Other Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Maitreya Desalination, Riley Taft, Hudson Kispert, Brendan Dizon

Mechanical Engineering

This document relays the design and manufacture of a dual power input Reverse Osmosis desalination unit. It's power sources are electric drive and human power via recumbent seated cycling. Fresh water outputs range from 4 - 7 GPH for human power inputs of 150 - 280 Watts depending on the selected gearing ratio from the derailleur.

Improving Sizing Resolution Of Particle Impactors In The Nanoparticle Range, Shivuday Kala

All Dissertations

The application of particle size measurement extends across many fields: air quality measurement, pharmaceutical studies, paint and coating production, and nanoparticle formulation to name a few. Therefore, accurate measurement of nanoparticles is critical to aerosol science. While devices currently exist that can size and count nanoparticles such as electrical mobility spectrometers, dynamic light scattering devices, and small angle X-ray scattering devices, their high costs, complex operation, and lack of outdoor usability, restrict their use in practical applications. Among the devices that can size aerosols down to the nanoscale, cascade impactors stand out because of their robustness, relatively simple design, low …

Examining The Efficacy Of Using Irt As An Nde Method For Cfrp And Ztcfrp Composites, William Wyatt Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

A film adhesive is commonly used to form the bond-line between composite parts. The bond-line's quality and performance can be affected by defects such as voids, impurities, and agglomerations. Identifying these defects is possible with non-destructive evaluation testing (NDE). In this thesis, the joule-heating effect (JH) through carbon nanofiber (CNF) and carbon nanotube (CNT) modified film adhesive bonded to control carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CCFRP) was used along with infrared thermography testing (IRT) for bond-line defect inspection as a preliminary study. Due to the difference in the electrical conductivity between the modified epoxy and the defect, JH can cause a …

Damage Detection With An Integrated Smart Composite Using A Magnetostriction-Based Nondestructive Evaluation Method: Integrating Machine Learning For Prediction, Christopher Nelon

All Dissertations

The development of composite materials for structural components necessitates methods for evaluating and characterizing their damage states after encountering loading conditions. Laminates fabricated from carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are lightweight alternatives to metallic plates; thus, their usage has increased in performance industries such as aerospace and automotive. Additive manufacturing (AM) has experienced a similar growth as composite material inclusion because of its advantages over traditional manufacturing methods. Fabrication with composite laminates and additive manufacturing, specifically fused filament fabrication (fused deposition modeling), requires material to be placed layer-by-layer. If adjacent plies/layers lose adhesion during fabrication or operational usage, the strength …

Investigation On Mechanical, Tribological And Corrosion Resistance Properties Of Nano Sized Tio2/ Corrosion Resistance Properties Of Nano Sized Tio2/ B4c / Graphene Reinforced Aa 7075 Surface Composites B4c / Graphene Reinforced Aa 7075 Surface Composites Fabricated By Frictional Stir Processing Fabricated By Frictional Stir Processing, Majed Mohammed Hotami

Theses and Dissertations

Today, significant research efforts in the field of manufacturing engineering are focused on developing new lightweight, fuel-efficient and high-performance materials. The evolution of composite materials and related technologies has brought great advantages to material development throughout history. Composites are versatile materials with unique mechanical and physical properties tailored to specific application needs. Composites allow engineers to make design choices that traditional monolithic (unreinforced) materials cannot offer. Particle Reinforced Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) offer a variety of advantages, including increased stiffness, improved fatigue resistance, increased wear resistance, and a low coefficient of thermal expansion. Aluminum MMC (AMMC) material systems outperform monolithic …

Path Planning Development Framework For Mobile Robots, Lauren-Ann Elizabeth Graham

Theses and Dissertations

Planetary exploration relies on methods of path planning to achieve autonomous navigation in hazardous environments. Simulating harsh terrain, real-time varying physics, and robotics applications is vital for testing control algorithms here on Earth. Robotics Operating System (ROS) is a set of software libraries and tools that allow you to build and simulate robotic applications. Utilizing ROS, Gazebo, and Blender, a rough terrain simulation framework is created to explore and compare path planning algorithms using various desired robots and maps. ROS supports multiple path planning algorithms given its open-source abilities. This research focuses on path planning implementation of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control …

What Does It Mean To Be “Prepared For Work”? Perceptions Of New Engineers, Jessica R. Deters, Marie C. Paretti, Logan A. Perry, Robin Ott

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Engineering education seeks to prepare students for engineering practice, but the concept of preparedness is often ill-defined. Moreover, findings from studies of different populations or in different contexts vary regarding how well new graduates are prepared. These variations, coupled with the lack of clarity, suggest the need to better understand what it means to be prepared for engineering work.

Purpose: This study contributes to research on workplace preparation by exploring how new graduates describe being prepared for engineering work.

