Other Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, Bryce Towne, Ethan Andrews, Carter Moore, Andrew Sobel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is a competition held by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) that challenges students to create a hydraulically powered vehicle to compete in four different races over two days. The vehicle has to be fully powered by hydraulics, with human power (such as pedaling) being used to move the hydraulic fluid. Electronics and pneumatics can be used to control the flow of the hydraulic oil. Vehicles also must have an energy storage device to take advantage of regenerative braking. The final competition was at the Norgren facility in Colorado from April 12th to April 14th. …

4wd Baja Upright And Wheel Hub, Nathan Thompson, Jonathan P. Larson, Spencer D. Compan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The University of Akron Zips Baja Team has switched to a 4-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicle as per the 2023 Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) rules. The 2022 Baja Vehicle was 2WD, thus the upright and wheel hub were designed exclusively for a 2-wheel-drive (2WD) Baja vehicle. This report entails the design process and methods of verification for the design of the 4WD upright and wheel hub.

Study Of Nanocomposite Materials Using Molecular Dynamics, Prashik Sunil Gaikwad

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

There is an increase in demand for new lightweight structural materials in the aerospace industry for more efficient and affordable human space travel. Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) with reinforcement material as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown exceptional increase in the mechanical properties. Flattened carbon nanotubes (flCNTs) are a primary component of many carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn and sheet materials, which are promising reinforcements for the next generation of ultra-strong composites for aerospace applications. These flCNT/polymer materials are subjected to extreme pressure and temperature during curing process. Therefore there is a need to investigate the evolution of properties during the curing …

On The Gaussian-Core Vortex Lattice Model For The Analysis Of Wind Farm Flow Dynamics, Apurva Baruah

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Wind power science has seen tremendous development and growth over the last 40 years. Advancements in design, manufacturing, installation, and operation of wind turbines have enabled the commercial deployment of wind power generation systems. These have been due, in a large part, to the expertise in the simulation and modeling of individual wind turbines. The new generation of wind energy systems calls for a need to accurately predict and model the entire wind farm, and not just individual turbines. The commercial deployment of these wind farms depends on model's ability to accurately capture the different physics involved, each at its …

Using Long Short-Term Memory (Lstm) Networks With The Toy Model Concept For Compressible Pulsatile Flow Metering, Indranil Brahma

Faculty Journal Articles

The metering of periodically oscillating pulsating flow has traditionally relied on eliminating pulsations, which is not possible for many systems such as internal combustion engines. Recent advances in the Deep Learning Suite of tools allow the extraction of useful information from complex signals acquired by inexpensive sensors. In this work, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks have been proposed to meter highly compressible pulsatile flow by learning the relationship between the average flow rate and the temporal patterns of standard orifice measurements. The model was built and evaluated with separate training and testing datasets that had different pulsation frequencies and waveforms. …

Localization Of People In Gnss-Denied Environments Using Neural-Inertial Prediction And Kalman Filter Correction, Lauren N. Cash

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis presents a method based on neural networks and Kalman filters for estimating the position of a person carrying a mobile device (i.e., cell phone or tablet) that can communicate with static UWB sensors or is carried in an environment with known landmark positions. This device is used to collect and share inertial measurement unit (IMU) information — which includes data from sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers — and UWB and landmark information. The collected data, in combination with other necessary initial condition information, is input into a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) which predicts the movement …

System Analysis Of An Internal Combustion Engine (Ice) – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (Sofc) Hybrid Cycle, Jose Javier Colon Rodriguez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy and the rigid operation of existing coal plants, the need for flexible power generation technology is eminent. Hybrid energy systems have shown potential for flexible, grid following dynamics while maintaining higher efficiencies. The work below focuses on the performance analysis of a proposed 100 kW pressurized Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) hybrid system. The un-utilized fuel from the SOFC stack provided the chemical energy to operate the engine. A turbocharger was used to deliver the necessary air flow for both the stack and engine. An external reformer …

Phase-Averaged, Frequency Dependence Of Jet Dynamics In A Scaled Up Vocal Fold Model With Full And Incomplete Closure, Nathaniel Wei, Abigail Haworth, Hunter Ringenberg, Michael Krane, Timothy Wei

