Engineering Commons^™

Deep Ocean Vehicle (Dov) Scientific Payload, Nichole "Nikki" T. Arm, Mason Gariepy, Brianna Roberts, Kyle C. Walsh

General Engineering

This report aims to provide technical insight into the Deep Ocean Vehicle project performed by the Barrel Eye Explorers. The project was a part of the 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Senior Project class at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The team consisted of Nikki Arm, Mason Gariepy, Brianna Roberts, and Kyle Walsh who were engineering students in the Mechanical, Materials, General, and Industrial engineering departments, respectively. This project was sponsored by Dr. Crow White and overseen by Karla Carichner. The project was a continuation of Nikki Arm’s internship with Global Ocean Design during the Summer of 2021. The lander, Deep …

Radiology Associates Medical Scan Forecasting, Everett M. Notaro, Mitchell Carpenter, Tyler Deis, Kimberly Williams

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

After discontinuing their subscription with Shinyapps and relying on a manual forecasting process, Radiology Associates needs a new method to forecast the number and types of scans that will be executed at each site location. Radiology Associates utilizes Quinsite, which incorporates a live link to their database, as a host for all their Tableau dashboards. This project will create an accurate forecasting model utilizing complex forecasting methods to be hosted by Quinsite which is accessible by all management within Radiology Associates. To begin this process, an exponential smoothing model was created in Tableau to solidify dashboard and storyboard design. Additionally, …

Increasing Legends Salon Revenue Per Square Foot, Jacob William Andreatta, Margaret Faison Gustafson, Julia Galina Odisho, Joshua Spry Morrison

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Katie MacNamara acquired Legends Hair Salon in Atascadero, California in January of 2021. After a few months of learning to run her own business she discovered that her retail revenue per square foot was not high enough. Her goal, and the project objective, was to raise her revenue while also increasing space for her stylists. The metrics used for these objectives were revenue per square foot and the square footage of the retail areas. The beginning state metrics were 48.75 square feet of retail and a retail revenue per square foot of $2.15 with a total of six stylist stations. …

Eagle Medical Tray Denesting & Debris Removal Process, Nicholas Allen Ungefug, Noah Chavez, Susana Shu-Lin Okhuysen, Michael Augustine Pennington

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Eagle Medical Incorporated is a contract medical device packaging and sterilization company. The company purchases thermoformed medical packaging trays, which maintain the sterility of medical devices, from various manufacturers. To ensure packaging quality and to prevent cleanroom contamination, Eagle Medical inspects and sterilizes each blister tray that they order. This process is an essential non-value-added activity that creates a bottleneck. Cleanroom employees must stop packaging medical devices and attend to the processing of blister trays and packaging solutions. The blister trays arrive at Eagle’s facility in nested stacks. Vibration and movement during shipping further compresses the stacks, which makes separation …

Kinetic Energy Harvesting Device For Long Distance Thru-Hikers, Jarod Reece Lyles, Ryan William Mclaughlin, Shaw Hawkeye Hughes, David Hernandez

Mechanical Engineering

The intent of this project was to design and build a device capable of harnessing biomechanical energy from a thru-hiker to charge electronic devices. To begin, we ruled out any potential solutions that could be intrusive to the hiking experience, limiting us to a device that could be placed in a backpack.

After defining the scope of the project, we ideated upon potential designs, and chose to move forward with a rotational generator based design. Detailed analysis included both system dynamics and vibrations based models, and from this analysis we developed a mechanical design in SOLIDWORKS®️ and a custom printed …

Poly (5-Carboxyindole)–Β-Cyclodextrin Composite Material For Enhanced Formaldehyde Gas Sensing, John N. Hodul, Nikhil F. Carneiro, Allison K. Murray, Wilson Lee, Kelly M. Brayton, Xinping He, Carsten Flores-Hansen, Dimitry Zemlyanov, George T.-C. Chiu, James E. Braun, Bryan W. Boudouris, Jeffrey F. Rhoads

