Engineering Commons^™

Semi-Robotic Knee Arthroscopy System With Braking Mechanism, Thai Hua

Honors Undergraduate Theses

To alleviate the poor ergonomics which surgeons suffer during knee arthroscopy, a semi-robotic device with braking mechanism is created for intraoperative assistance. A slitted ball joint assembly is developed to transmit the clamping force to the arthroscope inside. Ball deformation and stress at various angles to the vertical and clamping forces is recorded through Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Contact forces between the scope and inner surfaces of the ball is also computed in FEA at different clamping forces. The von Mises stress occurring in the ball joint is under the yield stress limit for polyethylene, and there is noticeable …

Effectiveness Of Acoustic Design In Public Spaces, Jana V. Jirgens

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this thesis, a discussion on the effectiveness of acoustic design in public spaces is made. The auditory properties of a location have noteworthy implications on the success of a building's design and how a room is perceived. Depending on the requirements of each location, either a reverberant or sound-absorbing approach is best suited for the environment. Moreover, public health is negatively affected by long-term involuntary noise exposure. Because of this, there is an obvious demand for continued and expanded study in acoustic design. This thesis aims to challenge interior design choices made in four testing locations: a classroom, a …

Timken Black Oxide False Brinelling Project, Elizabeth Kotzalas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is a known issue that occurs in wind turbine main shaft bearings, among other bearing types and applications during transportation or while the turbine is powered on, but the bearing is not spinning. This issue is damage that is confined to mostly the raceways but can damage the rollers over time. It is called false brinelling and is a material removal from the raceways due to repeated tiny vibrations of the rollers over the same area. A question was posed on whether black oxide surface treatment could reduce false brinelling wear on bearings in this application, and as a …

Multi-Material 3d Printing With Hybrid Direct Ink Writing-Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (Diw-Vam) System, Jose Zapata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The rapid growth of 3D printing has led to many new iterations of additive manufacturing techniques. However, the current 3D printing techniques encompass only one printing method and have gradually expanded the ability to print multiple materials simultaneously. In this research, a hybrid 3D printing system is created by integrating direct ink writing (DIW) into volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM) to achieve multi-material printing. Compared to traditional DLP and SLA printing systems, the hybrid DIW-VAM system can create parts 95% faster. Meanwhile, the developed hybrid system takes advantages of DIW's precision to suspend a secondary liquid resin through extrusion into a …

A Conceptual Model For Quality 4.0 Deployment In U.S. Based Manufacturing Firms, Thomas Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Manufacturing is currently undergoing a fourth industrial revolution, referred to as Industry 4.0, enabled by digital technologies and advances in our ability to collect and use data. Quality 4.0 is the application of Industry 4.0 to enhance the quality function within an organization. Quality practitioners are uniquely positioned within organizations and already possess data application skillsets. Despite a perception that Quality 4.0 will be critical to future success shared by a majority of industry, most companies have not attempted to implement Quality 4.0 strategy, and those that have report very low rates of success. The goal of this study was …

Design And Simulation Analysis Of A Bipv (Building Integrated With Pv) Air-Duct System For Residential High-Performance Development, Arash Zarmehr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

A growing number of buildings are integrating building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) devices to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy costs. A building's heating and cooling loads are impacted by the thermal resistance of the air duct BIPV because of the change in thermal resistance. Therefore, augmenting the efficiency of (BIPV) devices will benefit many building architectures and mechanical engineering applications. This work introduces a low-cost and low- maintenance air duct system design augmenting BIPV systems. This novel approach increases airflow velocity and decreases air temperature for BIPV, resulting in improved performance for the PV system electricity output, increased PV lifespan due …

