Engineering Commons^™

Methodology To Predict The Instantaneous Friction Work In Non-Conventional Internal Combustion Engines, Ravishankar Thangavelu

Masters Theses

Non-Conventional Internal Combustion Engine (NCICE) may utilize a variety of contact surface shapes, where both sliding and rolling losses occur. This study develops techniques that allow the user to define the type of forces and the characteristics of the friction type to predict the instantaneous and over all friction work in a NCICE under user defined operating conditions. The characteristics include inertial effects, contour and surface effects, resulting contact surface changes and film thickness changes as a result of contact surface.

Laser Ignition Of Pulverized Coals, John C. Chen, Masayuki Taniguchi, Kiyoshi Narato, Kazuyuki Ito

Mechanical Engineering

We present a novel experiment to study the ignition of pulverized coal. A dilute stream of particles is dropped into a laminar, upward-flow wind tunnel with a quartz test section. The gas stream is not preheated. A single pulse from a Nd:YAG laser is focused through the tunnel and ignites the fuel. The transparent test section and cool walls allow for optical detection of the ignition process. In this article we describe the experiment and demonstrate its capabilities by observing the ignition behavior of spherical, amorphous-carbon particles and two coals: an anthracite are a high-volatile bituminous coal. The ignition behaviors …

Analysis Of Kancil's Car Knuckle Prototype, Tresna P. Soemardi, Aida Mahmudah

Makara Journal of Technology

Analysis of Kancil’s Knuckle Prototype. The objective of this work is to execute strength analysis of knuckle, which is made from FCD 50, by using static analysis on maximum loading. This maximum loading is obtained from front axle loading calculation on particular operating condition. That is, vehicle is braking while cornering in down hill. From previous vehicle loading calculation, we get a number of loading values on different speed and deceleration. At the end, we get a value of speed and deceleration that guarantee the vehicle safety if it is braking while cornering in down hill. As comparison, loading calculation …

Pid Fuzzy Logic Controller System For Dc Motor Speed Control, H. Samsul Bachri M.

Makara Journal of Technology

PID Fuzzy Logic Controller System for DC Motor Speed Control. A good controller system must have resilience to disturbance and must be able to response quickly and accurately. Problem usually appears when PID controller system was built sensitively hence the system’s respon to the disturbance will yield big overshot/undershot then the possibility of oscillation to be happened is excelsior. When the controller system was built insensitively, the overshot/undershot will be small but the recovery time will be longer. Hybrid controller system could overcome those problems by combining PID control system with fuzzy logic. The main control of this system is …

Using Stiffeners For Improved Geometric Fidelity Of Flexible Elements, Ankit Kapoor

Masters Theses

Flexible hoses play an important role in safe operation of a transportation vehicle in automotive and aerospace field. Due to lack of accurate and efficient modeling techniques for such flexible elements with large deformation, most Computer Aided Engineering system do not address the problem in their solution methods.

In this thesis a method is presented to improve the geometric fidelity of flexible element models by using off-axis bi-linear stiffeners (spring) into a discrete linear beam model. Resulting deflection of a hose were compared with the digital scans of an actual deflection of the hose. Though the method is computationally expensive, …

Comparing Refractory Coatings On Shell Sand Utilizing Elevated Temperature And Collapsibility Testing, Suet Fong Cheah

Masters Theses

This research study examines the effects of refractory coatings on a shell sand using laboratory testing equipment as opposed to the more laborious and time consuming processes of molding, melting, filling, shakeout, and obtaining dimensions of actual castings. As of today, there have not been any such laboratory test methods. This research project focused on quantifying distortion, mass change, and impact strength found in refractory coated shell sand. The equipment used was the thermal distortion tester (TDT) and a modified impact tester. The thermal distortion curves (TDC), mass change, and impact strength are provided and compared for all systems studied. …

Quarternair Cugasete And Cuga0.5in 0.5te2 Thin Films Fabrication Using Flash Evaporation, A. Harsono Soepardjo

Makara Journal of Technology

Quarternair CuGaSeTe and CuGa0.5In 0.5Te2 Thin Films Fabrication Using Flash Evaporation. Quarternair materials CuGaSeTe and CuGa0.5In 0.5Te2 are the basic materials to solar cell fabrication. These materials have high absorption coefficients around 103 – 105 cm-1 and band gap energy in the range of 1-5 eV. In this research, the films were made by flash evaporation method using quarternair powder materials of CuGaSeTe and CuGa0.5In 0.5Te2 to adhere in a glass substrate. After the films were obtained, the properties of these films will be characterized optically and electrically. The lattice parameter of the films and the crystalline film structure were …