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Formaldehyde, a compound commonly employed in many construction materials, paints, and plastics, has been linked to deleterious health effects. Thus, monitoring the presence of formaldehyde in interior locations is increasingly important when it comes to public health. Currently, there is a crucial need for a low-cost, small-scale, selective, and sensitive indoor sensor capable of real-time formaldehyde detection. To meet these performance metrics, materials need to be incorporated onto existing gas sensor platforms to act as chemically selective recognition layers. A main challenge when addressing this issue is creating a material that can remain easily processable, can be easily synthesized, and …

Numerical Modelling Of Elastic Wave Propagation In Anisotropic Media Using The Finite-Difference Time Domain (Fdtd) And Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique (Efit), Seth M. Golembeski

Master's Theses

As ultrasonic testing becomes increasingly widespread, education and simulation in UT becomes increasingly useful. This thesis describes development of two simulations - the first, a Finite Difference Time Domain method that can be deployed to consumer GPUs. This simulation is designed to be user-friendly and provide quick interactivity for pedagogical use, for example, in a classroom or industry training. The second simulation is an anisotropic Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique implementation, which can be deployed to high performance computers for large-scale parallel simulations. This anisotropic simulation is, to the author’s knowledge, the first open-source implementation of anisotropic EFIT.

Evaluating The Effects Of Granulated Rubber And Glass Fibers In Polymer Concrete As A Structural Material For Wafer Grinding Machines, Kevin Gabriel Kuehn, Philip Randall Streeter

Materials Engineering

Polymer concrete is a composite material used to replace cast iron and steel in wafer grinding machines for vibration damping. During the grinding and lapping processes of manufacturing silicon wafers, excessive vibrations may cause subsurface damage which requires additional polishing and reduces yield. Nine compositions containing various levels of granulated rubber and glass fibers were manufactured. CRM WRF-10 granulated rubber was examined at 0%, 5%, and 10% and Corning Cem-Fil glass fibers were added at 0%, 0.5%, and 1% by weight. Smooth-On EpoxAcast 690 epoxy resin was held constant at 16% for each composition. Crushed granite aggregate from Martin Marietta, …

Barker Bird Animatronic Senior Project Report, Marcus Monroe, Nolan Clapp, Ishan Jandaur, Jonathan Ogden

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes how our F71 Senior Design Project team developed a 3D printed, electronic bird that mimics Disneyland’s first animatronic, the Barker Bird. An animatronic is a mechanical puppet that replicates real life movement with robotic parts. Disney’s Barker Bird is a well-known animatronic that replicates a talking macaw with multiple moving systems. The final prototype completed by our team serves as a teaching tool for CAPED (Cal Poly Amusement Park Engineers and Designers) club members that are interested in the field of animated robots.

Wave Goodbye To Salt, Andy Wu, Amanda Olla, Solie Grantham, Charlie Sinclair

Mechanical Engineering

Our team of Cal Poly Mechanical Engineers ideated, designed, built, and tested a system to help combat the growing problem of widespread drought in coastal and island communities. We developed a proof-of-concept model of a wave powered, mechanical system to desalinate ocean water using a reverse osmosis process. From topical research, it was found that there are many ways to harness a portion of the huge amount of energy that the ocean provides. While large scale ocean water desalination plants are already in operation, smaller scale desalination units powered by ocean waves are largely underdeveloped. Our relatively small and inexpensive …

Heating Lanyard To Warm Body Core, Cole Bunker, Spencer Alonge, Tyler Elsom, Matthew Hyland

Mechanical Engineering

Calculated Industries, a company that specializes in construction products headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, has sponsored the Heating Lanyard to Warm Body Core senior project. The objective of the project was to design and manufacture a body core heating device that will be used by construction workers to keep warm in cold environments. The goal is to create a device that is safe, comfortable, and temperature controllable. Our team consists of four mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Research was performed to analyze current products in the market, analyze how to best provide heat to …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker With Phase Change Materials, Weijun Zhao, Jake Lung, Owen Chu, Sarah Melzer

