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Me-Em 2010 Annual Report, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Annual Reports

Table of Contents

• First Year to First Career
• Faculty & Staff
• Alumni
• Resources
• Graduates
• Publications

Oscillatory And Monotonic Modes Of Long-Wave Marangoni Convection In A Thin Film, Sergey Shklyaev, Mikhail Khenner, Alexei Alabuzhev

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We study long-wave Marangoni convection in a layer heated from below. Using the scaling k=O Bi, where k is the wave number and Bi is the Biot number, we derive a set of amplitude equations. Analysis of this set shows presence of monotonic and oscillatory modes of instability. Oscillatory mode has not been previously found for such direction of heating. Studies of weakly nonlinear dynamics demonstrate that stable steady and oscillatory patterns can be found near the stability threshold.

Computational Fluid Dynamic Optimization And Design For The Airborne Laser System, Matthew James Opgenorth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Airborne Laser (ABL) was designed to destroy any ballistic missile shortly after launch that could be a threat to the United States and its allies. The ABL uses several lasers to accomplish the destruction of the ballistic missile, most notably the high powered Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). The COIL is a complex device that could be improved upon in several areas that will result in overall weight reduction, refinement of beam quality, and increased magazine capacity.

This dissertation presents novel design and optimization techniques coupled with fluid dynamics to improve the performance of the COIL system. The focus …

Innovation Skills For Tomorrow’S Sustainable Designers, Julie Linsey, Vimal Viswanathan

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Tomorrow’s sustainable designers will need an arsenal of tools for innovation. An approach for teaching design methods and innovation is described. A new approach for teaching design methods based on the use of analogous products to provide concrete experiences prior to the method’s application to a novel design problem was evaluated. Students’ opinions of the various design methods and their perceptions of the class’s influence on their creativity were also measured. Past experiments have shown that the presentation of example solutions has the potential to cause design fixation thus limiting the design solutions considered. Due to this, the teams’ final …

Computational Study Of Internal And External Condensing Flows And Experimental Synthesis To Investigate Their Attainability And Stability In Ground-Based And Space-Based Environments, Shantanu Kulkarni

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This doctoral thesis presents the computational work and synthesis with experiments for internal (tube and channel geometries) as well as external (flow of a pure vapor over a horizontal plate) condensing flows. The computational work obtains accurate numerical simulations of the full two dimensional governing equations for steady and unsteady condensing flows in gravity/0g environments.

This doctoral work investigates flow features, flow regimes, attainability issues, stability issues, and responses to boundary fluctuations for condensing flows in different flow situations. This research finds new features of unsteady solutions of condensing flows; reveals interesting differences in gravity and shear driven situations; and …

Mathematical Analysis For Perceived Annoyance Of Impulsive Sounds In Terms Of Physical Factors, Gayatri S. Kadlaskar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

From the customer satisfaction point of view, sound quality of any product has become one of the important factors these days. The primary objective of this research is to determine factors which affect the acceptability of impulse noise. Though the analysis is based on a sample impulse sound file of a Commercial printer, the results can be applied to other similar impulsive noise.

It is assumed that impulsive noise can be tuned to meet the accepTable criteria. Thus it is necessary to find the most significant factors which can be controlled physically. This analysis is based on a single impulse. …

Design Of A Low Cost Powered R/C Combat Airplane And Manufacturing Plan, Jonathan N. Bailey

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The goals of this project are to design a low cost powered remote control combat airplane capable of outdoor flight, named the Aero EX and to develop a manufacturing plan to produce each unit at a selling price of $200, while operating at a 25 vehicle batch rate inside a 1,000 square foot facility. These goals are achieved using: Aerospace fundamentals to design the vehicle, Design for Manufacturability to optimize the design for minimal use of labor, Design for Assembly to give consumers the ability to build the vehicle without fixtures, Pull production to eliminate scheduling and match customer demand. …

Design For Manufacturing Of Sports Equipment, Cedrick Bit, Christopher L. Head

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project was to validate industrial designs for a product in its conceptual stage and suggest/implement design changes that suit the contracting company’s needs while assuring the product maintains its basic functional requirements. Techniques and methods used to validate the design include 3‐D solid modeling, physical product application using rapid prototyping to produce the product. Methods of design for manufacturing were analyzed in the design. Processes used in the validation and verification of the design include solid modeling design, methods of measurements, fixture design and manufacturing processes. Full design specifications and solid model files were finalized and …

Computational Models Of Thermal Cycling In Chemical Systems, Carl Barratt, Dante Lepore, Matthew Cherubini, Pauline Schwartz

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Computational models of chemical systems provide clues to counterintuitive interactions and insights for new applications. We have been investigating models of chemical reaction systems under forced, thermal cycling conditions and have found that some hypothetical processes generate higher yields under thermal cycling than under single, fixed temperature conditions. A simple kinetic model of an actual process, the two-temperature polymerase chain reaction that replicates DNA, is used to simulate the important features of a chemical system operating under thermal cycling. This model provides insights into the design of other chemical systems that may have important applications in chemistry, biochemistry and chemical …

The Gas Team And Nasa (Aka Boil, Boil, Toil And Trouble), Get Away Special Team 2010

Education and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Oscillatory And Monotonic Modes Of Long-Wave Marangoni Convection In A Thin Film, Sergey Shklyaev, Mikhail Khenner, Alexei Alabuzhev

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We study long-wave Marangoni convection in a layer heated from below. Using the scaling k=O Bi, where k is the wave number and Bi is the Biot number, we derive a set of amplitude equations. Analysis of this set shows presence of monotonic and oscillatory modes of instability. Oscillatory mode has not been previously found for such direction of heating. Studies of weakly nonlinear dynamics demonstrate that stable steady and oscillatory patterns can be found near the stability threshold.