Graded Channel Mosfet Simulation With S-Pisces 2b, Hartono Siswono

Makara Journal of Technology

Graded Channel MOSFET simulation with S-Pisces 2B. Graded-Channel Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-effect- Transistor or GCMOSFET is being discussed in this paper. GCMOSFET technology has been developed to meet the growing demand for low power and high performance application. In this paper, it will be shown that, compared to ungraded MOSFET, the GCMOSFET device offers the advantage of significantly higher drive current. The higher drive current is achieved because the effecctive channel length of GCMOSFET is shorter than the ungraded MOSFET’s. From the simulation result with S-PISCES 2B and MATLAB, it can been shown that the ID from GCMOSFET is higher than the …

Construction Of Depth-Structure Shelf-Edge Map For Case Study Of Kujung Formation, East Java Sea, Saifatur Rusli, Suparto Suparto

Makara Journal of Technology

Construction of Depth-Structure Shelf-edge Map for Case Study of Kujung Formation, East Java Sea. In general, reflection seismic method has capability to represent sub-surface in time domain. Seismic cross-section that depicts the formation of sub-surface usually use time domain in the format of TWT (Two Way Times). This due to in the process of seismic data acquisition, seismic wave propagates in down-going and up-going manner so that the obtained results from data processing are in the format of TWT seismic vs. shot points. This paper will describe the construction of depth-structure map for case study of Kujung Formation, East Java …

Critical Variables Of Solder Paste Stencil Printing For Micro-Bga And Fine-Pitch Qfp, Jianbiao Pan, Gregory L. Tonkay, Robert H. Storer, Ronald M. Sallade, David J. Leandri

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Stencil printing continues to be the dominant method of solder deposition in high-volume surface-mount assembly. Control of the amount of solder paste deposited is critical in the case of fine-pitch and ultrafine-pitch surface-mount assembly. The process is still not well understood as indicated by the fact that industry reports 52-71% surface-mount technology (SMT) defects are related to the solder paste stencil printing process. The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical variables that influence the volume, area, and height of solder paste deposited. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of relevant process parameters on the amount …

Numerical Study Of Combustion Of Hydrogen And Ethylene In A Two-Dimensional Dual-Mode Scramjet Combustor, Robert A. Carson

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents computational fluid dynamics results for two-dimensional flow geometries utilizing two fuels, hydrogen (H2) and ethylene (C2H4). Upstream interaction was evident with the use of both fuels due in part to recirculation in the combustor, the inlet pressures and the combustion process. Results were obtained for hydrogen using a reduced chemical kinetic model while results obtained for ethylene employed a reduced chemical kinetic model as well as an expanded chemical kinetic model.

Initially, an examination of grid composition was conducted in order to select the most numerically efficient and accurate grid for reacting flow in the current combustor …

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report January 1, 2004 Through March 31, 2004, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas. Research Foundation, Robert F. D. Perret

Publications (NSTD)

Mutually satisfactory language has been developed to permit signing of a subcontract between the General Atomics Corporation and the UNLV Research Foundation. The contract is signed.

Modeling, Fabrication, And Optimization Of Niobium Cavities: Phase Iii Third Quarterly Report, Robert A. Schill Jr., Mohamed Trabia

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

Niobium cavities are important parts of the integrated NC/SC high-power linacs. Over the years, researchers in several countries have tested various cavity shapes. They concluded that elliptically shaped cells are the most appropriate shape for superconducting cavities. The need for very clean surfaces lead to the use of a buffered chemical polishing produce for surface cleaning to get good performance of the cavities. The third phase concludes the experimental a fluid flow study and optimization study. The first quarter and second quarter of phase three also begins the experimental set-up of secondary emission studies from niobium in superconducting mode. This …

Mar 2004, Tractor Museum

Lester F. Larsen Tractor Museum: Planning and Development Documents

Curator's Report Director's Report Treasurer's Report

Coordinated Uav Target Assignment Using Distributed Calculation Of Target-Task Tours, David H. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the improvement of cooperative task allocation to vehicles in multiple-vehicle, multiple-target scenarios through the use of more effective preplanned tours. Effective allocation of vehicles to targets requires knowledge of both the team objectives and the contributions that individual vehicles can make toward accomplishing team goals. This is primarily an issue of individual vehicle path planning --- determining the path the vehicles will follow to accomplish individual and team goals. Conventional methods plan optimal point-to-point path segments that often result in lengthy and suboptimal tours because the trajectory neither considers future tasks nor the overall path. However, cooperation …

The Contextable: Building And Testing An Intelligent, Context-Aware Kitchen Table, Daniel Matthew Hoopes

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to design and evaluate The ContexTable, a context-aware system built into a kitchen table. After establishing the current status of the field of context-aware systems and the hurdles and problems being faced, a functioning prototype system was designed and built. The prototype makes it possible to explore established, untested theory and novel solutions to problems faced in the field.