Method: Applying secondary analysis to data from the multi-institution Capstone To Work (C2W) project, we used thematic …

Thermo-Mechanical Instabilities In Next-Generation Friction Materials In High-Speed Sliding Systems, Kingsford Koranteng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For centuries, the manufacturing industry has incorporated metals like copper into friction materials to enhance thermal properties and minimize thermo-mechanical instabilities (TMI) in high-speed sliding systems. Unfortunately, these metals have adverse environmental effects due to the emission of hazardous particulate matter. As a result, there is a growing movement towards adopting next-generation friction materials as an alternative solution.

The study begins by conducting experimental and numerical investigations to examine the instabilities found in metal-based friction materials. The primary objective is to utilize the insights gained from the investigations to computationally explore effective strategies for mitigating various instabilities that may arise …

Molecular Dynamics Study Of Characterization In Metal-Free Friction Materials, Yizhan Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metallic friction materials currently used in industry may adversely impact the environment. Substitutions for metals in friction materials, on the other hand, can introduce operational safety issues and other unforeseeable issues such as thermal-mechanical instabilities and insufficient strength. In view of it, this dissertation focuses on developing different kinds of materials from simple structure to complex structure and evaluating the material properties with the assistance of molecular dynamics (MD) tools at the nano scale.

First, the concept of the contacted surfaces in friction at the atomic scale was introduced in order to get accurate understanding of the friction process compared …

A Review On The Coalescence Of Confined Drops With A Focus On Scaling Laws For The Growth Of The Liquid Bridge, Sangjin Ryu, Haipeng Zhang, Udochukwu John Anuta

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The surface–tension-driven coalescence of drops has been extensively studied because of the omnipresence of the phenomenon and its significance in various natural and engineering systems. When two drops come into contact, a liquid bridge is formed between them and then grows in its lateral dimensions. As a result, the two drops merge to become a bigger drop. The growth dynamics of the bridge are governed by a balance between the driving force and the viscous and inertial resistances of involved liquids, and it is usually represented by power–law scaling relations on the temporal evolution of the bridge dimension. Such scaling …

Dependence Of The Granulometric Composition Of Chalk During Granulation In A Turbulized Layer, N.A. Annaev, S.Kh. Nurmukhamedov, Zh.V. Sultonov, N.Sh. Khudoiberdieva

Chemical Technology, Control and Management

The article presents the results of an experimental study on chalk granulation in the turbulized layer of a turboblade granulator. The design of the apparatus combines the following sequential processes: grinding, granulating and compacting newly formed granules. In addition, this device has the ability to carry out both rotational and reciprocating motion. It has been established that preliminary grinding of the feedstock increases the efficiency of the granulation process and improves the quality of the finished product. In the experiments, four substances were used to create 2 astringent suspensions and the optimal combination and their ratios were determined. The experiments …

Revealing Interface-Assisted Plastic Anisotropy Via In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy Tension Of Lamellar Tial, Zhixiang Qi, Qi Zhu, Jian Wang, Yuede Cao, Fengrui Chen, Jiangwei Wang, Yang Chen, Gong Zheng, Guang Chen

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Assembling functional units into specific orientation organizations based on functional unit and organization (FUO) paradigm can maximize utilizing mechanical property anisotropy of lamellar-structured materials. However, the origin of their anisotropic deformation behaviors has not been clearly understood. Taking the fully lamellar γ-TiAl/ α₂-Ti₃Al dual-phase single crystal as an example, we decouple the interface functional units governed anisotropic plastic deformation through in situ transmission electron microscopy tensile testing and multiscale microstructural characterizations. The orientation organization-dependent slip continuity across the γ/α₂ interface and interface strength play a determinant role in plastic anisotropy beyond intrinsic dislocation activities within …

Steerable Acoustically Powered Starfish-Inspired Microrobot, Cornel Dillinger, Justin Knipper, Nitesh Nama, Daniel Ahmed

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Soft polymeric microrobots that can be loaded with nanocargoes and driven via external field stimuli can provide innovative solutions in various fields, including precise microscale assembly, targeted therapeutics, microsurgery, and the capture and degradation of unwanted wastewater fragments. However, in aquatic environments, it remains challenging to operate with microrobotic devices due to the predominant viscous resistances and the robots’ limited actuation and sensing capabilities attributed to their miniaturization. The miniature size prevents the incorporation of onboard batteries that can provide sufficient power for propulsion and navigation, necessitating a wireless power supply. Current research examines untethered microrobot manipulation using external magnetic, …