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report documents the development and design process of the Insulated Solar Electric Cooker with a Phase Change Material (ISEC w/ PCM). In this project, we developed a PCM assembly that can be integrated into an existing ISEC system which utilizes two 100 W solar panels. This report details the use of a nitrate salt solution of 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3 and demonstrates its potential as a viable form of thermal storage solution for cooking. We found that only 1kg of PCM is able to retain its heat for around 5 hours after power removal and believe …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker With Solid Thermal Storage, Eric M. Cortes, Andy M. Mccombs, Dominick Trageser, Nami Suzuki

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project report outlines the design for our senior project under the Mechanical Engineering department of California Polytechnic State University. Insulated solar electric cookers (ISEC) are a relatively novel and exciting solution to the ethical, environmental, and medical issues associated with the conventional cooking methods - burning of biomass and charcoal - practiced in nonindustrial countries around the world. ISECs use solar energy input from a solar panel to cook food within an insulated chamber and have been researched and developed by Dr. Peter Schartz and his research group over the past several years. However, our target users expressed …

Shallow-Water Wind Turbine Foundation, Andrew Walker, Nico Nani, James Cusanelli, Zachary Dunkelberger

Mechanical Engineering

Over the 2021-2022 academic year, we, the Shallow Water Wind Turbine Foundation senior project team, designed, manufactured, and tested a fixed bottom, sand mounted turbine foundation for the Cal Poly Wind Power Club’s Collegiate Wind Competition turbine. The foundation was restricted to certain material, installation, and geometric constraints outlined in this report, and needed to support the turbine under operating conditions including 22 m/s wind speeds. The design was analyzed using primarily a bearing capacity geotechnical analysis to determine final geometry and weight. The foundation was then manufactured using welded, custom carbon steel parts.

The foundation was inspected for geometric …

Brush Clearing Trimming Device: Drivetrain, Dallas Russell, Nathan Small, Alex Imbery, Jordan Aguana

Mechanical Engineering

We, the “DT Inc.” team, have been tasked with the redesign of the drivetrain of an electric brush clearing tool created for trail and roadside use. We started the design process by doing research on the currently available products and determining their strengths and shortcomings. We also tested the prototype given to us by our sponsor, and listened to our sponsor about what he liked about his design and what he wanted changed. We resolved from this research that the most important improvements that we needed to make were to improve the traction, reduce the speed and increase the torque, …

Baker/Koob Final Report: Solar Solution For Mini Mars Rover, Jonathan Cederquist, Cole Korchek, Derick Louie, Michaella Ochotorena, Collin Petersen

Mechanical Engineering

This project focused on designing, building, and testing a functional prototype of a collapsible solar array on the mini Mars rover being developed by client and sponsor, Mr. Rich Murray. Although many previous collapsible solar arrays have been deployed for space missions, the previous solar-powered Mars rovers only deployed their arrays once upon landing. This solar array will be able to collapse and deploy multiple times to allow for greater rover mobility and stability when the rover is not charging. This system is critical to the success of the rover project because it provides power without which the rover cannot …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, June 2022, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

Model-Based Design Of An Optimal Lqg Regulator For A Piezoelectric Actuated Smart Structure Using A High-Precision Laser Interferometry Measurement System, Grant P. Gallagher

Master's Theses

Smart structure control systems commonly use piezoceramic sensors or accelerometers as vibration measurement devices. These measurement devices often produce noisy and/or low-precision signals, which makes it difficult to measure small-amplitude vibrations. Laser interferometry devices pose as an alternative high-precision position measurement method, capable of nanometer-scale resolution. The aim of this research is to utilize a model-based design approach to develop and implement a real-time Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) regulator for a piezoelectric actuated smart structure using a high-precision laser interferometry measurement system to suppress the excitation of vibratory modes.

The analytical model of the smart structure is derived using the …

Development Of A Body Weight Reduction Algorithm In Micro-Gravity Treadmills™, Alexander Hibbert

Master's Theses

Boost Treadmills™, a company specializing in the use of differential air-pressure (DAP) technology in the realm of exercise and rehabilitation, is developing their second-generation micro-gravity treadmill™ named the Boost 2. This machine will allow individuals in all types of fitness environments to move and exercise at a fraction of their normal body weight, reducing the impact forces on lower body extremities and allowing for accelerated returns to activity.