A Comprehensive Model For Technology Push Product Development, Gregory Loren Bishop

Theses and Dissertations

Successful product development has been a fundamental part of many of today's companies and their continued prosperity depends on continuing to develop new products in the future. There are many models of product development. The two most common classes of development are market pull (MP) and technology push (TP). TP product development differs from MP in that the development begins with a specified technology rather than a specified customer. Because TP development is generally considered more difficult and challenging, most of the product development research has focused on MP development and many researchers and practitioners favor MP development over TP …

High-Torque Capacity Compliant Centrifugal Clutches, Ryan G. Weight

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis developed high-torque-capacity floating opposing arm clutches that are manufactured with standard economical manufacturing processes, while maintaining critical performance characteristics. Contact engagement speed and torque capacity models were created for the Hoffco-Comet, floating-opposing-arm (FOA), and floating 1 (F1) clutches. Sensitivity analyses were performed to identify key design parameters. A robust compliant FOA clutch was designed by minimizing the tolerance for both contact engagement speed and torque capacity. The robust design insures that the clutch will operate within the prescribed application constraints. Additional modeling showed that using a layered clutch would significantly tighten the contact engagement speed and torque performance …

Percolation Paths Of Three-Dimensions In Sensitized Stainless Steel, Alisa Jean Henrie

Theses and Dissertations

The study of three-dimensional percolation paths through materials is important in its contribution to understanding defect sensitive properties of materials. This work shows the importance of grain boundary character in modeling defect sensitive boundaries. Also presented are trends of percolation of sensitized grain boundaries in 304 stainless steel (304SS). Of particular interest is how open paths form in a three-dimensional model created through serial sectioning. Evidence is presented that triple or quadruple points that contain typically two boundaries with special character that intersect the percolation path break up the path. Some grains with no known special qualities (i.e., CSL) have …

Synthesis Of Tin Oxide Nanostructures With Controlled Particle Size Using Mesoporous Frameworks, A. Cabot, J. Arbiol, E. Rossinyol, J. R. Morante, Fanglin Chen, Meilin Liu

Faculty Publications

Tin oxide nanostructures with controlled narrow particle size distribution were synthesized inside silica mesoporous templates. In this way, particle growth was blocked by physically corseting the tin compound inside the silica frameworks, the pore diameter of which determines the final tin oxide crystallite size distribution. Template structures were subsequently eliminated by chemical methods to collect the unsupported semiconductor nanoparticles. Thus obtained tin oxed nanopowders, with particle sizes in the range between 6 and 10 nm, were structurally, chemically, and electically characterized. The results are compared with those obtained from the characterization of larger crystallite materials.

Standards For Clean Air Florida Homes, Florida Solar Energy Center, Subrato Chandra

FSEC Energy Research Center®

These standards are designed for new, slab on grade homes built in Florida. Changes to the standards may be necessary for other house construction types. These standards are not meant to be exclusionary. The home builder may submit alternative materials or design details which will result in equivalent performance. These standards complement all building codes and do not supersede any codes.

A False Acceptance Error Controlling Method For Hyperspherical Classifiers, Chen-Wen Yen, Chieh-Neng Young, Mark L. Nagurka

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Controlling false acceptance errors is of critical importance in many pattern recognition applications, including signature and speaker verification problems. Toward this goal, this paper presents two post-processing methods to improve the performance of hyperspherical classifiers in rejecting patterns from unknown classes. The first method uses a self-organizational approach to design minimum radius hyperspheres, reducing the redundancy of the class region defined by the hyperspherical classifiers. The second method removes additional redundant class regions from the hyperspheres by using a clustering technique to generate a number of smaller hyperspheres. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that by removing redundant regions these two …

Development Of Commercially Viable Compliant Mechanisms Using The Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model: Case Studies Of Parallel Mechanisms, Christopher A. Mattson, Larry L. Howell, Spencer P. Magleby