Transepithelial Electrical Impedance Increase Following Porous Substrate Electroporation Enables Label-Free Delivery, Justin R. Brooks, Tyler C. Heiman, Sawyer R. Lorenzen, Ikhlaas Mungloo, Siamak Mirfendereski, Jae Sung Park, Ruiguo Yang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Porous substrate electroporation (PSEP) is a promising new method for delivering molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids into cells for biomedical research. Although many applications have been demonstrated, fundamentals of the PSEP delivery process are not yet well understood, partly because most PSEP studies rely solely on fluorescent imaging for evaluating delivery and quantifying successful outcomes. Although effective, only utilizing imaging alone limits our understanding of the intermediate processes leading to intracellular delivery. Since PSEP is an electrical process, electrical impedance measurements are a natural addition to fluorescent imaging for PSEP characterization. In this study, we developed an integrated …

Analysis Of Thin Plates In Bending By New Rectangular Strain Based Element., Samira Chichoune, Cherif Rebiai

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Abstract

This paper deals with the development of a new simple four node rectangular finite element for bending analysis of thin plates. The displacement s field of this element is based on the assumed functions for the various strains satisfying the compatibility equations. This developed element has three degrees of freedom at each node (two rotations and one translation), and it passed successfully benchmark tests in the case of thin plates without shear locking phenomena. The obtained numerical results using the developed element converge toward both analytical and reference solutions.

Increased Ductility Of Ti-6al-4v By Interlayer Milling During Directed Energy Deposition, Rakeshkumar Karunakaran, Luz D. Sotelo, Hitarth Maharaja, Calsey Nez, Monsuru Ramoni, Scott Halliday, Sushil Mishra, Joseph A. Turner, Michael P. Sealy

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Additive manufacturing (AM) often results in high strength but poor ductility in titanium alloys. Hybrid AM is a solution capable of improving both ductility and strength. In this study, hybrid AM of Ti-6Al-4V was achieved by coupling directed energy deposition with interlayer machining. The microstructure, residual stress, and microhardness were examined to explain how interlayer machining caused a 63% improvement in ductility while retaining an equivalent strength to as-printed samples. Interlayer machining introduced recurrent interruptions in printing that allowed for slow cooling-induced coarsening of acicular α laths at the machined interfaces. The coarse α laths on the selectively machined layers …

Acoustophoresis Around An Elastic Scatterer In A Standing Wave Field, Khemraj Gautam Kshetri, Nitesh Nama

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Acoustofluidic systems often employ prefabricated acoustic scatterers that perturb the imposed acoustic field to realize the acoustophoresis of immersed microparticles. We present a numerical study to investigate the timeaveraged streaming and radiation force fields around a scatterer. Based on the streaming and radiation force field, we obtain the trajectories of the immersed microparticles with varying sizes and identify a critical transition size at which the motion of immersed microparticles in the vicinity of a prefabricated scatterer shifts from being streaming dominated to radiation dominated. We consider a range of acoustic frequencies to reveal that the critical transition size decreases with …

Introduction To Vacuum Technology, David M. Hata, Elena V. Brewer, Nancy J. Louwagie

Milne Open Textbooks

Vacuum systems are critical to many industries. They are vital to establishing required process pressures, establishing a clean process environment, and removing reaction by-products from the process chamber. This text, a revision and expansion of David Hata’s Introduction to Vacuum Technology published in 2008, addresses basic topics in vacuum technology for individuals tasked with maintaining vacuum systems and instructors teaching technician-level courses. The topics are carefully curated to the needs of technicians in a production environment and the types of vacuum systems used, and the accompanying laboratory manual and instructor’s guide support the delivery of lecture-laboratory courses.

This book approaches …

Stomatal Opening Efficiency Is Controlled By Cell Wall Organization In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Sedighe Keynia, Leila Jaafar, You Zhou, Charles T. Anderson, Joseph A. Turner

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Stomatal function in plants is regulated by the nanoscale architecture of the cell wall and turgor pressure, which together control stomatal pore size to facilitate gas exchange and photosynthesis. The mechanical properties of the cell wall and cell geometry are critical determinants of stomatal dynamics. However, the specific biomechanical functions of wall constituents, for example, cellulose and pectins, and their impact on the work required to open or close the stomatal pore are unclear. Here, we use nanoindentation in normal and lateral directions, computational modeling, and microscopic imaging of cells from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to investigate the precise …

Laboratory Glovebox, Jackson T. Tenne, Noah Fitzgerald, Scott Stirling, Danny Ho

Mechanical Engineering

The Laboratory Glovebox project aimed to create an affordable, functional, ready to use, airtight workstation enabling Dr. Ramanan Sritharan to continue his research of the mechanical properties of nanomaterials. When airborne, nanomaterials are a health risk if inhaled, so the design requires a hermetic seal to protect the user. The design was meant to emulate features of the glovebox used by Dr. Sritharan during his PhD research, but was optimized to meet a budget of $3000, much cheaper than comparable alternatives. Key design features included acrylic panels, a transfer chamber, glove mounts, and a main access door, all sealed to …