN) technology has allowed for advancements in many industries, including agriculture. Most importantly, its application is useful for refining data acquisition methods. With support from the Quarter-scale Tractor Design Team at UNL, this project united a CAN bus with the team’s current tractor pulling sled. The objectives were to install new instrumentation needed for the CAN bus and to program the updated system utilizing CAN data. The program needed to give the pulling sled functionality and the ability to read and log important pulling data. These goals were all accomplished by implementing new sensors, coding …

Development Of A Prototype Ball-And-Plate Balancing Platform, Scott J. Mangin

Master's Theses

Ball-and-plate balancing platforms have been utilized throughout academia to further understanding of nonlinearities that can occur when applying control algorithms to nonholonomic and underactuated systems. The objective of this thesis is to build upon an existing ball-and-plate balancing platform used in the Intro to Mechatronics class and create a robust platform system that can be utilized by future students to test various controller designs derived from MATLAB/Simulink®. The ball-and-plate platform design uses a myriad of sensors to track the system components in real time: a resistive touch panel is used to track the position of the ball on the plate, …

Simultaneous Actuation And Sensing Of Electrostatic Mems, Jacob E. Song

Theses and Dissertations

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are devices that play important roles of sensing and actuation in many different industries including automation, electronics, medical, communications, and defense. In order to make full use of these devices, it is important to understand the peripherals that enable these devices. Simultaneous actuation and control of MEMS devices is an important area of research as it enables feedback control of these device and allows devices to maintain performance as devices depreciate over their lifetime. The aim of this thesis is to perform a design space analysis on an electrostatic MEMS simultaneous actuation and sensing circuit that is …

Complete Neighbourhood Search Heuristic Algorithm For Portfolio Optimization, Collether John

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

In portfolio optimization, the fundamental goal of an investor is to optimally allocate investments between different assets. Mean-variance optimization methods make unrealistic assumptions to solve the problem of optimal allocation. On the other hand, when realistic constraints like holding size and cardinality are introduced it leads to optimal asset allocation which differ from the mean variance optimization. The resulting optimization problem become quite complex as it exhibits multiple local extrema and discontinuities. Heuristic algorithms work well for the complex problem. Therefore, a heuristic algorithm is developed which is based on hill climbing complete (HC-C). It is utilized to solve the …

Mechanical Characterization Instrumentation For Multi-Material Systems, Nicholas Ginga

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

Developing A Self-Navigating Robot To Map Disaster Regions, Nagavenkat Adurthi

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Autorotation: Samara Seed Pods And Tethered Autogyros, Jonathan Mcconnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This work presents an exploration of autorotational behavior, observing naturally occurring structures to provide insight into the stability and design of autorotative mechanisms. A rotor is said to be in autorotation when, in the presence of airflow, a natural rotation generates lift to either suspend or slow the descent of a rotor. This phenomenon is observed in nature in the form of samaras, a seed pod morphology evolved in parallel by maple trees and many other organisms around the world. Simulation and experimental observation of samara vertical descent behavior provides insight into the stability of naturally evolved autorotative structures. A …

Controlled Voltage Of Hot Snare Polypectomy Device In Electrosurgical Device, Saidi Olayinka Olalere

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The study is used to understand the working procedure of the Olympus PSD-30 Electrosurgical Unit which a high-frequency alternating current is to measure the voltage and power output from the unit when used for a surgical operation to determine the extent of tissue damage. The output power and voltage were as examined with the stopwatch, then with an Arduino time based for 1, 2, and 3 seconds to understand the different modes of the cut and coagulation feedback with an RCC circuit used to mimic the human body. This shows a pattern in which the feedback power increases, and voltage …

Assembly Of Alumina Particles In Aqueous Suspensions Induced By High‐Frequency Ac Electric Field, James E. John, Shizhi Qian, Dipankar Ghosh

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The role of high-frequency alternating current (AC) electric field in the assembly of alumina particles in aqueous media was investigated. Field–particle interactions were in situ investigated for coarse and fine powder particles in very dilute suspensions. For both coarse and fine particles, AC field-induced assembly led to the formation of chains of particles within a minute, which were aligned in the field direction. However, a much finer network of particle chains evolved in fine particle suspensions. Threshold field strength for chain formation was also lower for fine particles (28 V/mm) than for coarse particles (50 V/mm), suggesting stronger interactions for …

Small-Satellite Attitude Control Using Sinusoidal Actuator Motion: Experiments On The International Space Station, K. Ryan Lush

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

In this work, we design, build, and test two 1.25U CubeSats. These small satellites were deployed on the International Space Station to perform attitude control experiments in microgravity. These CubeSats use an oscillating-mass actuation system for attitude control as opposed to traditional flywheels. Each CubeSat uses 3 pairs of servomotors to oscillate masses about 3 orthogonal axes. The servomotors have strict rotational stroke limits. Thus, they cannot spin continually. To oscillate each pair of masses, the angle of each servomotor is commanded using signals that are continuous and piecewise sinusoidal with amplitudes that do not violate the servomotor stroke constraints. …

Numerical And Scaling Study On Application Of Inkjet Technology To Automotive Coating, Masoud Arabghahestani Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