Strategies To Increase Competitive Advantage In The Automotive Manufacturing Supply Chain, Amber Willis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some automotive manufacturing supply chain leaders lack strategies that are needed to implement information technology (IT) systems. Business leaders are concerned with implementing IT systems to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Grounded in the resource-based view theory (RBV), the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore information system strategies used by leaders in the automotive manufacturing supply chain to achieve competitive advantage. Participants were five leaders of an automotive manufacturing supply chain organization who implemented IT systems. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and a review of organization project documents. Through thematic analysis, five themes were …

A Methodology For Statistical Mean Wave Climate Regime Characterisation In Oceanic Islands: The Case Of The Southern Coast Of Tenerife, Emilio Megías, Manuel García-Román

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Oceanic islands of volcanic origin tend to have peculiar characteristics, such as: exposure to many wave directions; grouping in archipelagos; steep coastal slopes; and small coastal shelves. All these features require certain considerations in wave climate studies. These types of studies, when wave spectra are not available and have to be performed with parametric data, can be unreliable without an adequate systematic treatment. In this work we propose a methodology consisting of pre-classification according to the peak period and subsequent separation into different sectors according to the geographical fetch. The island of Tenerife is the case study, and in particular …

Method-Of-Characteristics Models For Flowfield Evaluation Of Hypervelocity Test Facilities, Ananthkumar Jayamani

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Ground test facilities are an imperative part of the design and development of flying vehicles. In the case of high-enthalpy facilities, evaluating the gasdynamic and thermochemical state of the test gas poses challenges due to high temperature effects. This study aims to contribute to the development impulse facilities by developing reduced-order models resolving the flowfields of such facilities. Developed as a part of this study are various method-of-characteristics (MoC) algorithms which consider gases under varying levels of thermochemical complexity. The algorithms span from simple calorically perfect gases to full thermochemical nonequilibrium. The first set of algorithms was limited to unsteady …

Microstructural Finite Element Modeling Of High-Performance Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites To Characterize Microscale Material Properties And Fiber-Direction Compressive Strength, Quy Tung Ling Vu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Carbon fiber-reinforced composites are increasingly used in aerospace application thanks to their excellent specific stiffness and strength. However, incomplete understanding of their failure behaviors leads to composite components often being designed with a high Safety Factor, limiting their advantages. Using computational methods, this project studies carbon fiber-reinforced composite microstructures for the objective of understanding and improving material performances under compression load which is one of the main considerations in primary aerospace structure design. A Finite Element (FE) model for the evaluation of composite compression behaviors was developed, allowing the identification of several key material properties affecting composite performance. The numerical …

Cooperative Rendezvous In Multi-Vehicle Systems, Rajeev Shobhit Voleti

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The field of cooperative, multi-vehicle systems has witnessed a significant expansion and evolution, yielding considerable opportunities for improved autonomy, resilience, and robustness. Despite these promising developments, complex challenges persist in ensuring secure and efficient rendezvous among cooperative peers. The term "rendezvous," within the realm of cooperative control, refers to the simultaneous convergence of multi-vehicle systems to a designated target location. In missile guidance, the problem of multiple pursuer missiles achieving rendezvous with a target is termed as a salvo attack. Current methodologies often grapple with issues related to synchronization, high latency and network security, all of which can adversely impact …

A Rigid Body Framework For Modeling And Simulation Of Formation Of Autonomous Agents, Suguru Sato

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Formation motion, wherein multiple agents operate within close proximity while maintaining precise relative positions and coordinated movements has a significant impact in the realm of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS). Formation establishment, and station-keeping have been critical research areas as several missions can be conceived, and accomplished by groups of “simple” autonomous agents. Advances in this research have led to multiple advantages in areas such as reconnaissance, aerospace exploration, map building, search and rescue, etc. particularly, if the formation motion is inspired by nature and natural phenomena such as flock of birds, school of fish, hydrodynamics (smooth streamlines), magnetic fields, and …

Piv Measurements Of Open-Channel Turbulent Flow Under Unconstrained Conditions, James K. Arthur