The purpose of this thesis was to create an algorithm to be implemented on the Boost 2 that related the percentage of body weight reduction of a user to a required pressure …

How Advances In Low-G Plumbing Enable Space Exploration, Mark M. Weislogel, John Graft, Andrew P. Wollman, Karl Cardin, Logan Torres, J. E. Goodman, J. C. Buchli

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In many ways, plumbing is essential to life support. In fact, the advance of humankind on Earth is directly linked to the advance of clean, healthy, reliable plumbing solutions. Shouldn’t this also be true for the advancement of humankind in space? Unfortunately, the reliability of even the simplest plumbing element aboard spacecraft is rarely that of its terrestrial counterpart. This state of affairs is due entirely to the near-weightless “low-g” state of orbiting and coast spacecraft. But the combined passive capillary effects of surface tension, wetting, and system geometry in space can be exploited to replace the passive role of …

Wake Bifurcations Behind Two Circular Disks In Tandem Arrangement, Jianzhi Yang, Xiaowei Wu, Minghou Liu, Changjian Wang, Yuxin Wu, Zhihe Shen

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The wake bifurcations behind two circular disks in tandem arrangement are investigated through numerical simulations. The separation distance between the disks, S/d, is chosen at 1, 2, 4, and 6, and the Reynolds number, Re, lies in the range of 100 Re 500. The wake dynamics are examined in terms of the flow structures as well as drag and lift coefficient characteristics. Seven main wake regimes are observed in the considered (Re, S/d) space: steady state (SS), Zig-zig (Zz) mode, standing wave mode, periodic state with reflectional symmetry breaking (RSB), periodic state with double-helical (DH) structures shedding, periodic state with …

Aerodynamics And Aeroacoustics Optimization Of Vehicle’S Side Mirror Base And Exhaust Pipe, Moath Nayef Mohamed Zaareer

Theses

This thesis is concerned with studying two different vehicle parts in terms of aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. Two main factors determine the efficiency and luxury of the vehicle, the low aerodynamic forces and low noise emission. The aerodynamic drag coefficient is concerned with how easy a vehicle can travel through the air; the lower the value, the less fuel is needed to move the vehicle forward and less air resistance the vehicle faces. The aerodynamic lift coefficient is related to vehicle ground stability, and the more negative the value is, the higher the vehicle's stability. Moreover, the aeroacoustics is concerned with …

Grey-Taguchi Approach To Optimize Fused Deposition Modeling Process In Terms Of Mechanical Properties And Dimensional Accuracy, Md Asif Bin Syed, Qausar Rhaman, Hasan Md Shahriar, Mohammad Muhshin Aziz Khan

Graduate Student Scholarship

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a process that allows for the rapid production of functional parts through the deposition of fused material layers in a sequential manner. FDM has flexibility and the potential to create complicated parts. This study aims to optimize the FDM process parameters in terms of tensile strength, flexural strength, and longitudinal shrinkage using the Grey-Taguchi approach. The input parameters chosen to study the effects on dimension and mechanical properties are layer thickness, the raster angle, fill density, the number of contours, printing temperature, and printing speed. The Taguchi L27 orthogonal array is used as the statistical …

Laser-Scribed Conductive, Photoactive Transition Metal Oxide On Soft Elastomers For Janus On-Skin Electronics And Soft Actuators, Ganggang Zhao, Yun Ling, Yajuan Su, Zanyu Chen, Cherian J. Mathai, Ogheneobarome Emeje, Alexander Brown, Dinesh Reddy Alla, Jie Huang, Chansong Kim, Qian Chen, Xiaoqing He, David Stalla, Yadong Xu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser-assisted fabrication of conductive materials on flexible substrates has attracted intense interests because of its simplicity, easy customization, and broad applications. However, it remains challenging to achieve laser scribing of conductive materials on tissue-like soft elastomers, which can serve as the basis to construct bioelectronics and soft actuators. Here, we report laser scribing of metallic conductive, photoactive transition metal oxide (molybdenum dioxide) on soft elastomers, coated with molybdenum chloride precursors, under ambient conditions. Laser-scribed molybdenum dioxide (LSM) exhibits high electrical conductivity, biocompatibility, chemical stability, and compatibility with magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, LSM can be made on various substrates (polyimide, …