A Computational Study For The Utilization Of Jet Pulsations In Gas Turbine Film Cooling And Flow Control, Olga V. Kartuzova

ETD Archive

Jets have been utilized in various turbomachinery applications in order to improve gas turbines performance. Jet pulsation is a promising technique because of the reduction in the amount of air removed from compressor, which helps to increase turbine efficiency. In this work two areas of pulsed jets applications were investigated, first one is film cooling of High Pressure Turbine (HPT) blades and second one is flow separation control over Low Pressure Turbine (LPT) airfoil using Vortex Generator Jets (VGJ) The inlet temperature to the HPT significantly affects the performance of the gas turbine. Film cooling is one of the most …

A Comparative Study On Fault Detection And Self-Reconfiguration, Ning Ge

ETD Archive

Extended State Observer (ESO) and the Alpha-Beta-Gamma Tracker are introduced and compared. In comparison, the ESO is found to be more noise resistant. The extended state used for the estimation of the general system dynamics in real time makes it suitable for fault detection. Four control schemes are proposed for self-reconfiguration upon fault detection. These schemes are Active Disturbance Rejection Control, Tracker-based Feedback Control, Fuzzy Logic Control and Tracker-based PID Control. To compare their control performance, these schemes are applied to three different applications namely Active Engine Vibration Isolation System, Three-Tank Dynamic System and MEMS Gyroscope System. The advantages and …

Flow Induced Vibrations In Pipes: A Finite Element Approach, Ivan Grant

ETD Archive

Flow induced vibrations of pipes with internal fluid flow is studied in this work. Finite Element Analysis methodology is used to determine the critical fluid velocity that induces the threshold of pipe instability. The partial differential equation of motion governing the lateral vibrations of the pipe is employed to develop the stiffness and inertia matrices corresponding to two of the terms of the equations of motion. The equation of motion further includes a mixed-derivative term that was treated as a source for a dissipative function. The corresponding matrix with this dissipative function was developed and recognized as the potentially destabilizing …

Identification Of Unmodeled Dynamics In Rotor Systems Using Mu-Synthesis Approach, Ryan J. Madden

ETD Archive

It is well recognized that analytical models only approximate the true dynamics of analyzed rotating machines, due to the presence of components that are inherently difficult to model. Such models of rotating machines are driven by the best engineering knowledge and experience, and very often are updated based on experimental results. The problem of unmodeled or missing dynamics can be exacerbated in the presence of rotor structural damage such as a transverse crack on a shaft. This thesis will present an effective approach for model updating using advanced tools developed in robust control theory, specifically mu-synthesis. The methodology will be …

Opportunities For Lean Enterprise In Public Regional Transportation, Levent Baykut

ETD Archive

This thesis demonstrates the application of Lean Enterprise principles in a unionized/government-subsidized environment. This study states that Lean cannot be fully implemented in such an environment. The work environment and organization's culture required a hybrid system to maximize the process efficiency. Lean production is a manufacturing philosophy that focuses on adding value for the customer. It is commonly accepted that Lean is applicable to almost any repetitive process in any kind of organization, including government agencies and unionized work environments. The objective of this thesis was to research the opportunities and applicability for Lean Enterprise in public transportation. During the …

Thermal Analysis Of Natural Convectiona And Radiation In Porous Fins, Mehulkumar G. Maheria

ETD Archive

No abstract provided.

Heat Transfer In A Nanofluid Flow Past A Permeable Continuous Moving Surface, Sarvang D. Shah

ETD Archive

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce a boundary layer analysis for the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of an incompressible nanofluid flowing over a permeable isothermal surface moving continuously. The resulting system of non-linear ordinary differential equations is solved numerically using Runge-Kutta method with shooting techniques. Numerical results are obtained for the velocity, temperature and concentration distributions, as well as the friction factor, local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number for several values of the parameters, namely the velocity ratio parameter, suction/injection parameter and nanofluid parameters. The obtained results are presented graphically and in tabular form …

Natural Convection In A Porous Medium Saturated By Nanofluid, Kaustubh Ghodeswar

ETD Archive

A boundary layer analysis is presented for the natural convection heat and mass transfer flow past along two different geometries i.e., a vertical cone and an isothermal sphere in a Non-Darcy porous medium saturated with a nanofluid. A co-ordinate transformation is used to transform the governing equations into non-dimensional non-similar boundary layer equations. These equations are then solved numerically using implicit finite difference method (Keller-box method). Numerical solutions for heat transfer rate, mass transfer rate and friction factor have been presented for parametric variations of the buoyancy ratio parameter N-r, Brownian motion parameter Nb, thermophoresis parameter Nt and Lewis number …

Evaluation Of Biological Cell Properties Using Dynamic Indentation Measurement, Guoxin Cao, Namas Chandra

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Faculty Publications

Viscoelastic mechanical properties of biological cells are commonly measured using atomic force microscope (AFM) dynamic indentation with spherical tips. A semiempirical analysis based on numerical simulation is built to determine the cell mechanical properties. It is shown that the existing analysis cannot reflect the accurate values of cell elastic/dynamic modulus due to the effects of substrate, indenter tip size, and cell size. Among these factors, substrate not only increases the true contact radius but also interferes the indentation stress field, which can cause the overestimation of cell moduli. Typically, the substrate effect is much stronger than the other two influences …