Faculty Journal Articles

Many open-channel turbulent flow studies have been focused on highly constrained conditions. Thus, it is rather conventional to note such flows as being fully developed, fully turbulent, and unaffected by sidewalls and free surface disturbances. However, many real-life flow phenomena in natural water bodies and artificially installed drain channels are not as ideal. This work is aimed at studying some of these unconstrained conditions. This is achieved by using particle image velocimetry measurements of a developing turbulent open-channel flow over a smooth wall. The tested flow effects are low values of the Reynolds number based on the momentum thickness Re …

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. …

Acausal Modeling Of Wind Turbines With Validation And Control Studies, Kazi Ishtiak Mohsin

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This thesis involves the modeling, validation, and control studies of a Control-Oriented, Reconfigurable, and Acausal Floating Turbine Simulator (CRAFTS), that is currently under development. CRAFTS uses Modelica®, an object-oriented, declarative, multi-domain modeling language for physical system modeling in the Dymola environment. The CRAFTS simulator facilitates rapid dynamic simulation of wind turbines with various model variants and enables control co-design.

A major emphasis of this thesis is in the validation of the CRAFTS simulator for a 15-MW land-based wind turbine through several test cases. These test cases were collaboratively developed in conjunction with other participating research entities. CRAFTS has undergone rigorous …

Effect Of Autoclave Process Parameters On Mechanical Behaviors Of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites Fabricated Via Additive Manufacturing, Quang Hao Nguyen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Additively manufactured carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are vastly studied for their remarkable mechanical properties compared to most other 3D printed materials. Different methods were employed to further increase mechanical performance of CFRP 3D printed parts. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of autoclave postprocessing on the interlaminar shear behavior between 3D printed CFRP layers. 3D printed CFRP samples were processed with nine combinations of temperature and vacuum in an autoclave. Short beam shear (SBS) tests were performed to characterize the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of the samples after autoclave processing. Digital image correlation (DIC) was …

Variational Autoencoder And Sensor Fusion For Robust Myoelectric Controls, Keith A. Currier

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Myoelectric control schemes aim to utilize the surface electromyography (EMG) signals which are the electric potentials directly measured from skeletal muscles to control wearable robots such as exoskeletons and prostheses. The main challenge of myoelectric controls is to increase and preserve the signal quality by minimizing the effect of confounding factors such as muscle fatigue or electrode shift. Current research in myoelectric control schemes are developed to work in ideal laboratory conditions, but there is a persistent need to have these control schemes be more robust and work in real-world environments. Following the manifold hypothesis, complexity in the world can …

Effect Of Particle Size On Mechanics Of Particle Reinforced Composites Using Photoluminescence Piezospectroscopy, Khanh Vo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Nanoparticle reinforced composites are greatly desired by the aerospace community for a multitude of applications for their tailorable quasi-isotropic mechanical properties such as the high strength-to-weight ratio. With increasing demand of structural nanoparticulate composites, the optimization of their structural integrity and performance can be improved with a better understanding of the load transfer mechanics. Extensive nanoparticulate composites research has focused on the roles of particle shape, size, and volume fraction on the mechanical properties. Nanocomposites are often experimentally characterized through the determination of the bulk composite material properties. Load transfer research with a micro-mechanics perspective, distinguishing particle and matrix behavior, …

Machine Learning Applications In Advanced Additive Manufacturing: Process Modeling, Microstructure Analysis, And Defect Detection, Peter Warren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques are critical for assessing the integrity, health, and mechanical properties of materials manufactured from various methods. High fidelity NDE techniques are essential for quality control but often lead to massive data generation. Such a vast data load cannot be manually processed, this leads to a severe bottleneck for process engineers. Machine learning (ML) offers a solution to this problem by providing powerful and adaptable algorithms capable of learning patterns, identifying features, and finding hidden relationships in large sets of data. Various ML models are used in this work to improve predictions, improve measurements, detect anomalies, classify …