Flowunsteady: An Interactional Aerodynamics Solver For Multirotor Aircraft And Wind Energy, Eduardo Alvarez, Judd Mehr, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

The ability to accurately and rapidly assess unsteady interactional aerodynamics is a shortcoming and bottleneck in the design of various next-generation aerospace systems: from electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to airborne wind energy (AWE) and wind farms. In this study, we present a meshless CFD framework based on the reformulated vortex particle method (rVPM) for the analysis of complex interactional aerodynamics. The rVPM is a large eddy simulation (LES) solving the Navier-Stokes equations in their vorticity form. It uses a meshless Lagrangian scheme, which not only avoids the hurdles of mesh generation, but it also conserves the vortical …

The Role Of Regional Connections In Planning For Future Power System Operations Under Climate Extremes, Ana Dyreson, N. Devineni, S. W.D. Turner, T. De Silva M, A. Miara, N. Voisin, S. Cohen, J. Macknick

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Identifying the sensitivity of future power systems to climate extremes must consider the concurrent effects of changing climate and evolving power systems. We investigated the sensitivity of a Western U.S. power system to isolated and combined heat and drought when it has low (5%) and moderate (31%) variable renewable energy shares, representing historic and future systems. We used an electricity operational model combined with a model of historically extreme drought (for hydropower and freshwater-reliant thermoelectric generators) over the Western U.S. and a synthetic, regionally extreme heat event in Southern California (for thermoelectric generators and electricity load). We found that the …

Investigation Of Topological Phonons In Acoustic Metamaterials, Wenting Cheng

Dissertations

Topological acoustics is a recent and intense area of research. It merges the knowledge of mathematical topology, condensed matter physics, and acoustics. At the same time, it has been pointed out that quasiperiodicity can greatly enhance the periodic table of topological systems. Because quasiperiodic patterns have an intrinsic global degree of freedom, which exists in the topological space called the hull of a pattern, where the shape traced in this topological space is called the phason. The hull augments the physical space, which opens a door to the physics of the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) in arbitrary dimensions. In …

Design And Control Of Next-Generation Uavs For Effectively Interacting With Environments, Caiwu Ding

Dissertations

In this dissertation, the design and control of a novel multirotor for aerial manipulation is studied, with the aim of endowing the aerial vehicle with more degrees of freedom of motion and stability when interacting with the environments. Firstly, it presents an energy-efficient adaptive robust tracking control method for a class of fully actuated, thrust vectoring unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with parametric uncertainties including unknown moment of inertia, mass and center of mass, which would occur in aerial maneuvering and manipulation. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated through simulation. Secondly, a humanoid robot arm is adopted to serve as …

Monolithic Integration Of Hybrid Perovskite Single Crystals With Silicon For Highly Sensitive X - Ray Detectors, Jinsong Huang, Wei Wei

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Perovskite single crystal X - ray radiation detector devices including an X - ray wavelength - responsive active layer including an organolead trihalide perovskite single crystal, a substrate layer comprising an oxide, and a binding layer disposed between the active layer and the substrate layer. The binding layer including a binding molecule having a first functional group that bonds to the organolead trihalide perovskite single crystal and a second functional bonds with the oxide. Inclusion of the binding layer advantageously reduces device noise while retaining signal intensity.

Integrating Deep Learning And Hydrodynamic Modeling To Improve The Great Lakes Forecast, Pengfei Xue, Aditya Wagh, Gangfeng Ma, Yilin Wang, Yongchao Yang, Tao Liu, Chenfu Huang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The Laurentian Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest surface freshwater systems, pose a modeling challenge in seasonal forecast and climate projection. While physics-based hydrodynamic modeling is a fundamental approach, improving the forecast accuracy remains critical. In recent years, machine learning (ML) has quickly emerged in geoscience applications, but its application to the Great Lakes hydrodynamic prediction is still in its early stages. This work is the first one to explore a deep learning approach to predicting spatiotemporal distributions of the lake surface temperature (LST) in the Great Lakes. Our study shows that the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network, …