Engineering Commons^™

The Mechanical Development For An Autonomous Forest Service Robot, James P. Walker

Honors College Theses

Georgia’s forests are under threat from numerous invasive species of plant, both herbaceous and woody. A primary factor in the invasive potential of any given non-native plant is the lack of natural predators and rapid reseed and regrowth cycles. To combat invasive plants, this thesis proposes an artificial, robotic predator to provide a means of controlling invasive species. Although autonomous robots are currently being developed for similar agricultural purposes, none have emerged for forestry related tasks, such as proposed in this work. The chassis, inspired by rocker bogie and similar suspension systems, has been redesigned to have eight wheels, to …

The Investigation Of Noise, Vibrations And Emissions Of Aero-Gas Turbine Combustion With Synthetic Kerosene Fuels, Margaret Kilpatrick

Honors College Theses

Climatic changes from aviation emissions are complex and include effects of greenhouse gases such as: CO2, NOx, and aerosols. For that reason, the objectives of this study were to investigate the noise, vibrations and emissions characteristics of synthetic kerosene combustion in an aerospace gas turbine to reduce the engine’s environmental impact. Sustainably produced synthetic kerosene is known for having low soot emissions due to little to no aromatics (compounds that create particle pollutants), and for being a sustainable alternative fuel source to imported oil. The noise and sound levels were collected using Bruel & Kjaer microphones to measure various mid …

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Undergraduate Awarded for Combustion Research at Conference

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• American Foundry Society Chapter Established
• AFS Student Chapter Competes in Casting Competition

Bridging The Gap Between Automated Manufacturing Of Fuel Cell Components And Robotic Assembly Of Fuel Cell Stacks, Devin C. Fowler, Vladimir Gurau, Daniel Cox

Department of Manufacturing Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Recently demonstrated robotic assembling technologies for fuel cell stacks used fuel cell components manually pre-arranged in stacks (presenters). Identifying the original orientation of fuel cell components and loading them in presenters for a subsequent automated assembly process is a difficult, repetitive work cycle which if done manually, deceives the advantages offered by either the automated fabrication technologies for fuel cell components or by the robotic assembly processes. We present for the first time a robotic technology which enables the integration of automated fabrication processes for fuel cell components with a robotic assembly process of fuel cell stacks into a fully …

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Undergraduate Researcher Awarded at Georgia Environmental Conference

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Math Review Sessions

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Undergraduate Student Wins Award in Internal Combustion Engine Division Competition

Engineering Of Bio-Mimetic Substratum Topographies For Enhanced Early Colonization Of Filamentous Algae, Ali Khoshkhoo, Andres L. Carrano, David M. Blersch, Kamran Kardel

Department of Manufacturing Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This work reveals a set of surface topography parameters that are significant for algal attachment to natural rock substrata. Topography analysis of rock surfaces from a stream identifies three descriptive areal parameters (Smr, Sv, and Sa) that correlate with the presence of natural periphyton community. A method was developed and validated to reverse engineer and manufacture artificial substrata with topographic complexity defined by these parameters, using computational modeling and additive manufacturing. Results from colonization experiments with filamentous algae show statistically significant increases in early biomass accrual rates on substrata with higher values of …

Micro-Ct Evaluation Of Defects In Ti-6al-4v Parts Fabricated By Metal Additive Manufacturing, Haijun Gong, Venkata Karthik Nadimpalli, Khalid Rafi, Thomas Starr, Brent Stucker

Department of Manufacturing Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this study, micro-computed tomography (CT) is utilized to detect defects of Ti-6Al-4V specimens fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting (EBM), which are two popular metal additive manufacturing methods. SLM and EBM specimens were fabricated with random defects at a specific porosity. The capability of micro-CT to evaluate inclusion defects in the SLM and EBM specimens is discussed. The porosity of EBM specimens was analyzed through image processing of CT single slices. An empirical method is also proposed to estimate the porosity of reconstructed models of the CT scan.

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Dr. Mingzhi Xu Awarded at American Foundry Society's CastExpo 2019

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Dr. Yunus Çengel Guest Lecture on Thermodynamics Education

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• Esteemed Professor Emeritus Yunus Çengel to Guest Lecture at Georgia Southern

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• STEM Career Fair to be held on February 6th

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering News (2013-2023)

• ME Undergraduate Awarded Scholarship from Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals

Analysis Of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Array Optimization, Peter-Claver Nwanze, Keith Bazemore, Jessica Lyons, J. Ann Mitchem

ENERGY Research and Lesson Plans

Wind energy is the fastest growing form of renewable energy, with a multitude of possibilities for expansion. This, as well as other forms of renewable energy, will facilitate understanding of the growing concerns regarding global warming by decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. Wind energy requires wind speeds of at least six miles per hour; therefore, only certain geographical areas are suitable for the use of this technology. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the orientation of an array of wind turbines increases or decreases energy production and efficiency. In this study, various arrays consisting of five …

Rheological Properties Of Two Stainless Steel 316l Powders For Additive Manufacturing, Haijun Gong, Xiaodong Xing, Hengfeng Gu

Department of Manufacturing Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This study measures the rheological properties of two stainless steel 316L powders which are used for the powder-bed-fusion based additive manufacturing process. The purpose is to evaluate the newly acquired powder in comparison with the used and recycled powder, so that both powders can be mixed with each other to supplement the powder usage. The powder rheology properties, such as dynamic property, bulk property, and shear property, are tested and compared. The results and analysis confirm the compatibility of powder mixing.

Energy Lesson Design, Jessica Lyons

ENERGY Research and Lesson Plans

No abstract provided.

Pico-Grid Smart Homes Power Management System, Kathleen Hobbs, Mbonya Myers

ENERGY Research and Lesson Plans

No abstract provided.

Solar Tracker Renewable Energy, Stephanie Christie, Annabeth Helmly, Matthew Smith, Katrina Vaughan

ENERGY Research and Lesson Plans

No abstract provided.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Gasket Handling And Sorting With Machine Vision Integrated Dual Arm Robot, Devin C. Fowler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently demonstrated robotic assembling technologies for fuel cell stacks used fuel cell components manually pre-arranged in stacks (presenters), all oriented in the same position. Identifying the original orientation of fuel cell components and loading them in stacks for a subsequent automated assembly process is a difficult, repetitive work cycle which if done manually, deceives the advantages offered by automated fabrication technologies of fuel cell components and by robotic assembly processes. We present an innovative robotic technology which enables the integration of automated fabrication processes of fuel cell components with robotic assembly of fuel cell stacks into a fully automated fuel …

Blade Design And Analysis Of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine: Cfd And Experimental Investigation Of Blades Design, Relwinde Fabrice Zongo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present thesis focuses on the investigations of the computational fluid dynamics analysis and the experimental study of small scales Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) blades. The initial steps are taken; in the process of this research were the selection of the airfoil type to be used in each blade design and the creation of a blade design with high efficiency operating in a low wind speed zone. For the mentioned blade design process, the following airfoils were selected respectively NACA 0010, NACA 0012, NACA 1412, NACA 2412, NACA 2414, NACA 4412 and NACA 6412. This selection intends to provide …