A thorough literature review identified lack of precision control over quality of droplets generated by the currently available industrial sprayers and a growing need for higher quality droplets in the coating industry. Particularly, lack of knowledge and understanding in continuous inkjets (CIJ) and drop-on-demand (DOD) technologies is identified as significant. Motivated by these needs, this dissertation is dedicated to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and scaling studies to improve existing inkjet technologies and develop new designs of efficient coating with single and/or multiple piezoelectric sensors to produce on-demand droplets. This dissertation study aims at developing a new DOD type coating technology, …

Solute Concentration Effects On Microstructure And The Compressive Strength Of Ice-Templated Sintered Lithium Titanate, Rohan Parai, Ziyang Nie, Raina Hempley, Gary M. Koenig Jr., Dipankar Ghosh

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This work investigated the role of sucrose and cationic dispersant (1‐hexadecyl)trimethylammonium bromide concentration on ice‐templated sintered lithium titanate microstructure and compressive strength, to enable a comprehensive understanding of composition selection and elucidate processing–microstructure–mechanical property relationships. Sucrose and dispersant concentrations were varied to change total solute concentration in suspensions and viscosity. Dispersant was more effective in reducing viscosity than sucrose; however, their combination had an even greater impact on reducing viscosity. Based on viscosity measurements, a total of 12 suspension compositions were developed, and materials were fabricated at two different freezing front velocity (FFV) regimes. Solute concentration greatly influenced ice‐templated microstructure …

Schaeffler F-250 Bev Conversion: Power Electronics, Leslie Sawyer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report shows the work that was done on the power electronics system in the industry sponsored Schaeffler demonstration truck project. The goal of the project was to convert a combustion Ford F250 into a battery electric vehicle, while using as much Schaeffler technology as possible. After the vehicle is converted it will be used as a demonstration vehicle to show potential investors. While this project is still in progress, the work that was done during this time was substantial to the development of this project. Progress that has been made on the power electronics system includes developments in selecting …

Dupont Seal Mold Assembly Machine, Brett Biederman, Craig Hanchett, Matthew Chilton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Seal Assembly Machine is a custom-built device that is designed to seat a thin polymer part between two mating pieces of metal tooling. To meet the specifications of the sponsor, the Seal Assembly machine must perform its function more quickly and accurately than manual labor at the same task. At the time of compiling this report, the machine is not yet functional due to time constraints.

Energy Analysis Of Heating, Ventilation, And Air Conditioning Systems, Erica Ferguson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project studied Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems for commercial buildings. I completed an energy model Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department in West Virginia. This building’s HVAC has been completed by the consulting engineering firm: Scheeser Buckley Mayfield. I intern at this company, so they allowed me to use their original design as a basis for comparison. Load calculations, utility costs, energy consumption, and carbon footprint were derived from this energy analysis. The energy model compared three systems: variable air volume (VAV) with electric reheat, variable air volume with hydronic reheat, and variable refrigerant volume (VRV). Based on the …

Chemical Clean Automated Loader, Jordyn Bryner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

TTM Technologies (TTM) is a global printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer. The work described in this report was completed in the TTM North Jackson, Ohio location. This plant focuses primarily on the manufacturing of rigid and rigid-flex PCBs for the aerospace and defense industry. TTM North Jackson has an ongoing labor dependency issue due to the shortage of workers the nation is facing. To solve this problem, TTM has focused the efforts of their new engineers and interns on automating processes that are labor dependent. The goal is to provide design guidance to be used later by TTM to automate …

Schaeffler E-Motor, Jenne Harasin, Zachary Zatta, Christopher Tvaroch

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will be focusing on the work accomplished at Schaeffler to convert an existing internal combustion engine, Ford F-250 truck, into a battery electric vehicle. This report focuses on the vehicle's integration with an emphasis on the bearing design, e-Axle housing's method for mounting, bus bar design, resolver design, differential options, wiring for low and high voltage, and oil pump and cooling system for e-Beam. The bearings for the differential as well as the power transmission system from the electric motor to the e-Axle will need to be specified. By late summer 2022, Schaeffler will have a working prototype …

Golf Club Cleaner, Owen Roach, Chris Wertenberger, Michael Skerlong

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Cleaning golf clubs can be a tedious process, however a necessary one to maintain equipment. Clubs are normally cleaned by filling a bucket with soap and water, soaking all the clubs to be cleaned, then scrubbing each one individually. An automatic club cleaner would make this process much easier and more enjoyable. Using electric motors, the club cleaner would have spinning brushes in soap and water to quickly and easily clean the club head. The machine would have different sections for cleaning the club head, polishing the club face, and cleaning the grip. The cleaner should be inexpensive and easy …

Design And Control Of Quasi-Direct Drive Actuation For Lightweight And Versatile Wearable Robots, Shuangyue Yu

Dissertations and Theses

Wearable robots have shown great potential for augmenting the physical capabilities of humans in lab settings. However, wearable robots for augmenting the physical capabilities of humans under community-based conditions are the new frontier of robotics. Furthermore, the design and control are still considered to be grand challenges for providing physical augmentation for humans. In terms of design, the state-of-the-art exoskeletons are typically rigid, bulky, and limited to lab settings. In terms of control, most of the rhythmic controllers are not versatile and are focused only on steady-state walking assistance.

The motivation behind my research is to improve both the design …