Investigation Of Fiber Orientation And Mechanical Properties Of Pyrolysis Recycled Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Thermoset Composite, Reva N. Simmons, Harry Lee, Garam Kim

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

With increasing demand of carbon fiber reinforced fiber thermoset composites, establishing a sustainable cycle for these materials becomes crucial. Pyrolysis is a process of reclaiming carbon fiber from thermoset composites by thermally degrading the polymer at high temperatures allowing the fibers to be extracted. Carbon fiber reclaimed through current pyrolysis processes for thermoset composites typically loses its original shape and orientation, making it difficult to reorganize the fibers. This study investigated the feasibility of maintaining the fiber orientations for continuous fiber reinforced thermoset composite during pyrolysis by stitching the carbon fiber layup to a conformable copper mesh during the manufacturing …

3d Simulation Of A Yogurt Filling Machine Using Grafcet Studio And Factory Io: Realization Of Industry 4.0, Bashir Salah, Waqas Saleem, Razaullah Khan, Ahmed Tawhid Ahmed Soliman

Articles

Manufacturing systems, enterprises and academic institutions worldwide are implementing industry 4.0 (IR4.0). By integrating the services and equipment, IR4.0 develops autonomous systems that manage industrial operations and exchange real-time data in real time. This study includes a simulation of an existing production system using the GRAFCET Studio software.

Advances In Precision Microfabrication Through Digital Light Processing: System Development, Material And Applications, Xinhui Wang, Jinghang Liu, Yang Zhang, Per Magnus Kristiansen, Aminul Islam, Michael Gilchrist, Nan Zhang

Articles

Digital Light Processing (DLP) is an advanced additive manufacturing technology which has garnered substantial recognition and has been extensively applications in various fields. This review focuses on the precision microfabrication process of DLP, providing an overview of the DLP 3D printing system, including the digital light engine, project lenses, motorised stage and resin vat for micro-structure fabrication. Additionally, this review paper comprehensively analyses commercially available DLP printers, covering resolution, cost and a detailed discussion on the importance of photopolymer resins, emphasising the monomer, photo-initiator, photoabsorber, etc. Based on the photopolymerisation theory, the DLP high-precision printing process is analysed, which is …

Board 341: Mobile Learning In Stem: A Case Study In An Undergraduate Engineering Course, Krishna Pakala, Maeve Bakic, Diana Bairaktarova, Devshikha Bose

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Student-centered educational system is needed for better educational outcomes. Technology enabled pedagogy has helped immensely during the pandemic times when rapid transition to remote learning was essential. This poster reports findings on year one of a two-year research study to utilize mobile technologies and a technology-enhanced curriculum to improve student engagement and learning in STEM undergraduate courses. This poster describes a quasi-experimental mixed methods study on implementing mobile devices (iPad and Pencil) and a technology-enhanced curriculum in an undergraduate thermal-fluids engineering course, a foundational engineering class.

The technology-enabled curriculum was fully integrated in the thermal-fluids course to deliver content and …

3d-Printed Hydrogels Dressings With Bioactive Borate Glass For Continuous Hydration And Treatment Of Second-Degree Burns, Fateme Fayyazbakhsh, Michael J. Khayat, Candy Sadler, Delbert Day, Yue-Wern Huang, Ming-Chuan Leu

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Recent advances in additive manufacturing have led to the development of innovative solutions for tissue regeneration. Hydrogel materials have gained significant attention for burn wound treatment in clinical practice among various advanced dressings due to their soothing and moisturizing activity. However, prolonged healing, pain, and traumatic removal due to the lack of long-term wound hydration are some of the challenges in the treatment of second-degree burn wounds. In this study, 3D-printed dressings were fabricated using gelatin, alginate, and bioactive borate glass (BBG) using an extrusion-based bioprinter. After ionic crosslinking, the 3D-printed dressings were characterized for mechanical properties, degradation rate, hydration …