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study focuses on frequency dependence effects on glottal jet dynamics with a focus on the physiological condition in which the vocal folds do not fully close. Incomplete closure occurs naturally in children and adult females. But there are also pathological conditions that can be problematic. Experiments were conducted using a 10× scaled-up model in a free surface water tunnel. Two-dimensional vocal fold models with semicircular medial surfaces were stepper motor driven inside a square duct with constant opening and closing speeds. Cases with complete vocal fold closure and incomplete closure to only 15% of the maximum gap were examined. …

Sars-Cov-2 Detecting Rapid Metasurface-Based Sensor, Shobhit K. Patel, Jaymit Surve, Juveriya Parmar, Khaled Aliqab, Meshari Alsharari, Ammar Armghan

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We have proposed a novel approach to detect COVID-19 by detecting the ethyl butanoate which high volume ratio is present in the exhaled breath of a COVID-19 infected person. We have employed a refractive index sensor (RIS) with the help of a metasurface-based slotted T-shape perfect absorber that can detect ethyl butanoate present in exhaled breath of COVID-19 infected person with high sensitivity and in-process SARS-CoV-2. The optimized structure of the sensor is obtained by varying several structure parameters including structure length and thickness, slotted T-shape resonator length, width, and thickness. Sensor’s performance is evaluated based on numerous factors comprising …

Design, Development And Evaluation Of The Ruggedized Edge Computing Node (Recon), Sahil Girin Patel

Theses and Dissertations

The increased quality and quantity of sensors provide an ever-increasing capability to collect large quantities of high-quality data in the field. Research devoted to translating that data is progressing rapidly; however, translating field data into usable information can require high performance computing capabilities. While high performance computing (HPC) resources are available in centralized facilities, bandwidth, latency, security and other limitations inherent to edge location in field sensor applications may prevent HPC resources from being used in a timely fashion necessary for potential United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) field applications. To address these limitations, the design requirements for RECON …

Molecular Dynamics Of High Temperature Hydrogen Attack, Mike Travis Bodden Connor

Theses and Dissertations

High temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) is a damage mechanism that only affects carbon steel and low alloy material. Most of the data regarding HTHA are experimental-driven. Even though this approach has been successful, there are still much more things that the oil and gas industry does not understand about HTHA. The regions that were considered safe (below the Nelson curves) have experienced catastrophic failure. Our research consists of performing Molecular Dynamics (MD) and the Nudge Elastic Band (NEB) calculation of HTHA to better understand the atomistic behavior of this damage mechanism.

Nanoscale Imaging Of Antiferromagnetic Domains In Epitaxial Films Of Cr2O3 Via Scanning Diamond Magnetic Probe Microscopy, Adam Erickson, Syed Qamar Abbas Shah, Ather Mahmood, Ilja Fescenko, Christian H. Binek, Adbelghani Laraoui

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We report direct imaging of boundary magnetization associated with antiferromagnetic domains in magnetoelectric epitaxial Cr₂O₃ thin films using diamond nitrogen vacancy microscopy. We found a correlation between magnetic domain size and structural grain size which we associate with the domain formation process. We performed field cooling, i.e., cooling from above to below the Néel temperature in the presence of a magnetic field, which resulted in the selection of one of the two otherwise degenerate 180° domains. Lifting of such a degeneracy is achievable with a magnetic field alone due to the Zeeman energy of a weak …

Callaway Measurement Device, Andre S. Fisher, Roman Hays, Blake Sousa, Grant Gabrielson

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to illustrate the Callaway Measurement Device senior project from start to finish. The challenge given to the team was to update and improve a gauge used by Callaway employees to measure the loft, lie, and face angle of their full spectrum of golf clubs. Once the team understood how the pre-existing gauge operates, the team conducted background research into other technologies that could improve the gauge. The team decided to digitalize the device amongst other tweaks to reduce error. Because the CAD files were not available for the pre-existing device, the team began reverse …

Novel Hitch Cargo Cart, Cesilio Sanchez Ramirez, Lance Haidet, Richard Lontoc, Tyler Selinka