Faculty Publications

Analysis and synthesis of compliant mechanisms has recently been the subject of significant study in the research community. This focus has led to a number of design approaches for developing compliant mechanisms. This paper describes the value of using the Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model (PRBM) to design compliant mechanisms for commercial products. Application of the PRBM is illustrated through the development of two parallel mechanisms: a bicycle derailleur and parallel-motion bicycle brakes. The PRBM allows compliant mechanisms to be modeled and analyzed as rigid-body mechanisms and significantly reduces the complexity of analysis. Mechanisms with straightforward properties are used to demonstrate the use …

Thin Film Encapsulation Of Radio Frequency (Rf) Microelectromechanical Systems (Mems) Switches, Eric D. Marsh

Theses and Dissertations

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) radio frequency (RF) switches have been shown to have excellent electrical performance over a wide range of frequencies. However, cost-effective packaging techniques for MEMS switches do not currently exist. This thesis involves the design of RF-optimized encapsulations consisting of dielectric and metal layers, and the creation of a novel thin film encapsulation process to fabricate the encapsulations. The RF performance of several encapsulation designs are evaluated with an analytical model, full wave electromagnetic simulation, and laboratory testing. Performance degradation due to parasitic and reflection losses due to the package is considered, and RF feed-throughs of the transmission …

Demonstrating Optothermal Actuators For An Autonomous Mems Microrobot, Francis R. Szabo

Theses and Dissertations

There are numerous applications for microrobots which are beneficial to the Air Force. However, the microrobotics field is still in its infancy, and will require extensive basic research before these applications can be fielded. The biggest hurdle to be solved, in order to create autonomous microrobots, is generating power for their actuator engines. Most present actuators require orders of magnitude more power than is presently available from micropower sources. To enable smaller microrobots, this research proposed a simplified power concept that eliminates the need for on-board power supplies and control circuitry by using actuators powered wirelessly from the environment. This …

Male Breast Cancer During Finasteride Therapy [4], Shen C. Lee, Robert J. Ellis

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Unveiling The Crucial Role Of Impact Nergy Loss For So-Called Incompressible Fluid Flow, Jiunn-Shean Chiang, Shu-Hao Chuang, Hsing-Juin Lee

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Experiments show that pipe flows with large expansion angle and area ratio always accompany with significant amount of energy loss, actually energy loss ratios over 70% of incoming flow kinetic energy are commonplace. It is generally believed that all the energy loss is entirely due to viscous dissipation effect. In this paper, several interesting demonstrations have been given to prove the existence and importance of impact energy loss. Literally, impact energy loss is usually more important than viscous energy loss in many cases. In fact, the pipe expansion flow can be configured as high-speed flow ramming into low-speed flow and …

Surface States In Template Synthesized Tin Oxide Nanoparticles, A. Cabot, J. Arbiol, R. Ferre, J. R. Morante, Fanglin Chen, Meilin Liu

Faculty Publications

Tin–oxide nanoparticles with controlled narrow size distributions are synthesized while physically encapsulated inside silica mesoporous templates. By means of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, a redshift of the optical absorbance edge is observed. Photoluminescence measurements corroborate the existence of an optical transition at 3.2 eV. The associated band of states in the semiconductor gap is present even on template-synthesized nanopowders calcined at 800 °C, which contrasts with the evolution of the gap states measured on materials obtained by other methods. The gap states are thus considered to be surface localized, disappearing with surface faceting or being hidden by the surface-to-bulk ratio decrease.

Effects Of Friction Stir Welding On Polymer Microstructure, Seth R. Strand

Theses and Dissertations

This work establishes the relationships between several key Friction Stir Welding process parameters and the resulting microstructural and flexural properties of the welded joint. A series of four single parameter experiments were run. The parameters investigated were pin diameter, feedrate, shoe temperature, and pressure time. Butt welds were made in 6 mm thick stress-relieved extruded polypropylene sheet. Three-point bend tests were used to determine the ultimate flexural strength and coincident strain. The maximum bend angle before failure was used to label the welds as "good or bad." An optical microscope capable of cross polarization was used to examine and photograph …

Alleviating Moisture Problems Hot, Humid Climate Housing, Florida Solar Energy Center, Subrato Chandra

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The Southeastern U.S. experiences hot, humid conditions throughout the summer months and in Florida, one of the high growth states with large number of homes, these conditions can prevail throughout most of the year. As a result it is not uncommon to find extensive mold, soft drywall, buckled floors, damaged ceilings and other moisture problems in new and existing site built and manufactured homes. Since 1999, as a result of participation in the U.S. DOE funded Building America program, the authors have developed first hand experience and conducted research in these areas. This paper provides a brief summary of the …