Modeling Of Expansion Of Laser-Produced Aluminum Plasma Plume In Ambient Air, Edmund Tsiri Semaha

Graduate Research Posters

When a laser pulse is focused on an aluminum target, it interacts with the material’s surface and a plasma plume is developed. Hydrodynamic expansion of generated plasma plume consisting of interacting target and ambient gaseous species remain one of very significant subjects of plasma plume chemistry, yet to be fully understood. The revealing of fundamental physics processes which occur within these plasma plumes is not only of purely scientific advancement, but it is also of industrial interest. Our research focuses on the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model that is used to investigate the chemistry of expanding plasma generated …

Classifying Multi-Generational Products For The Circular Economy, Buddhika M. Hapuwatte, Fazleena Badurdeen, I. S. Jawahir

Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing Faculty Publications

Manufacturers are increasingly interested in the circular economy (CE) and potential of circular productions. To fully utilize CE, better guidance at the design stage is needed to establish closed-loop flows and prioritize higher value retaining end-of-use (EoU) practices such as reuse and remanufacture (i.e., parts harvesting). Intergenerational commonality (IC) is a method to increase EoU parts harvesting. However, closed-loop parts harvesting potential depends on the compatible timing between design generations’ production and EoU returns curves. Therefore, in this paper, we explore an approach to make an initial assessment on where IC as a closed-loop CE strategy can produce most benefit, …

Design Of Force Indicator For Ballistic Armor Trauma Pad, William Keenan, Anthony Cinalli, Patrick Kennedy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of the Force Indicator for Ballistic Armor Vests is to obtain an approximate value for the impact a bullet delivers through a trauma pad after the Kevlar layer stops the initial bullet. This approximation will be applied in the field to assist in medical treatment of gunshot wounds. The indicator is made from a pressure-sensitive film located behind the Kevlar layer and trauma pad, and it can be easily removed in the field for examination. The impact vest and force indicator are self-contained for ease of implementation. The device will be tested with 9mm, .22 Long Rifle, and …

Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing: G-Code And Firmware Attacks And Defense Frameworks, Haris Rais

Theses and Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM) refers to a group of manufacturing processes that create physical objects by sequentially depositing thin layers. AM enables highly customized production with minimal material wastage, rapid and inexpensive prototyping, and the production of complex assemblies as single parts in smaller production facilities. These features make AM an essential component of Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing. It is now used to print functional components for aircraft, rocket engines, automobiles, medical implants, and more. However, the increased popularity of AM also raises concerns about cybersecurity. Researchers have demonstrated strength degradation attacks on printed objects by injecting cavities in the …

An Insight Into The Effect Of Sharp And Round Edges On The Flow Field-A Cfd Simulation, Abid Hussain, Gao Puzhen, M. Mustafa Azeem, Muhammad Zubair, Muhammad Aamir, Muhammad Irfan Khaleed

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a numerical investigation of pressure drop and distribution in a channel around a sharp edge and a disc that is connected to the base of a circular rod. We have employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-Fluent for the validation of our models. It was found that the edge sharpness of the disc influences the pressure drop., i.e. sharp edge has higher turbulence and pressure drop. We also observed that pressure drops in the case of the circular disc are less than that of the sharp edge. However, pressure drop has essentially the same values for both shapes after …

Investigation Of Endothelial Mechanics On Primary Cell Functions: Endothelium Permeability And Wound Healing, Sean Beverung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The endothelium composes the inner lining of blood vessels, the heart, and lymphatic vessels. Within the cardiovascular system, it is an extremely important structure, aiding in the regulation of blood pressure with the vascular tone, recruiting immune response, regulating the transfer of material in and out of the bloodstream, and the creation of new blood vessels through angiogenesis. The endothelium is composed entirely of endothelial cells. These cells lay in a flat squamous formation and are in direct contact with blood and aid in the regulation and transfer of material in and out of the bloodstream via active and passive …