Mechanical Engineering

This document presents the engineering design process used to develop, manufacture, and test a new and improved iteration of a hitch cart prototype. This process was performed by a team of four mechanical engineering seniors as part of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s senior design pathway. The goal of this project was to develop a sturdy and reliable iteration of our sponsor’s hitch cart prototype, that integrated the functionality of a vehicle hitch cargo platform and that of a height adjustable cargo cart into a single streamlined and easy to use product. This design could be used by …

Dynamic Analysis, Characterization, And Design Of Rigid-Flex Pcb Robotics, John Bell

All Dissertations

The era of space exploration is driven by and fuels large advances in technological progress.
Over the last decade, engineering practices for spacecraft, space structures, robotics, software and
hardware, manufacturing techniques, and the implementation of new and novel materials has been
revolutionized. Space exploration pushes the envelope in terms of technological capabilities and
robotic systems (rovers) become lighter, smaller, and more capable of sustaining damage. This
dissertation aids in the advancement of design knowledge for a class of rovers characterized by
their chassis architecture: rigid-flex printed circuit board (PCB) robotics. These rovers leverage
the printed circuit cards as the structural …

Modeling, Control And Estimation Of Reconfigurable Cable Driven Parallel Robots, Adhiti Raman Thothathri

All Dissertations

The motivation for this thesis was to develop a cable-driven parallel robot (CDPR) as part of a two-part robotic device for concrete 3D printing. This research addresses specific research questions in this domain, chiefly, to present advantages offered by the addition of kinematic redundancies to CDPRs. Due to the natural actuation redundancy present in a fully constrained CDPR, the addition of internal mobility offers complex challenges in modeling and control that are not often encountered in literature.

This work presents a systematic analysis of modeling such kinematic redundancies through the application of reciprocal screw theory (RST) and Lie algebra while …

Novelty Ice Cream Assembly Prototype, Mason Sylvester, Logan Williamson, Alvaro Martinez, Adin Gilman-Cohen

Mechanical Engineering

Cool Beans USA is a novelty ice cream startup company founded by Keith Zachow. In the winter of 2022, our team began working with Mr. Zachow to develop a machine to automate parts of the production process for his product. This product consists of two hemispherical ice-cream cone shell halves filled with soft serve ice cream and pressed together. The assembled pods are around the size and shape of a small walnut and are intended to be sold in stores as a frozen finger food. At the time of project inception, this product was in its early stages and was …

Baby Soothing Device, Grace Kalene Mekrut, Matteo Gozzini, Miles Angel Ibarra, Christian Joel Roberts

Mechanical Engineering

This document is the official final design review for the Baby Soothing Device. This product is intended to help families sleep throughout the night by allowing a baby to be soothed back to sleep without constant and direct parental interaction. It is maintained by Mechanical Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo for Dustin Yoder, the project sponsor. The purpose of this document is to present the design process from ideation to finished design in great enough detail that its manufacturing procedure may be replicated if desired. This document further explains all the research, testing, and benchmarks …

Utilizing Systematic Design And Shape Memory Alloys To Enhance Actuation Of Modular High-Frequency Origami Robots, Jessica M. Den Haese

All Theses

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) describe a group of smart metallic materials that can be deformed by external magnetic, thermal, or mechanical influence and then returned to a predetermined shape through the cycling of temperature or stress. They have several advantages, such as having excellent mechanical properties, being low cost, and being easily manufactured, while also providing a compact size, completely silent operation, high work density, and requiring less maintenance over time. SMAs can undergo sold-to-solid phase transformations, and it is because of these phase transformations that they can experience shape memory effect (SME); or the ability to recover from a …

An Application Of Optimized Bistable Laminates As A Low Velocity, Low Impact Mechanical Deterrent, Graham Lancaster

All Theses

This research considers the problem of using bistable laminates as a mechanical deterrent to the impending impact of a particle. The structure will be controlled through an algorithm that will utilize piezoelectric devices to activate them in unison with the bistable laminate to successfully deter. A novel experimental setup will be constructed to ensure that the bistable laminate stays fixed when acting as a mechanical deterrent. Piezoelectricity is the main driving force of the bistable laminate to morph and this study will use a Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuator that contains piezoelectric ceramic rods in a patch to transfer electrical …